How to Make a No Sew Tutu

Are you looking for a tutu to complete the perfect costume, to wear out for fun, or to gift to a friend? For the crafty types who'd rather skip or avoid sewing altogether, these quick and simple no-sew tutus are a perfect solution. See Step 1 below to get started! Remember, if you prefer, you can make a no sew tutu instead.

Steps

Knotting Tulle

1. Take your measurements. Use a soft measuring tape to find the length around your hips or waist. The location of your measurement is the place that the tutu will sit when finished, so choose accordingly. Additionally, decide how long you want your skirt to be by measuring from your waistband to the desired hemline along your legs.
   
2. Select your materials. The two required materials for a basic no-sew tutu are tulle and ribbon. Each can be in whatever color(s) you would like. Depending on the size of the wearer and the desired length of the tutu, you will need to procure anywhere from 2-7 yards (1.8-6.5 meters) of fabric.
   
3. Create the waistband. Take the measurement from around your waist and apply it to the ribbon. Add an additional 12 inches (6 inches for each tail end) of length to the ribbon. This will allow it to be tied together in a bow in the back. Tie the ribbon in a knot with the two tails hanging out; this will make it easier to add the tulle and help you know when to stop adding the fabric.
   
4. Cut your tulle. Measure your tulle into strips of fabric twice the length of your desired skirt. For example, if you want your skirt to be long from the waist to the hemline, measure your tulle into strips long. Cut about 20 of these strips to start, and cut additional pieces later if you run out.
   
   • For a fuller, fluffier skirt, cut many pieces of tulle into small, thin sections.^[1]
   • To create a skirt that lies flat and isn’t too fluffy, cut only a few pieces of tulle that are very wide.
5. Fold your tulle strips in half. As you begin to add your tulle to the skirt, fold each strip of tulle in half. This should create a loop on one end and two loose tails on the other.
   
6. Create a knot over the waistband. Place the halved tulle strips over the waistband so that only a few inches of the loop stick out over the top. Then fold the tail ends around the waistband and pull them through the loop.
   
7. Tighten each knot. As you pull the strips through the loop, tighten them and slide them down the waistband to make room for other strips. Keeping the tulle knots tight will stabilize the skirt and make it look more polished.
   
8. Continue adding strips. Add more and more strips around the waistband to fill out the skirt. Push them close together for a more full skirt, or leave them more spaced apart for a skirt that is a bit more flat. Stop adding the tulle strips when you reach the end (the knot) of your waistband.
   
9. Tie on the tutu. To finish the tutu, untie the knot in the waistband and try it on for size! Wrap the skirt around you and tie the ribbon tails in a bow in the back to secure the tutu around your waist.^[2]
   
10. Finished.
    

Faking Seams

1. Buy sewing seam tape. This is a material that looks like fabric lining in a tape shape. It can be found at almost every sewing shop. All you have to do is pin it into place and iron: the material melts and acts like glue.
   
2. Get the right type of fabric. You'll want to avoid using tulle for this style. You want a fabric with fibers that are closer together, so that the glue of the seam tape has something to hold on to. Organza will work better with the seam tape and it still has the ballet look. It is, however, often more expensive than tulle.
   
3. Cut your fabric panels. Cut panels of fabric that are as long as you want the skirt to be plus 2.5 inches (6 centimeters). The width depends on you: having wider panels makes for fewer visible gaps in the skirt, but having narrower ones makes the panels easier to add onto the waist band. How many panels you want is also up to you. You can add as many or as few a you want. The more you have, the more volume the skirt will have.
   
4. Pin the panels into place. Cut strips of the seam tape to the width of your panels. Then, fold over the top of the panel so that there is about 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) of overlap. Run the seam tape between the layers and pin it into place as close to the bottom edge as possible. You want to leave a channel at the top to run the waist band through.
   
