ThreadBanger Review: DIY Or Die Trying

I’ve never been particularly handy or crafty, a fact emphasized this weekend when some friends came over to help rebuild a portion of my deck. My primary responsibilities? Fetching drinks and ordering lunch.

Still, I’ve always dreamed that someday I would miraculously wake up with an ability to understand—and complete— do-it-yourself projects. I’ve had patient friends try to teach me to knit. I’ve kept dozens of back issues of the hipster DIY manual, ReadyMade, in my files. Oh, and I’m on the mailing list for the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, believing (absurdly) that I will someday build my own perfect little house.

Now I’ve got a podcast to add to my growing list of DIY lust. ThreadBanger is a perfect little podcast for those who need a bit of inspiration for their next project. Or those who just dream of doing projects.

Hosts Rob Czar, Corinne Leigh, and Meg Allan showcase a cool project each week (Make your own planter! Headboard! Lampshade!) and include videos of additional projects creadted by ThreadBanger fans (known as Thread Heads).

This is crafting for the 20-something set: a cross-stitched “BRB” takes viewers to commercial breaks, and they’re focused on making a post-college apartment—not a five-bedroom house in the suburbs—cozy. They efficiently document each step visually, cutting out the boring parts and the swearing.

Episodes end with a quick tip that can be implemented even by those of us who are closer to the left end of the Neanderthal → Evolved Human scale. Total time? Five to ten minutes. As the name indicates, the podcasters are plenty clever and none too serious.

They lighten up the how-to formulas with the occasional air-guitar riffing on weed whackers. Each podcast ends with the equivalent of a DIY secret handshake: the index and middle fingers extended, clipping like scissors.

If the projects occasionally verge on the ridiculous (are you really going to make that tree-branch curtain rod? How about that jean-collar sweatshirt?), everyone involved is so genial and winning that it’s hard to fault them on the truly impractical project.

And after all, what do I know? The last thing I truly crafted involved construction paper, Elmer’s glue and macaroni shells. For anyone who’s a bit more advanced (or just wishes they were), ThreadBanger is a cut above the rest.