costume

DIY Infant Stitch Costume in Less than 1 Hour!

| Heather

I love Halloween, like love it. You get to play dress up and people give you free candy. Does it get any better than that?!?!

This was Jackson’s first Halloween. When we were having the serious conversation that was the costume brainstorm we talked about how Kyrie was Boo from Monster’s Inc. dressed as a monster for her first Halloween. Logic dictated that Jackson should also be a monster, but “just a little one!”

Jackson as Stitch, so cute I could just die. 

Kyrie was Lilo, obviously, but more on that another time. This Stitch costume took about an hour and you could do the whole thing without sewing if you wanted to!!

Materials:

  • Hooded footie pajamas (I went on Amazon and found some that were the perfect color)
  • Blue and light purple craft felt (the blue should match the jammies)
  • Light blue polar fleece
  • Thread
  • Hot glue
  • Velcro

How to:

1. I started by making a pattern for the ears. 



2. Then I traced and cut out two on the blue felt and two on the light purple. I trimmed the light purple slightly smaller than the blue. 



3. Stitch has little notches in his ears, so I cut those out. 



4. Next I ironed the ears in half lengthwise and hot glued the blue and purple pieces together. 

5. Next for the tummy. I folded the light blue fleeces in quarters, measured, traced and cut out my tummy shape. 



6. At this point you could just hot glue on some Velcro and call it good. I decided to sew one side on and Velcro the other. However I wanted it to appear like the entire tummy was sewn. So I marked halfway and sewed just the left side of the fleece from pin to pin. 



7. Next I pinned the right side of the tummy piece to the jammies and sewed them together. Don’t forget to unzip the jammies and don’t sew across said zipper.



8. Next I hot glued the Velcro on the unattached side of the tummy piece and lined it up on the jammies. Again, attaching it with hot glue. 



 9. Finally, try the costume on your little one to determine ear location and attach ears. I used hot glue for this final step. 

Aww, such an adorable little Stitch!

-h





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Outlander Inspired Knitted Cowl

| Heather

You know that feeling when you find out you have been doing something completely wrong, for like years? Yup, that’s me.

A few of the women I work with started meeting during lunch to knit and crochet together. I was in the midst of a big knitting project and decided to join. Sat down, started confidently knitting, and one of the women told me she wanted to watch what I was doing. After observing me for a few minutes, she told me that, as it turns out, I knit backwards.

Earth shattering realization…I thought I knitted correctly. How could I have gone years and years doing it backwards. So I called my sister who knits a ton and I told her this harsh reality. She started laughing and said, “Yup, I know, when we learned to knit, we learned to knit the mirror image of how Mom knits.”

Ummm, someone could have told ME!!

Turns out, it really isn’t a big deal. I’m working on retraining myself the “proper” way to knit. Anyway, just goes to show, you don’t have to do it the “right” way to get things done!

Fast-forward to my most current knitting project. If you haven’t read through The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, I would recommend it!! I have several friends who have read the books and have really been enjoying the Starz TV show. As you can expect the costumes on the show are AMAZING!!! I would love love LOVE to wear some of the things the main character Claire wears.

Although we can’t all wear giant skirts and corsets in our daily lives, some of the knit wear she sports is totally in the realm of possibility. In particular the large cowl she wears just looks so cozy. Here’s what she looks like on the show…

Claire

A little googling, and guess what, people have made patterns. I used the free one here. I’ve gone a little crazy and have now made three…

Supplies:

  • 2 Skeins Wool-Ease Thick and Quick Yarn – the colors I used were Claret, Denim, and Fig.
  • Size 50 needles (you feel like a cartoon character using these puppies, I found them on Amazon)

How to:
I truly followed the instructions in the pattern, the creator of the pattern did an awesome job.

I used the Long Tail Method to cast on, which I had never done before but found a few YouTube videos to help. Here is one I liked… I tried to make a video, but this is a much better explanation.

Again, she recommended a bind-off method I had never done, so here’s another great video. 🙂

And for the final product…
Claret Outlander CowlDenim Outlander Cowl Fig Outlander Cowl

There are a couple fun ways to wear it (of course).
Around the neck..
Claret Outlander Cowl on

Over the shoulders…
Claret Outlander Cowl over arms
Like a hood…
Claret Outlander Cowl hood
You can see why this would have been perfect for a Scottish winter in the 1700s, right?! Anyway, here’s the perfect winter knitting project, and hey, after you make it, curl up with the books (I just finished Book #3).