5. Iron the "seam". Follow the instructions for your seam tape and iron the seam of each panel.
   
6. Add the waist band. Using a ribbon or elastic band as a waistband, thread the panels onto the waistband one at a time. A pencil can help with this. When you like how full your skirt looks, just tie it on your waist like an apron! Enjoy!
   
7. Finished.
   

Video

Related wikiHows

• How to Make a No Sew Ballet Tutu
• How to Make a Tutu
• How to Make a Tulle Tutu
• How to Make a Skirt
• How to Make a Tutu Dress
• How to Make a Tutu Skirt

Sources and Citations

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source How to of the Day http://ift.tt/1FJR5Up

How to Increase Friction

Ever wonder why your hands get warm when you rub them together quickly or why rubbing two sticks together can eventually start a fire? The answer is friction! When two surfaces rub against each other, they naturally resist each others' movement at a microscopic level. This resistance can cause the release of energy in the form of heat, warming your hands, sparking a fire, and so on.^[1] The greater the friction, the more energy released, so knowing how to increase the friction between moving parts in a mechanical system can potentially allow you to generate lots of heat!

Steps

Creating a More Frictive Surface

1. Create a “rougher” or more adhesive point of contact. When two materials slide or rub against each other, three things can happen: small nooks, crannies, and irregularities on the surfaces can catch on each other; one or both surfaces can deform in response to the motion; and, finally, the atoms within each surface can interact with each other.^[2] For practical purposes, all three of these effects do the same thing: generate friction. Picking surfaces that are abrasive (like sandpaper), deform when pressed (like rubber), or have adhesive interactions with other surfaces (like tacky glue, etc.) is a straightforward way to increase friction.
   
   
   
   • Engineering textbooks and similar resources can be great tools when picking which materials to use to generate high friction. Most standard building materials have known "friction coefficients" — that is, measures of how much friction they generate with other surfaces. Sliding friction coefficients for just a few common materials are listed below (higher coefficient equals greater friction):^[3]
   • Aluminum on aluminum: 0.34
   • Wood on wood: 0.129
   • Dry concrete on rubber: 0.6-0.85
   • Wet concrete on rubber: 0.45-0.75
   • Ice on ice: 0.01
2. Press the two surfaces together harder. One fundamental principle of basic physics is that the friction an object experiences is proportional to its normal force (for our purposes, this is basically the force with which it presses into the object it's sliding against).^[4] This means that the friction between two surfaces can be increased if the surfaces are pressed into each other with greater force.
   
   
   
   • If you've ever used a set of disc brakes (for instance, on a car or bike) you've observed this principle in action. In this case, pressing the brakes pushes a set of friction-generating pads into metal discs attached to the wheels. The harder the brakes are pushed, the harder the pads get pressed into the discs and the more friction is generated. This can stop the vehicle quickly, but can also release lots of heat, which is why a set of brakes is usually quite hot after heavy braking.^[5]
3. If one surface is in motion, stop it. Up until now, we've focused on kinetic (or "sliding") friction — the friction that occurs between two objects or surfaces as they rub against each other. In fact, this friction is different from static friction — the friction that occurs when one object starts to move against another. Essentially, the friction between two objects is greatest right when they start moving against each other. Once they're already in motion, friction decreases. This is one of the reasons why it's harder to start pushing a heavy object than it is to keep moving it.^[6]
   
   
   
   • Try this simple experiment to observe the difference between static and kinetic friction: place a chair or another piece of furniture on a smooth floor in your house (not rug or carpet). Make sure the furniture doesn't have protective "foot pads" or any other sort of material on the bottom that might make it easy to slide across the floor. Try to push the furniture just hard enough so that it starts moving. You should notice that as soon as the furniture starts moving, it immediately becomes slightly easier to push. This is because the kinetic friction between the furniture and the floor is less than the static friction.
4. Remove lubrication between the two surfaces. Lubricants like oil, grease, petroleum jelly, and so on can greatly reduce the friction between two objects or surfaces. This is because the friction between two solids is generally much higher than the friction between those solids and the liquid between them. To increase friction, try removing any lubricants from the equation, using only "dry", un-lubricated parts to generate friction.
   
