Before that decision was made, I decided I had to make the jacket myself while the show was still in the zeitgeist. And if I were to wait for the official version, who knows how long that would take, how much they would be, and if they’d be sold out in seconds. For a DIYer like me, making something is part of the fun. So here’s how I went about making my own Heated Rivalry jacket.

The most important thing was to find a white sherpa jacket with a stand-up collar. Bingo, I found this one at Uniqlo on sale for only $29. It’s a woman’s jacket, but many of the basics at Uniqlo are unisex, and this was no exception. The size large fit me perfectly (I usually wear a men’s small), and my local Uniqlo store had it in stock. It’s not technically sherpa, but the fluffy fleece is pretty close. And it’s not bright white but off-white, which I actually prefer.

Then it was time for the jacket details.

I found the varsity-style block letter patches from Etsy.

In another Etsy store I found the maple leaf patches.

And in a third Etsy store I found this red grosgrain ribbon for the collar.

But my favorite part of the jacket is the chest pocket zipper. The Uniqlo jacket does not include a chest pocket like Shane Hollander’s. So I created a fake one just by adding a 6-inch zipper I found on Amazon and had it sewn on the chest, adding a red zipper pull with a strip of extra grosgrain ribbon. I think it totally makes the jacket. And the whole trompe l’oeil of it is hilarious.

Now, I’m not that good with a sewing machine, so I pinned everything in place and took it to my favorite local tailor to sew it all for me. They did it in two days and did an amazing job.

Now I’m coming to the cottage!

Well, the danger in creativity was in full force when I decided to paint the lyrics to the song on a blazer. I had never done this before, and searching on the web there weren’t really any examples of people doing this except for a few artists painting on denim. But I wanted to paint words on a black suit. What kind of paint would be the most opaque? White paint is notoriously tricky and can just disappear. And would I even be able to have good enough penmanship to paint on fabric. Okay, my penmanship is actually pretty good. But could I do it with a paintbrush?

At first, I thought the best way to create this suit would be to find a really opaque white fabric marker. I googled the best white paint markers, tested a few of them on the inside pocket of the blazer, and it was like disappearing ink. The white did not show up at all. It had to be paint then. So I googled the best opaque white fabric paint, and what I found was Jacquard Super Opaque White Textile Paint. It was available at my local Blick art store, so I picked up a bottle to try. Testing it on the inside pocket, it worked!

This is the blazer I found to paint on. It’s from Uniqlo. It seems that all the blazers I’ve done makeovers on have been from Uniqlo. They are perfect for me because the XS size fits me with no alterations needed. And they’re super cheap, so I don’t feel like I’m taking a big risk by messing up an expensive article of clothing. This blazer was $39, marked down from $69. I decided to try it on the blazer first before buying the matching pants, which were also $39.

I painted the blazer a section at a time to allow the paint to dry. People wonder if I used a template or masking tape to line up the words. Nope. I just started painting and hoped it would all be straight enough. At first I was really nervous, but as I went along, it was really fun and I knew my letters didn’t have to be perfect. In fact, the imperfections make it cooler because then it’s obvious it isn’t printed fabric but actually hand painted.

So after having success with the blazer, I bought pants and painted them too. By this time, I was painting confidently and quickly. Oh, the great thing about Uniqlo pants is they hem them for free at the store. Gotta love the cost-saving.

I’ve worn this suit in public now, and let me say you can’t be shy wearing it. People will stare. But in a good way. I saw women turn their heads and whisper to each other about it, and I was asked who the designer was. It was me! I think I’ll wear this out a lot more. But I won’t jump into the river Seine in it barefoot. If you know the La La Land song, you’ll know what I mean.

To create the Mondrian blazer above, I bought a cheap blazer from Uniqlo and painted it with DecoArt So Soft fabric paint. I wanted to paint another blazer with flowers, so I bought another blazer on sale from Uniqlo (I think it was $29). Here is what the blazer looked like beforehand.

It was a nice lightweight cotton. Although I had a good experience with DecoArt So Soft paint before, it’s kind of hard to find and I wanted paint that was a bit more opaque, so I did some online searches for suggestions and decided to try Liquitex Soft Body acrylics and fabric medium. You mix them in a 1 to 1 ratio, and the fabric medium keeps the paint from cracking.