–h

Outlander Cowl Pinterest Ready

DIY Elsa Inspired Cape

| Heather

Ok, so I promise that not all of my posts are going to involve Elsa and Disney’s Frozen. Seriously, I promise. But right now, it seems like it is unavoidable. Like I mentioned in a previous post, my niece loves to sing, dance to, and act out the entire scene that corresponds to Let it Go. It’s really quite cute and pretty darn impressive. When I was watching her go through the motions, it became clear, she absolutely NEEDS an Elsa cape.

DIY Elsa Inspired Cape

Materials:

Blue snowflake material (I used some from Joann’s)
Matching Thread
Assorted trims

How to:

  1. Create your pattern. I decided to do a “half-circle” shaped cape to give the cape some good swirl and swish. Perfect for dancing in! Create a pattern for yourself out of wrapping paper or tissue paper. Appropriately for this time of year, I used Christmas paper.
    You are aiming for ¼ of a circle for your pattern (that will fold out to half of a circle). The radius of that circle should be the length of cape you wanted. For my 4 ½ year old niece, that length was 38″. You will do a much smaller 1/4 circle at the top for the head and shoulders. The following graphic should help illustrate what you are going for…
    Cape1
  2. Lay out your pattern on your fabric on the fold. Pin and cut out.
    IMG_4342
    Here is the shape you are going for.
    Cape2
  3. Next, I decided she needed a stand collar. I measured the opening of the cape and drafted a simple pattern (see below). I’m sure there is a right way to do this, but I just measured the opening at the top of the cape and decided about how tall I wanted the collar, and I drew a slightly curved shape within those dimensions. My dimensions were 13″ x 4″.
    Collar pattern
  4. Right sides of collar together, sew the top and two sides. Trim seams, clip corners, turn out, and press. Pin the collar to the cape, right sides together. Sew the seam. Trim seams, press and then top stitch. This helps the collar stand up.
    Stand Collar
  5. Next I hemmed the front edges of the cape.
  6. Now is the fun part, trim!!I promised my niece that we would work on her cape together so I pulled out all the lace, ribbon, trims, buttons, etc. that I could find and I let her pick out how she wanted to embellish her cape. Uh, a bit of a mistake. She ended up choosing red rickrack and black sequins… With some coaxing I talked her into some silver ribbon and white lace, but she insisted on the pink ribbon for the tie. Not exactly Elsa, but you can’t blame a girl for loving pink. You can, of course, use your own judgment on how to embellish.I started with lace along the bottom of the cape and added some silver ribbon about 1/2″ above the lace.
  7. I then attached the pink ribbon around the neck. Along with some sparkly buttons just for fun.
    Elsa Cape

And there you have it, an Elsa inspired cape!

–h

P.S. Can’t get enough of Elsa? Check out this simple Frozen inspired t-shirt!

Tutu Tuesday: Part II No-Sew Tutu

| Heather

Tutu Tuesday part two, now that’s fun to say!! Tutu Tuesday continues this week with an even easier project!! Be brave, give it a try!

No-Sew Tutu

This tutu is quick, easy, super cute!! I made one for my niece for Christmas a few years ago and my sister also made her one to go with the Elsa Snowflake t-shirt. Now I think Kyrie needs her first tutu!

Materials:
Tulle – yardage depends on if this is for a little girl or a big girl… Start with at least 4 yards
1” Elastic long enough to fit around the waist plus 1 inch.

How to:

  1. Use a rotary tool and rotary mat and cut your tulle into 4” wide strips. You want them to be twice as long as you want the skirt. For example, for a 12” skirt (for a toddler) you will want 24” strips. I cut 12″ strips for Kyrie (she’s in 3 month clothes right now).
    Tutu5
  2. Sew the ends of your elastic together (I promise this is the only sewing). Overlap ½” and sew it together securely. Remember there will be tension on this stitch.
    Tutu7
  3. Use a dress form, stuffed animal, pillow, or something to put your elastic around. Start attaching the strips to the elastic, like so..
    Tutu8
    Tutu2
    Tutu3
  4. Continue until the tutu is as full as you desire. You can fit a bunch of those little strips on the elastic so just keep going. The poofier the better if you ask me!!
    Tutu4

Make it even more fun and mix two or three colors of tulle. Green and red for Christmas, different shades of blue for Elsa, etc.