   
   
   • To see the friction-reducing potential of lubricants, try this simple experiment: Rub your hands together as if they're cold and you want to warm them up. You should immediately notice them heat up from the friction. Next, put a fair amount of lotion in your palms and try the same thing. Not only should it be easier to rub your hands against each other quickly, but you should also notice much less heat.
5. Remove wheels or bearings to create sliding friction. Wheels, bearings, and other "rolling" objects experience a special kind of friction called rolling friction. This friction is almost always much less than the friction generated by simply sliding an equivalent object along the ground — this is why these objects tend to roll, rather than slide along the ground. To increase the friction in a mechanical system, try removing wheels, bearings, and so on so that parts rub against each other rather than roll against each other.^[7]
   
   
   
   • For instance, consider the difference between pulling a heavy weight along the ground in a wagon versus pulling a similar weight in a sled. A wagon has wheels, so it's easier to pull than a sled, which drags against the ground, generating lots of sliding friction as it goes.
6. Increase the fluid viscosity. Solid objects aren't the only things that can generate friction. Fluids (liquids and gases like water and air, respectively) can also generate friction. The amount of friction a fluid generates as it passes against a solid depends on several factors. One of the easiest of these to control is the fluid viscosity — that is, what's commonly called its "thickness". Generally, highly viscous fluids (ones that are "thick", "gooey", etc.) generate more friction than fluids that are less viscous (ones that are "smooth" and "liquid").
   
   
   
   • For instance, consider the difference in effort you might experience when blowing water through a straw versus blowing honey through a straw. Water, which isn't very viscous, is very easy to suck into and blow out of a straw. Honey, on the other hand, is quite a bit more difficult to move through a straw. This is because honey's high viscosity generates lots of resistive friction as it's forced through a narrow tube like a straw.^[8]

Increasing Fluid Drag

1. Increase the area exposed to air. As noted above, fluids like water and air can generate friction as they move against solid objects. The friction force that an object experiences as it moves through a fluid is called drag (this is sometimes referred to as "air resistance", "water resistance", etc.) One of the properties of drag is that object with bigger cross-section — that is, objects that present a bigger profile to the fluid as they move through it — have greater drag. The fluid has more total space to push against, increasing the friction on the object as it moves through it.
   
   
   
   • For instance, let's say that a pebble and a sheet of paper both weigh one gram. If we drop both at the same time, the pebble will fall straight to the floor, while the paper will slowly drift to the ground. This is the principal of drag in action — the air pushes against the big, wide face of the paper, producing drag and causing it to pass through the air much more slowly than the pebble, which has a relatively small cross-sectional area.
2. Use a shape with a greater drag coefficient. While the cross-sectional area of an object is a good general indication of how great its drag will be, in fact, drag calculations are slightly more complicated. Different shapes interact with fluids in different ways as they pass through them — this means that some shapes (for instance, flat plates), can have a greater drag than different shapes (for instance, spheres) made out of the same amount of material.^[9] Since the quantity that measures the relative amount of drag a shape makes is called a "drag coefficient", shapes with high drags are said to have large drag coefficients.
   
   
   
   • For example consider an airplane wing. The shape of a typical airplane wing is called an airfoil. This shape, which is smooth, narrow, rounded, and sleek, passes through the air easily. It has a very low drag coefficient — 0.45. On the other hand, imagine if an airplane had sharp-edged, boxy, prism-shaped wings. These wings would generate much more friction because they wouldn't pass through without great resistance. In fact, prisms have a higher drag coefficient than airfoils — about 1.14.^[10]
3. Use a less streamlined body flow. In a phenomenon related to the different drag coefficients of different shapes, objects with bigger, boxier "body flows" generally generate more drag than other objects. These objects are made with harsh, straight edges and don't usually get skinnier toward the back of the object. On the other hand, objects with streamlined body flows are narrow, have rounded edges, and usually taper off towards the back of the object — like the body of a fish.
   
