Halloween Costumes

So I meant to post these before Halloween...or at least closer to it than today.  But if you want a couple ideas for next year...

A Green Plastic Army Man

My husband made the bazooka out of pvc, wood, a cup and a bracelet.  We found the idea for the costume here.  And then we added our own touch of the bazooka. 

Then we found clothes at the thrift store and the helmet/vest at Wal-mart in the costume section.  His was pretty easy to make, just took 4 cans of spraypaint and a lot of drying time.  I tried different options to hide his face and make him seem more like a plastic featureless toy.  But the one that worked the best was nothing.  He didn't like the mask like in the tutorial.  And he kept rubbing off the face paint.

One Pretty Peacock

 I originally saw the idea here.  But she only did the skirt in the back to seem more life-like.  But I wanted the full and fluffy tutu look.  And I changed up the colors for the feathers a bit.  My mom made the leotard from a Butterick 5545 pattern. And then I measured and cut a ton of tulle for the tutu.

Insulated Casserole Carrier & Etched Dish

My cousin got married earlier this month, so for her bridal shower, I made a casserole carrier.  I used a contrasting fabric as the lengthwise wrap to add some fun detail.

I also etched the Pyrex dish with her new last name.  That way she'll always know which dish is her's at a potluck.

A few tips -
**I used the tutorial from here, but made the alterations from here (rounded corners and belting instead of straps)
**My Pyrex dish was longer but narrower than the dish used in the tutorial, so if you make one of these, make sure to measure your dish and adjust the dimensions (with seam allowances and overlapping for the velcro).
**frustratingly, the new Pyrex is longer than my Pyrex - they made the handles/lid different, so when I make one for myself, I'll need to start over and measure again :(

I'm happy with how this turned out, but it was so frustrating to make - mostly because I had to figure out my own dimensions.  The first go-round, one of my pieces wasn't long enough to velcro closed - not sure how that happened since I measured and gave extra room, so I had to get out the seam riper and cut out more fabric on one piece.  Glad I started this project a couple weeks early cause it went in my "sewing time-out" for a week (i put it away for a while where I can't see it if I'm really mad/frustrated with it.  Then after a while, I'm refreshed and ready to start over). 

Comfy Jammies

I found a tutorial on MADE for some pajama pants for toddlers.  And lucky me, her pattern happens to be a 2T/3T which is just the size I needed.

They sewed together really easy and turned out equally adorable on my little girl.  For the next one, I'll probably play with the pattern a bit since she's still in diapers and needs a little extra room in the toosh.

I had polka dotted twill tape, so the tie on the jammies made a cute detail.

Nautical Pillow

I'm in the process of switching my son's room to a Nautical theme.  Here's a cover I made for a throw pillow to go on his bed.

I like to make the envelope style of covers so that I can change them out when my decorating mood changes.  I've been using this tutorial for a few years.

I did do a few things to add detail:
     * I added piping around the edges - sewn onto the pillow front, then clipped the corners of the piping while sewing so that it would curve better...then sewed on the back pieces
     * I added a vertical stripe and an anchor applique by freezer paper stenciling it onto the fabric

I found this sailboat home dec fabric when I was in Portland a couple weeks ago at Fabric Depot.  It's a good thing I don't live in Portland - our fridge would be empty in order to buy all the cute fabric there.

Knit Racerback Dress

I made this Racerback Dress the day after I saw the post at Crafter Hours.  The tutorial was really easy to follow and I love that the pattern goes from 12month all the way up to size 7-8, so I can keep making this dress for a few more years.  It's a nice and light weight "summer" dress.  It looks adorable on her - she is pulling it behind her a bit in the picture, but there is a little more flare to the bottom of the dress than this picture shows.

Here's the back (my favorite part) - I used a different fabric for the small piece at the top of the back.  I wanted to add some more detail since the fabric of the dress is plain and a bit boring.  Thus the hot pink binding at the neck and arms.

I made this out of an old t-shirt of mine, so that was nice to not have to hem the dress (one less step is always nice).  I also applique'd a heart onto the front to add some more detail.

Felt dolls

I found this link on pinterest a couple weeks ago and knew it would be my next attempt at finding something to keep my 2 year old daughter quiet and calm during church.  But sadly, there were no patterns or a tutorial :(  But that didn't stop me.  I sat down and drew a similar shape of the doll and dress on my own referencing the pictures. 

I did do a couple things different.  I couldn't figure out how she did the eyes, so I just painted them on with fabric paint.  And I didn't do the cheeks.  Also, I made a swimsuit on the doll instead of underwear since my daughter is excited about swimming lately. 

I do wish that felt came in some better colors.  There isn't a good "blonde" or "strawberry blonde" in the cheap felt, so I let my daughter choose the color of hair for the dolls.  She chose bright pink and brown.  I was a little worried about the pink, but that one is my favorite now.  I won't be trying to make a "ball gown" again - it was hard to try and gather and hem the small piece of satin.

There are still a few more dresses I want to make, but my next step is to try and figure out how she did the house.  I may just try to cover a binder in fabric/felt and use that to carry them in.