Perfect Christmas gift for a little girl in your life. Also, a great project you could do work on with a cute kiddo.No-Sew Tutu
(my sweet niece playing in her tutu with her friend, Jessie)

–h

P.S. Did you miss Part I? Or you can read the conclusion of Tutu Tuesdays here.

Tutu Tuesday: Part I Tulle Circle Skirt

| Heather

Confession: With the new baby at home, I’ve become a Dutch Bros junkie. Seriously, it’s getting bad. Last Tuesday, I drove up and everyone was wearing a tutu and a tiara. I’ll admit I was just a little jealous!! So I told the girl getting my coffee that I loved her look, and she replied…We’ve established it as Tutu Tuesday.

Um, every girl needs a Tutu Tuesday, don’t you think? So here’s a DIY Tulle Skirt for you…

Tulle Circle Skirt

I found a ton of great tutorials on Pinterest, check-out my Crafty Ideas board for several good ones. If you run into questions during my tutorial, those might fill in any gaps. 🙂

Materials:

  • 6 yards (at least) of Tulle – I used green because I was Disneybounding Mike Wazowski for Halloween.
  • Appx 1 yard of matching Lining Fabric
  • Elastic the size of your waist plus 1 inch – You want this to fit snugly, but not too tight (we don’t want a tulle skirt muffin top, yikes!)

IMG_4075

How-to:
1. Determine the length of your skirt. Measure from your waist down to where you want the skirt to end. I went down to my knee.

2. Determine your waist radius. Measure around your waist, divide that by 3.14, then divide that by 2. That gives you your waist radius.

3. You are basically going to cut out a number of tulle “doughnuts” out of squares of tulle. So add the waist radius to the skirt length and multiply by 2. That will be the length you cut your fabric. You also want the width of the tulle to be at least equal to that same measurement. So cut several of these pieces. I would do at least 4. Do the same for your lining fabric (just 1).

Here’s what we are going for:

FAbric

4. Now fold each piece in half lengthwise. You should have a square piece of fabric with 2 folded sides.

Fabric2

5. Now take your waist measurement and skirt length to create your pattern.

Skirt pattern

Tip: Create a pattern out of tissue paper or wrapping paper. You’ll thank me for this step because tulle can be challenging to work with.

If you think about it, here are the tulle doughnuts you are cutting out so make sure your folds are the right places…

Skirt graphic

6. Pin your pattern to your first piece of tulle, and cut out. Repeat 4+ times and 1 time for your lining fabric.

7. Hem your lining fabric.

8. Take your tulle and lining circles and layer them on top of each other. Pin and baste around the waist line.

9. Take the ends of your elastic and overlap ½” and sew together (remember this is an important stitch that will have pressure one it).

10. Pin your skirt to the elastic. Zig-zag stitch around. Done!

Tulle Circle Skirt

Again, this was for a Halloween costume, I’m excited to make one in black or red for the holidays.

Happy Tutu Tuesday!! Also, anyone also in the mood for a doughnut or some coffee now?

–h

P.S. Part II continues here…

Monster’s Inc. Boo Halloween Costume – Part III

| Heather

The long-awaited and much-anticipated final post on Kyrie’s Halloween costume is in!! I know, pins and needles, right?

Teeth, check.
Hood, check.
Now onto the body!

Ok, so I really had to think through the design and construction of this costume. One sleepless night, and I had a plan! It would have been easier if I didn’t want to finish the inside, but I want Kyrie to be comfortable so it just took a little extra brain power to get it right. One thing to note, you don’t actually need three pieces for the body, I was going to put a zipper in the back and after I cut out my pieces I remembered that the hood is attached to the back, so the closure will need to be at the side-seams. Typical me. Oh-well, live and learn. 🙂

Back:
So, I started by just closing that center back seam. You can baste the batting and exterior (purple) fabric together. Then, right purple sides together, sew, trim, press. Then separately (because I want a finished interior) sew the right sides of the exterior (gray) fabric together.