   
   
   • For example, consider the way the average family sedan is constructed today versus the way it was constructed decades ago. In the past, most cars had a boxy appearance and were constructed to have lots of straight, square edges. Today, most sedans are much more streamlined and incorporate lots of gentle curves. This is on purpose — streamlined body flows make a car have less drag, decreasing the amount of work that the engine must do to move the car (and thus increasing the fuel economy).^[11]
4. Use a less permeable material. Some types of materials are permeable to fluids. In other words, they have holes in them that the fluid may pass through. This effectively reduces the area of the object that the fluid is able to push against, lowering the force of drag. This property holds true even if the holes are microscopic — as long as the holes are large enough to let some of the fluid pass through the object, the drag will be reduced. This is why parachutes, which are designed to create lots of drag to slow the speed of the user's fall, are made out of strong, light silk or nylon and not cheesecloth or coffee filters.
   
   
   
   • For an example of this property in action, consider the fact that a ping pong paddle can be swung faster if a few holes are drilled in it. The holes let air pass through as the paddle is swung, greatly reducing the drag and allowing the paddle to move faster.
5. Increase the speed of the object. Finally, no matter what shape an object is or how permeable the material it's made from is, the drag it creates will always increase as it goes faster. The faster an object goes, the more fluid it has to move through, and, thus, the greater drag it experiences. Objects moving at very high speeds can experience very high friction due to drag, so these objects usually must be very streamlined or they will fall apart under the force of the drag.
   
   
   
   • For instance, consider the Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird", an experimental spy plane built during the cold war. The Blackbird, which could fly at speeds greater than mach 3.2, experienced extreme drag forces at these high speeds in spite of its streamlined design — extreme enough, in fact, that the metal fuselage of the plane would actually expand from the heat generated by the friction of the air in mid-flight.^[12]

Tips

• Don't forget that extremely high friction can release lots of energy in the form of heat! For example, you won't want to touch a car's brake pads right after you've slammed on the brakes!
• Keep in mind that high drag forces can cause structural damage to an object passing through a fluid. For instance, if you stick the flat side of a thin piece of plywood into the water while you're cruising in a speed boat, there's a good chance it will be shattered.

Related wikiHows

• How to Increase Time of Flight of Rubber Powered Plane

Sources and Citations

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source How to of the Day http://ift.tt/1KosYmc

How to Make Sour Cream

Homemade sour cream is delicious and easy to make. It only requires two ingredients: a quart of cream and a packet of sour cream starter culture. The bacteria in the starter culture thickens the cream and lends it the classic sour flavor that pairs so well with everything from potatoes to tacos to fruit. Best of all, homemade sour cream contains none of the preservatives or stabilizers often found in store-bought sour cream.

Ingredients

• 1 quart (4 cups) heavy cream
• 1 packet sour cream starter culture

Steps

Assembling Ingredients and Supplies

1. Purchase a quart of fresh cream. Since you're going to the trouble of making sour cream, use the freshest cream you can find. Full-fat, organic heavy whipping cream is best. Pasteurized heavy cream ends up with a consistency closest to store-bought sour cream. If you prefer a thinner consistency or are looking for a low-fat option, you can use half and half instead.^[1]
   
   • Unpasteurized raw cream is also a great base for sour cream. The result will be lighter than the sour cream made with pasteurized heavy cream.
   • Avoid ultra-pasteurized cream or half and half. This product produces inconsistent results when cultured.
2. Purchase sour cream starter culture. Sour cream is produced by mixing cream with a bacterial culture that thickens the cream and gives it a slightly sour flavor. Sour cream starter culture contains milk as well as live, active cultures. It can be found in natural food stores or online and comes in packets (usually four or more to a box) with enough culture to make up to a quart of sour cream. Extra packets of culture can be stored in the freezer for up to 12 months.^[2]
   
