Hello Kitty Headband

My niece was Hello Kitty for Halloween, so I told my sister that I would make some Hello Kitty ears for her.  I tested it out and made a set for my daughter first.  She loved them.  But my niece is 8 years old, so I needed to make it a little bit bigger. 

I don't have a pattern or tutorial for this...I just made it up as I went along.

I drew the shape of the ear I wanted and then traced it onto the fleece, cut out a longer bottom and glued them together with the headband sandwiched in between the layers and then trimmed the extra fleece from the back side of the ear.

The bow is just a sewn rectangle of satin stuffed and then wrapped with a strip of satin to make it a bow (I put a penny in the strip of satin to give it the rounded look on the front...then glued it to the headband.

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.

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.

Dress Up Rack

I found this idea a year and a half ago and fell in love with it immediately.  My husband built it for us in June, and it's been sitting in my room waiting until the beginning of this month so we could give it to my daughter for her birthday.  It's great to have it out where she can use it, and even better to have it out of my room and get some space back. 

I made her some dress-up outfits for Christmas, so it's not as bare and sad looking as in this photo.

And as you can see, she loves to stand in the box to hang the clothes up.

Toddler Apron and Chef Hat

My daughter is getting a bunch of dress up stuff for Christmas, so I got an early start on some since I'll be making them and don't want to keep it all till the night before and drive myself crazy.

I was looking for a cute apron pattern (but not girly since my son would be using it too) that would work on a toddler.  But I mostly found child ones that seemed sized for a 10 year old or older.  So I just made my own sizing, but used this tutorial. (The tutorial is a PDF, so you have to scroll down the right side and find the button for "classic apron" tutorial since I can't link directly to it)  I picked this one cause it had "D rings" on the neck strap, and I liked the polished look it gave.  And I absolutely love this fabric - I found it at JoAnns.

Anyway, I had to shrink the pieces to work on an 18 month old but still last for a few years.  The length I used was 19" from top to bottom and 17" wide at the bottom.  The top was 7.5 inches wide with a length of 13" from the armpit down.  I did make the straps 20" long instead of 22" as well.  As you can see, it's a little big on my daughter, but it fits wonderfully on my 3 year old son.  So we should get plenty of years of wearing time out of it.

The chef's hat was tricky to make since I didn't want to put bias tape around the edge.  I just doubled the height of the band and folded it in half to get the clean edge to it.  Other than that, I followed the tutorial on that one pretty close.

The CAT's Hat (for a toddler head)

I wanted to make this hat for my son - so I browsed online and couldn't find a tutorial that wasn't out of paper or that looked nice.  So from me to you...

Materials needed:
Red Felt
  - 3 red strips each measuring 3"x22"
  - 1 red circle 6.75" in diameter
White Felt
  - 2 white strips each measuring 3"x22"
  - 2 white circles each 13" in diameter (with a 6.75" circle cut out of the center)

The easiest way I found to get the opening centered was to fold the red and white circles into quarters and line up the corner and trace the red circle's outer line onto the white and then cut.

After you have your 2 white circles, sew around the outside rim, flip right side out and baste (use a longer, gathering stitch) both layers around the inner circle.

Sit the brim aside and then sew the red and white strips together, alternating colors (red, white, red, white, red).  Then I topstitched along the edge of each color (for 3 reasons . . . it give the hat more stability to stand up and hold its form, it looks more professional, and it keeps the seams on the inside laying nice and flat)  But topstitching is totally optional. 

Then you'll want to baste along the edge of the red strips on the ends.

Next, fold the stripes in half, matching up the colors and sew along the edge, making a tube.

Now to add the top to the hat tube.  Pin the red circle to the right side of the opening in the hat tube and sew.  I poked myself several dozen times in this step trying to sew, but since it's a circle, you should pin it a lot to keep the curve going nicely. (this is why we basted the red stripe, so you can pull the gathering string to adjust the edges to match up - you may need to baste around the red circle's edge as well - but I didn't need to.  After sewing, turn right side out.  See how nice that looks!

Now, we just need to sew the brim to the hat tube...using the same manner as the top, pin the brim to the hat tube at the bottom (right sides together) and then sew.  This is why we basted the red stripe and the inside of the white brim - in case one piece is larger than the other, you can pull the gathering stitches to make them match up while pinning. 

After the hat was all together, I also top stitched around the bottom red stripe and the white brim where the hat tube meets the brim.  I haven't top stitched around the outside of the brim yet...still deciding if I want a stiffer brim or a floppier one. 

This is a little big on my 2 1/2 year old, and it's too small for my head, but it sits on his head just fine

It's only a problem when he pulls it down over his head and then freaks out cause he can't get it back up.  If that's a worry for you, just make the circle you cut out of the center of the white brim smaller than 6.75"

THE 'Stache

This one's for you Kari!!  I don't understand the mustache craze either, but it sure looks cute on a 2 year old.

I don't think my son even knew what a mustache was, but he's been saying "mustache" ever since he got up from his nap and I fit the elastic on him to finish this.

I saw this idea while scrolling through the archives at Sew Mama Sew - from 5 Orange Potatoes.  Since it would be worn by a 2 year old, I sandwiched the ends of the elastic between the 2 layers of felt because I'm guessing he would have it on backwards half the time - so this way, both sides are finished and presentable.

He tried to give his best "sinister" face.

Next, I'm gonna have to make a "Respect the 'Stache" shirt . . .

Halloween Costumes

My mom is amazing!!  She made 4 halloween costumes this year.  (And she's done this every year since Emma's 1st Halloween 10 years ago.)  One day, she'll decided she has too many grandkids and stop making them - but until she gets to that point, I enjoy her mad sewing skills and am grateful for them.  I'm going to try and round up pictures of all the costumes she's made for a future post so you can see her skills too!

This year, she made a Pirate


a Raggedy Ann


a Witch


and a Mermaid  (the costume wasn't "meant" to be able to wear the tail like this, but she figured out how to do it on her own)

The tail was actually hooked to a loop that she wore on her wrist so she could walk around.  Best mermaid tail I've ever seen!
 

And, she made this Lion costume 10 years ago; the grandkids wear it on their 1st Halloween.  This year, was tricky though - we had 2 babies who had their 1st Halloween this year, so we tossed a coin :) and it went to Max - my baby girl was Raggedy Ann this year, but we still put her in the costume for a picture so we can say she wore it.

Here's Max as the Lion - and not too happy about the headpiece.


And here was Emeree a couple weeks before since we had to mail the costume for Max