I have lots of paint left over from this project because I didn’t need that much, but I did use almost 3 four-ounce bottles of the fabric medium. To paint the blazer, I started with the back because I figured if it didn’t look good, it would be the back and people wouldn’t notice as much. I laid the blazer on a large plastic drop cloth outside because I didn’t have room in my studio to spread out a blazer. Usually when beginning a flower painting I would paint a chaos layer on the canvas as the underlayer for the flowers. But I wanted to avoid having extra paint layers on the blazer or otherwise it would be too stiff. So I just painted an underlayer in spots that I designated for flowers. Then I painted greenery around those underlayers. Here’s how it looked at this initial stage.

Notice that the under layers are orange and peach colored. The finished flowers would not be that color, but I wanted these initial colors to peek through the final color to give the flowers more depth and interest. Next, I painted the background color of the blazer. I chose a light blue, and this went over some of the greenery and the rest of the background of the blazer. (Disregard the box of pour-on resin in the picture. I used it as a paperweight because it was windy that day.)

Then I painted the actual pink flowers on top of the orange under layers. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any more photos at this point, but you get the idea. After painting the main flowers, I added smaller details, shading and highlights.

You can see it really wasn’t hard to paint on the blazer. The biggest challenge was I had to do the whole thing in small sections because I had to let the paint dry before moving on. So it took patience to get through the whole blazer. I started with the back. Then moved to the front, doing the left and right sides at the same time. Then I tackled the fronts of the sleeves and then the backs of the sleeves. Finally I finished with the lapels and the collar. Each time I started from the beginning, doing the under layers, then the greenery, the blue background, and then the pink flowers.

Oh, by the way, I put masking tape over the buttons so I wouldn’t get paint on them. I love how this turned out. If you’re wondering if it’s really stiff because of the paint, I have to be honest that it is actually a little stiff, but not so rigid that you can’t move around in it. The fabric medium does soften the paint considerably, and I can scrunch and fold the fabric endlessly and there is no cracking or anything. And when I’m wearing it, it doesn’t feel that different from a normal blazer. In fact, the more I wear it, the softer it seems to get.

I just love how it turned out. There will definitely be more painted blazers in the future for me.

The blooms actually opened while in the canvas, and the painting became a living piece of art. I love how the painted flowers blend with the real ones. You can really see the 3D effect in the side angles.

I hope this inspires you to think outside the box, I mean frame.

For the tutorial on how to make the lemonade candles, click here.

To learn how to make the margarita candles, click here.

One thing I’ve wanted to change for years was the right alcove. There was a marble shelf there that came with the house. Sure, it’s nice to have a marble shelf I guess, but it was impractical. I could put some things on the shelf, but all the rest of that space was wasted. I put up some display boxes from west elm on the wall, but they were purely decorative and didn’t hold anything. What I wanted was for that alcove to be a little library for all the books that were overflowing in my house. So I got a contractor to remove the marble shelf and spackle the drywall. While he was at it, I had him remove the marble on the fireplace because I had bigger plans for it.

Once the marble shelf was removed, I bought some IKEA shelves to go in that alcove. The width of that space was 65 inches, and the IKEA Bergshult/Granhult shelves were 63 inches wide. Perfect!

However, since the shelves would be holding heavy books, I needed very strong drywall anchors. I checked around the internet and found someone who recommended Toggler TB Drywall Anchors because they hold 143 lbs. I have to say they worked great for these shelves. I bought five shelves and spaced them 12 inches apart, and at the bottom I bought a media cabinet to act as a sixth shelf and storage space. I bought this cabinet on Target.com, and I should’ve listened to the reviews that said it was difficult to assemble. It was a bear.

The instructions were indecipherable and many of the holes were not pre-drilled so I had to do a lot of guessing. The fact that I finally got it assembled in one piece, albeit with one drawer that did not line up with the rest, was a miracle.