   • Live, active cultures in sour cream starter culture include lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris, Lactococcus lactis biovar. diacetylactis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris.
   • Once you have made sour cream with a starter culture, you can use that sour cream to make more. The process is similar to making sourdough bread with a sourdough starter.
   • If you do not want to track down sour cream starter culture, you can make a version of sour cream a tablespoon of cultured buttermilk per cup of cream. The consistency and taste will be more similar to that of buttermilk.
   • You can also make kefir cream, another type of cultured cream, using kefir grains.
3. Prepare a jar and ventilated cover. Sour cream should be stored in a clean glass jar. During the culturing period, it needs a ventilated cover to allow air to flow through the jar while also keeping out bugs and other contaminants. A tight-weave cloth, such as cheesecloth, makes a fitting lid when secured with a rubber band. For storage, you will need a regular airtight lid.
   
   • Be sure the jar is clean and sterile. If you've used the jar before, boil it for five minutes and let it completely dry before using it for sour cream.
   • If you don't have cheesecloth, a paper coffee filter also works as a lid.

Heating and Holding the Cream

1. Pour the quart cream into a heavy saucepan. It's important to use a heavy saucepan made of copper or stainless steel. Using a heavy saucepan will allow you to control the temperature of the cream more easily than if you used a lighter aluminum pan.
   
   • If you don't have a heavy saucepan, you can also use a double boiler.
   • Or make a double boiler by filling a large pot with a few inches of water. Set a smaller pot inside the large pot so that it rests on the water. Pour the cream into the smaller pot.
2. Heat the cream to 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn the burner to medium heat to slowly heat the cream to the correct temperature. Take care not to let it get too hot. Use a candy thermometer to monitor the heat and make sure it reaches 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
   
   • Heating the cream kills competing bacteria so that the bacteria in your starter culture can thrive in the cream. Heating ensures that the resulting flavor and texture will be delicious.^[3]
   • If you don't heat the cream, the end product will be much thinner than regular sour cream.
3. Hold the cream at a steady temperature for 45 minutes. Keep the burner turned to the correct level so that you can hold the cream at 145 F; try not to let it drop too low or exceed this temperature. Holding the cream steady is necessary to ensure that the cream ends up thick and rich.
   
4. Cool the cream to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner. Use a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature of the cream. It should rapidly drop once you remove it from heat.
   
5. Dissolve the starter culture in the cream. Put the entire contents of one packet of starter culture into the pot with the cooled cream. Use a spoon to stir the starter culture together with the cream until it fully dissolves.
   
   • Make sure the cream has sufficiently cooled, so that the live bacteria in the starter culture don't get killed when mixed with the cream.
   • If you're using cultured buttermilk instead of starter culture, stir in a tablespoon of cultured buttermilk per cup of cream. If you're using kefir grains, stir in the kefir grains.

Culturing the Cream

1. Pour the cream into the jar and cover it. Secure the cheesecloth over the jar with a rubber band.
   
2. Store the jar in a warm spot for 16 to 18 hours. In order for the starter culture to do its job, the cream must be stored at a temperature between 74 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit. This is just warm enough to keep the culture alive and thriving. A warm spot in your kitchen is usually the perfect place.
   
   • Don't store the culture in direct sunlight, since it may overheat the jar and kill the bacteria.
   • Check the jar every few hours to see if the consistency of the cream has begun to set. If not, the temperature may be too warm or too cold. After 16 to 18 hours, it should be the consistency of store-bought sour cream or slightly looser.
3. Store the sour cream in the refrigerator. Replace the cloth with a tight-fitting lid and store the sour cream until use. It will keep in the refrigerator for one to two weeks.
   