Then right side purple to right side gray, sew one side seam starting 1/2″ from the top (don’t forget the arm hole). This seam will be a finished edge with Velcro to attached the front to the back. Trim, clip curves, turn out and top stitch. Leave the other side unfinished at this point.

IMG_3899     IMG_3901    IMG_3902

Front:
Next, I did the Velcro edge of the front of the costume. Same process. Baste batting to purple fabric. Right sides of purple to right side of gray sew one side seam (the one that meets up with the back of the costume). Again, make sure to do the arm hole. I added an extra half-inch to the “depth” location of the arm hole to allow for the overlap of the Velcro. It’s kinda hard to explain, hopefully this picture helps. Trim, clip curves.

IMG_3906

Now for the top edge of the front of the costume. Don’t forget to insert the teeth between the gray and purple fabric. Then then sew along the top edge of the costume, ending about ¾ of an inch from the unfinished side. Trim, Press. Turn out and top stitch both side and top seams. Next top stitch a channel (3/4”)  into the top front of the costume for another piece of boning. Slip the boning in.

IMG_3909

Next, I connected the front of the costume to the back. This is just a little tricky with finishing and the arm holes. Baste purple fabric to the batting. Purple side to purple side, stitch the side seam before and after the arm holes. Do the same with just the gray fabric. You will now have finished edges other than the arm holes. You can press the seam allowance on the arm holes, clipping curves, and then top stitch the purple to the gray giving you a finished arm hole.

IMG_3933

Next, I top stitched four rows into the body of the costume. I just took the length and divided out four equal sections (taking into account the seam allowance for the bottom). I measured carefully and marked my lines with pins and stitched.

IMG_3935

At this point I sewed on the Velcro to the front and back Velcro edges. Be sure to do the back side of one and front side of the other. I did the back-side of the front and the front-side of the back. Now how’s that for a sentence. 🙂

IMG_3941

Almost finished!! Next attach the  bottom. First baste together your layers. I just did purple, one layer of batting, and then gray. This is one seam I didn’t worry about finishing on the inside, it’s just too difficult to get to by hand, and really doesn’t matter. So right side of the costume to right side of the bottom piece, stitch.

IMG_3883

This can be a little difficult because you are sewing a circle to a rectangle, but take your time, it is possible. Remember that the Velcro edges will need to overlap as well. Trim edge, clip curves, and turn out.

Confession: I ended up sewing this piece and ripping it out four times. Yes, four. It seems like when I’m almost done with a project, I do something to make life more difficult. First time, the piece was a little too big. Second time, still too big. Third time, I sewed wrong side to right side. Fourth time – success! Seriously, it doesn’t matter the project, something always gets me. 🙂 My message to you, measure carefully!

Anyway, exciting, it’s really starting to look like a little Boo monster, almost done!!

Monster's Inc Boo Halloween Costume

Next, I attached the hood to the back of the costume. Sew right sides of the purple side only together, you want to leave the gray out so that you can hand finish that edge. Trim and press the seam. Wait to finish the interior.

IMG_4067

Now we need the finishing touches. Boo’s monster has googly eyes and mop like hair. Styrofoam balls, pipe stem cleaners, floral wire, and some cording accomplished that. The Styrofoam balls I picked were too big, like really too big, so I had to go back and buy smaller, lighter ones.

Finally, hand tack the hood lining along the center back seam and hand sew the seam between the of the hood and the gray back lining.

IMG_4093

Voila, we have a sweet little Boo! It’s far from perfect, but it was sewed with love (and actual blood and tears – see Part II).

Happy Halloween! In case you missed them, here are Part I and Part II.

–h

IMG_4123

 

Nailed it! Monster’s Inc. Boo Halloween Cotume — Part II

| Heather

Ok, so I have to thank my brother-in-law for this blog title and no, I’m NOT trying to brag.

So… I was working hard to finish the Boo costume in time for Halloween when tragedy struck! I went to sit in the folding chair I had next to my work table, sorta missed it, it folded, and I fell through it pinching my upper arm and ripping off my entire ring-finger nail (like down to underneath the skin).

Yah, gross.