Market Skirt

I've been on a sewing kick lately - 4 dresses and 1 skirt for my daughter in the last couple weeks...and something for my nephew's 1st birthday, but his momma reads my blog, so I can't blog about that yet. :)

I made one of these Market Skirts (free pattern and tutorial here) while I was pregnant with my daughter, and I thought it was easy to make and adorable, so I made one again.  I gave her a few choices of fabrics from my stash, and she picked this retro Strawberry Shortcake print.  I'm not big on "character" clothing, but this is the Original Strawberry Shortcake from my day - the 80's - and it's cute and not tacky like some character fabric can get.

Here's a close up of the pockets - I added some embroidery floss stitches for some pop - and I had cute flower buttons...thanks for cleaning out your fabric/button stash mom!

Sewing with Oliver + S

Here are a couple more things I made from this book by Oliver + S.  You can buy it, but I checked it out from the library.

Doll/Teddy Bear Carrier - My daughter has recently taken an interest in swaddling her baby dolls and carrying them around and pretending like they are sleeping, so I thought this was a good fit for her.

Red Riding Hood Cape - An addition to build my daughter's dress up outfits.  It's a little big on her for now, but it should fit her in a year or so.  This turned out cute, but it was a lot of work since it's fully lined.

Felt Fun

Here are a few things I've made with felt for the Christmas decorations or presents

Holly Garland - I just drew my own holly leaf onto freezer paper and traced a quarter for the red berries.  Then I sewed it in a chain.  I love the simple, but classic touch it adds to the mirror in the entry way.

Felt fish and fishing pole - pattern and tutorial here.  I made a pole for each of my kids, but I'm not sure how long they will last until they start hitting eachother with them.  So this may be a supervised toy.

Animal masks - I saw this idea and this idea and decided to make my own.  The ones on etsy are adorable, but there was no way I was going to pay over $50 for a few masks I could make out of supplies I already have at home.  These are for my son (except for the pink owl - that's for my daughter).  I thought the owls looked fancier with the embroidering - which took a loooooong time.  I'm not going to post the patterns I made or a tutorial since I this is a knock-off from someone who is selling them. 

some recent sewing projects

I've been busy sewing things for my kiddos for Christmas, so here are some of them...

toddler backpack - pattern and tutorial in this book (I just checked it out at the library since I didn't want to spend so much on the book that I would only need for a couple projects)  We are decorating my son's room in a Nautical theme, and this is some outdoor canvas fabric from JoAnns that I have left over.  This backpack was so fun to see come to shape - I enjoyed making it!

car roll ups - made a couple for some of my nephew's birthdays that just came up (tutorial here) my son has used his every sunday during church for the past 3 years and it is one of the best things I've found that keep him quiet during sacrament.

toddler girl apron - made a pattern up myself and got quite frustrated by it, so i don't think anyone would want my pattern with all the headaches - plus I threw it away since I was mad at it.

baby doll diapers - I made a couple different sizes for by daughter's different sized dolls - just used the basic shape and instructions in this tutorial, but had to make my own sizes.

Halloween 2011

My internet is really slow, so I haven't had the patience to post for a while.  But here is a pic of my kid's halloween costumes.

It was a joint effort - my mom and I made different parts of each costume - Luckily, she made the tricky parts of the costumes (Minnie's dress and Batman's head piece - which she had to make 2 of since my children have HUGE heads and we had to go up two sizes to make the head piece fit right.)  Thanks Mom!  They turned out awesome, as always!

Minnie's dress has boning in the bottom to give it that hoop skirt look.  And I didn't think I would find yellow shoes anywhere for her, but then I realized I could buy black ones at goodwill and then spray paint them yellow.  Worked awesome.  But I wouldn't do this for anything other than a costume.  It isn't holding up well - it cracks and scrapes off easier than I hoped.  But it was great for a Halloween costume and looked awesome.

Here's Emeree with our newest family addition - Adam (wearing the lion costume my Mom made 11 years ago and has made it through all 6 grandkids so far)

 And just love this shot of my husband and Emeree at the pumpkin patch- such a sweet shot.  But the rest of the pics of her on his shoulders were of her pulling on his hair.  Glad I got the one cute shot.

Mayflower place setting - or toy boat

I saw this idea last year, and it's been patiently waiting on my to do list for a while.  It's a cute idea to fill up with candy and use as a place setting for the kids.  I did it a little different. though.

I wanted something else to make the sail "pop" and thought I remembered a red insignia on the pilgrims' boats.  But when I looked up pics of the Mayflower, the sails were plain white.  Then I looked up The Nina, The Pinta, and The Santa Maria, and found what I was looking for.  So I guess my boat isn't a "Mayflower" technically, but my son loves it.

I just want to try and figure out a way to make the mast stay up without candy in it as a place setting so that he can use it as a toy.

Halloween Pillow Cover

My new holiday obsessions seem to be wreaths and pillow covers. 

Here's my pillow cover for Halloween.

I love, love, love this fabric.  I was in Portland this week visiting my sis-in-law (hi, Kari!!) and we went to Fabric Depot - being there is like a sewer"s version of a kid in a candy store.  I think it said it's 1.5 acres of fabric...or something like that.  Anyway, we were on our way out the door, and I spotted this fabric and HAD to turn around and go back to get some.  The selvege says it's called "ghastly forest" by Alexander Henry (I think - the words got cut off where my yardage ended)

I like having pillow covers for different holidays.  They fold down so small and are easier to store than separate pillows for each holiday - just make the envelope closure so it's removable.