4. Make it again using your sour cream as a base. Reserve a cup of your homemade sour cream, which contains the same live, active cultures as a starter mix. Using three cups of heavy cream, following the instructions for heating and holding the cream at a high temperature. Cool the cream, then stir in the cup of reserved sour cream. Follow the instructions for culturing the cream. Refrigerate it once it sets.
   

Tips

• Garnish soup and chili with dollops of sour cream.
• Make a simple dip using sour cream, salt and pepper and some fresh dill. Use the dip for chips or vegetables.
• Make sauces with your sour cream and pour the sauce over fish and meat.
• Substitute sour cream for milk when making macaroni and cheese; you may have to add a bit of milk for thinning, but the sour cream turns macaroni and cheese into a rich, creamy dish.

Warnings

• Food dishes made with sour cream do not freeze well; the cream becomes separated.

Things You’ll Need

• Heavy pot or double boiler
• Glass canning jar with lid
• Candy thermometer
• Cheesecloth

Sources and Citations

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source How to of the Day http://ift.tt/1IDqg6D

How to Make a Dinosaur Tail

Looking for a cute addition to your child’s dinosaur Halloween costume (or just something fun for playtime)? Make your own at home using fabric and polyfil batting for a 3-D, fun effect.

Steps

1. Pre-cut your tail. By pre-cutting the fabric, it will allow you to assemble the tail a little quicker than measuring, cutting and sewing all at once.
   
   
   
   • Cut the main fabric area: tail--cut 2 sections that are 22″ x 11″. Waist strap: Four pieces of 12″ x 3″. Circle cut 7” in diameter. Spikes cut two 22 x 3.5”.
2. Create tail. Measure 4.5” from the left top corner and bottom left corner of the fabric and 4” from the top of the right top corner of the fabric.
   
   
   
   • Mark and cut.
   • Mark and cut the same measurements on the other piece of tail fabric.
3. Design dino spikes. Draw spikes using your fabric pencil, on the inside of the fabric. Leave approximately ½” between each spike and use the entire fabric size to create the spikes.
   
   
   
   • Sew spikes, inside out.
     
     
     
   • Cut along spike seam line, leaving approximately ¼” allowance for the entire strip.
     
     
     
   • Snip the top of each spike and the corners of the spike triangles. Be careful not to snip through the sewn areas to avoid creating a hole.
     
     
     
   • Turn spikes right-side out and poke spike tips outward using the end of the pen.
     
     
     
4. Attach spikes. First pin the spikes to one piece of the tail with the biggest spike on the wider end of the tail.
   
   
   
   • Sew the spikes to the first piece of the tail with 1/4" seam allowance.
     
     
     
5. Sew tail. Put the two identical pieces of tail fabric together, but inside out.
   
   
   
   • Sew tail leaving 1/2” seam allowance. Leave a space (about 4 to 5 inches) below the spike for the stuffing that will be added inside the tail later.
6. Create and attach waist straps. Put two straps together (inside out) and sew 3 sides (leaving the bottom side unsewn).
   
   
   
   • Trim corners.
     
     
     
   • Turn strips right side out and then add top stitching along the edges.
     
     
     
   • Sew Velcro pieces on the ends of the waist straps.
     
     
     
   • Pin waist straps inside the tail. Make sure Velcro pieces match up so they will attach when worn. Sew straps to tail.
     
     
     
7. Sew the circle around the tail.
   
   
   
8. Stuff and close tail. Add polyfil stuffing and then replace with circle to close tail. Stitch around the sides to secure in place.
   
   
   
9. Done!
   
   
   

Things You’ll Need

• fabric (nothing too stretchy)
• spike fabric
• 5″ Velcro
• Polyfil batting
• Fabric pencil

Tips

• Use this method to make other tails such as a mermaid tail.
• Consider adjusting the tail length based on your child’s size (smaller children require a smaller tail).

Sources and Citations

http://ift.tt/1FI9lNX

source How to of the Day http://ift.tt/1JrbSUC