1 quick trip to the ER to “fix” my nail and back to work. That’s what we call sacrifice and commitment to a project, right?? And, like my bro-in-law said, I am “nailing” this costume!! Seriously, I think these things only happen to me.

Ready to start sewing? Cutting out is my least favorite part of a project, so that’s done. Yay!!

Teeth:
Yes, oddly, I did the teeth first because they will be sewn into the body and the hood. So I just drew myself a simple pattern and cut 20 or so teeth pieces out of some white canvas I had lying around (you could use any white fabric that has some stiffness to it – you don’t want your monster teeth to be wimpy). Right sides together, sew the top and sides. Clip curves, turn out, press. I then top stitched each tooth to finish them off.

IMG_3884

Hood:
Next, I worked on the hood. I added just one thickness of batting to the hood. Layer purple fabric and batting together (baste if you would like) and sew right sides together down the center back. Trim, clip curves, press.

IMG_3890

Then separately, sew the right sides of the gray fabric together down the center back. Trim, clip curves, press.

Then place right sides together of the purple and gray adding the teeth in between (you could baste the teeth to the gray fabric ahead of time) and sew together. Trim, press the teeth down.

IMG_3891

Top stitch along the front edge of the hood. Then, about 3/4 inch from the edge of the top of the hood, top stitch across the face of the hood a channel where you can insert boning to give the hood structure. Slip boning in.

IMG_3892

Set aside. Finishing the hood will be the final step.

Note: In order to get the teeth to stay down like I wanted, I put binding clips on the hood to reinforce good behavior. 🙂

IMG_3893IMG_3894

We’ll finish Boo in Part III. Until then, happy creating!

–h

Halloween: Boo from Monster’s Inc. — Part I

| Heather

Taking a break from the upholstery project to talk about Kyrie’s first Halloween costume! So so so excited!!

One of my favorite holidays has always been Halloween because I’ve always LOVED playing dress-up. What made it extra special growing up was that my mom made special costumes for us each year. We could be anything we wanted and she would create something wonderful for each of us. To this day, I’m not sure how she did it for three kids, but I’m sure it took many sleepless nights to make sure we were all taken care of. Some of my favorite costumes included a little lady bug, Raggedy Ann, a butterfly, a fairy princess, magician… Seriously, a little girl’s fantasy every Halloween. Thanks Mom!

I cherish those special memories. Now being a Mom myself, I decided that I wanted to continue this special feeling for my Kyrie. I want my little girl to enjoy the world of imagination and possibilities. I want to make memories that will last a lifetime!

Sooo, Kyrie is going to be Boo from Disney’s Monsters, Inc. I thought it would be perfect because she looks like a cute little Boo and Ryan would be a perfect Sulley (we’ll see if that happens). Also, since she won’t actually be trick-or-treating, I thought the little monster costume would keep her warm as we carry her around with her cousins.

I didn’t find too much online to help, and definitely no pattern, so I had to dream it up myself. Let me just preface this by saying, I am no great seamstress. I am largely self-taught and have learned by trial and a whole LOT of error. If you are a master seamstress, please don’t judge too harshly, there probably is a better way, but here’s how I did it…

The Plan:

IMG_3871

Note: I ended up using 4 layers of batting for the body and 1 layer for the hood and bottom.

The Materials:

IMG_3875
Note: Velcro and pipe stem cleaners are not pictured.

Cutting Out:

Cutting out the pieces. You can see the measurements and amounts I used on my plan above. Not an exact science, I just measured Kyrie and added in extra space for seam allowances, the bulk of the batting, and Boo’s costume isn’t snug in the movie, so she needs some comfy wiggle room. That’s how I came up with my sizing. She’s wearing 3 month clothes if that gives some perspective. I also decided that because my exterior purple fabric is a flimsy stretch fabric, I would iron on interfacing to give it some structure. Depending on what fabric you use, you may or may not need to do this too. For the arm holes, I went about 1.5″ from the top edge and used one of her shirts to determine the shape/size.

One final note, I realized after I had cut out my fabric, that I didn’t need to have two pieces for the back of the costume (I’ll explain later) so save yourself some trouble and just cut out two of the big piece.

We’ll talk construction next time, read it here.

–h