Now for the rest of the living room wall. I had been wanting to work with adhesive wallpaper murals because I’ve used them on other decorating projects. I like how easy they are to install without having to deal with paste or water. I was looking online for inspiration, and I knew I wanted my fireplace to have a big impact. My first thought was to put up a mural of Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” which one of my favorite sources, muralsyourway.com, had available. But then I found a mural of Marie Antoinette on a website I had never used, limitlesswalls.com, and I knew that was it. I had visited the Marie Antoinette exhibit at the Conciergerie in Paris this past January, and I was very inspired. This was meant to be!

With Marie Antoinette designated for the fireplace, I had to then decide on wall murals for the remaining walls. I decided that the 18th-century painting of Marie, along with the bookshelves, could possibly make the room a little stuffy, so I wanted contrast in the other murals. So on muralsyourway.com, I found a modern geometric abstract pattern with pops of pink, and a macro photograph of some pink flowers to tie everything together.

To make sure it all looked good, I did a rendering on Photoshop to see how all the elements worked. Doing this step was invaluable. The rendering helped me decide what color to paint the wall behind the shelves (navy blue). And I pursued other floral photographs, but no matter what I tried, this one looked the best. The Photoshop picture also inspired me to keep going with the makeover project even when I was having doubts. Here is the rendering:

The first mural I put up was the Marie Antoinette. It came in two panels, so I got some help lining up the panels so the face was not distorted, and I think we did a pretty good job. If you’ve ever put up wallpaper that’s in panels, you know there’s a last step in which you cut a line in the middle of the overlap and peel off the overlap. I did not do this because I had just cut off the tip of my finger in a kitchen accident a few weeks earlier (that’s another story; worry not, the doctors glued it back together with surgical foam), and when I’ve done this before, I did not like the seam. So I skipped that step, and you really can’t tell there’s overlap. The only tricky part was cutting around the fireplace opening, but that just took a straight edge, razor blade and patience.

The second mural, the geometric pattern, was very easy to install. I picked it partially because the pattern could easily be divided up, which would be helpful around the window. Please excuse the mess in the picture. You know how messy you get while redecorating.

Now was the really challenging part — putting up that big floral mural on the soffit above the other walls. I was originally going to climb on my piano and put a step stool on it so I could reach that high. But the mural came in one long piece rather than separate panels as I expected, and there was no way I was going to be able to juggle a 19-foot long mural by myself. I called a few professional wallpaper installers I found on yelp, but they refused the job. They said it was too hard. What? How was I going to do this then? Well, it so happened that I was having some plumbing work done at the time (a burst pipe in the walls; another story for another time), so I asked the plumber if he would help me put up the mural. He said sure. Here he is performing a miracle.

When he finished installing the mural (in less than 30 minutes, mind you), I gasped at the lusciousness of it all. It was even better than my Photoshop rendering.

And it looks even more dramatic at night.

I appreciate my living room in a whole new way now, and it reminds me that change is good. It takes a little bravery, some imagination, a pinch of creativity — and a plumber who is willing to go the extra mile.

1. Start with a pair of mittens. The kids’ size works really well.
2. To stuff the fingers of the mittens, roll strips of aluminum foil into “finger” shapes.
3. The fingers are still a little skinny for my liking (I sound like the witch from Hansel and Gretel), so I then wrap each aluminum foil finger in fabric to fatten them up.
4. Then slide the fingers into the mittens. I also like to add one more small piece of fabric in the palm to fill that out a little more. When your hands are complete, place them on the two sides of the toilet paper dispenser. Hint: When the mitten is on the dispenser, make sure the aluminum foil fingers are on the outer side of the dispenser, so the hole where the bar fits in is unobstructed.

Again, I am the world’s worst sewer. I have a real hard time sewing in a straight line. Also, the thought of threading the needle and setting up the bobbin make me break out in a sweat. The non-woven material of the tote bags (and Oly Fun) makes it easy for beginning sewers like me because the fabric does not fray, so I don’t have to worry about hemming or turning fabric inside out.

Another problem I had when deciding whether to make my own masks was I did not have any elastic for the straps. I looked at some tutorials for masks with fabric ties, but these required 40-inch long pieces of fabric, and like I said I did not have any fabric on hand. As I was studying the tote bags, I wished that the handles on them would work for the straps, but they were too short. Then I was staring at the sewn seams along the edges of the bags. They provide the structure of the bag and go along the three edges of the front and back side of the bag. Lightbulb moment! These would be the ties for the mask. I cut these sewn seams along the edges, and they turned out to be 36 inches long, just shy of the 40 inches in the other tutorials. Close enough. That’ll work. Because they go along three sides of the bags, they do have 90-degree angles on them, but again, close enough, they pull straight to tie.

So here’s how I made the face masks. My first one, which I am modeling in the picture at the bottom, was really rough. My sewing was all over the place, and there were so many mistakes. But by my third mask, it was much better. Still not something I’d want to hang in the Louvre, but good enough.

Now, before showing the steps, I do want to emphasize that these are not surgical masks, and I don’t know how much protection they offer from germs and viruses. But at least when I wear one, I can feel like I’m doing my best to not spread germs myself if I cough or sneeze. And the non-woven material supposedly provides a better barrier than cotton. Enough exposition. Let’s get to the tutorial.

1. Cut two 7″ x 9″ pieces from the tote bag. At first, I marked the pieces with chalk and then cut the two pieces separately. By the second mask, I realized it would be easier to pin two pieces together and then cut the exact measurements. (I know my fabric is really wrinkled. I didn’t bother ironing it because this material doesn’t hold up well to a hot iron.)
2. Cut the sewn seams along the edges to make the ties. (By the time I made my second mask, I realized that this is really the first step, because after cutting off these edges, then the front and back sides of the tote were ready to cut into 7″x9″ pieces.)
3. Sew the two 7″x9″ pieces together along the top and bottom edges.
4. Insert the straps between the two sewn pieces with one at the top and one at the bottom. Pin them in place. At this point, you can also insert a twist tie or piece of wire at the top for a nose thingamajig that you can bend to make it fit better. Sew along the top to create a channel for the strap, then continue on the side, then continue along the bottom to hold that strap in, and then finish along the last side.
5. Make three pleats and pin them in place. Then sew vertically along the left and right edges to lock in the pleats. Not bad for someone who can hardly sew.

Ram-don is a noodle dish mixing two packs of Korean instant noodles: Jjapaghetti and Neoguri. The hybrid’s name is thus “jjapaguri.” It turns out the people who translated the dialogue into subtitles were afraid western audiences wouldn’t know what jjapaguri was, so they called it ram-don, as if that would make more sense to us.

There are a few websites that show how to make their version of ram-don, so I took tips from them to make my own. I went to my local Korean market and bought a few packs of Jjapaghetti and Neoguri (there were lots of them on the shelves so they were easy to find), and was excited to make it.

This is what the two packages look like. Jjapaghetti is spelled “Chapaghetti,” I guess to help us figure out how to pronounce it. The picture on the package didn’t look very appetizing to me.

Here are the open packages. Chapaghetti is a thinner noodle that resembles ramen. Neoguri noodles are slightly thicker. The package calls them “udon type noodles” but they are not the fat udon noodles that I know and love. Chapaghetti comes with three packets: a vegetable packet, a soup base and an oil packet. Neoguri comes with two packages: a vegetable packet and a soup base.

The ram-don in the movie included a very bougie form of steak that is only available in Korea. I just bought a sirloin steak at Gelson’s, which was bougie enough. I cut it into cubes and seasoned the meat with salt, white pepper and sesame oil. Then I cooked the beef in a cast iron skillet and set it aside while I cooked the noodles.

Heat five cups of water to boiling. Then drop the two dried noodle disks into the water along with the vegetable packets for each. Stir frequently until al dente.

Drain the noodles, reserving a cup of the water. Place the noodles back into the pot along with the reserved water. Heat to simmer, adding the full Chapaghetti soup base and half the Neoguri soup base.

Stir frequently. When the sauce has thickened, add the steak cubes into the pot with the noodles. You can add that oil packet from the Chapaghetti package now.

I garnished my ram-don with scallions and some enoki mushrooms. Next time I may try some baby bok choy or snap peas.

And how did it taste? You know what, I really liked it. It was flavorful without being too salty, and it was better than top ramen served dry with the soup base, which I do like from time to time. So I would definitely make this again. It sure made me appreciate “Parasite” a lot more.