Toy Story Costume

I love making Halloween costumes. My son will be Iron Man this year. I tried to make his costume. I failed. He will be trick-or-treating in an Iron Man costume from WalMart. I still wanted to make him costume, so I convinced him that he should be Woody from Toy Story for the zoo's Halloween Spooktakular. It was pretty easy to put together if you're looking for a last-minute costume.

1. long-sleeved yellow plaid button-down shirt--This garage sale Gap shirt inspired the costume. It was hanging in my son's closet, and I thought it would make the perfect Woody shirt.



2. blue jeans



3. cow-print vest--I made a pattern for this by tracing the basic vest shape around the shirt. I lined it with muslin and trimmed the edge in bias tape, but you could easily use fleece fabric and not have to finish the edges. I was thrilled with how well the vest turned out, and it will be fun for dress up after Halloween. (On a side note, I thought I was buying cow-print fabric until the lady at the counter handed my cut fabric to me and said "Here's your doggie fabric." Apparently I had picked out dalmation-print fabric.)



4. cowboy hat--I purchased this foam hat at Hobby Lobby for $2.99.



5. suede lace for the cowboy hat brim--This is optional. I punched holes along the edge of the brim then strung the lace through the holes.



6. red bandana



7. sheriff badge and belt buckle--unfinished wood shapes purchased at Michael's, painted with gold spray paint, stamped with alphabet stamps and StazOn ink, attatch a jewelry pin to the back



8. cowboy "boots"--My son doesn't have cowboy boots. I made these by sewing tubes of felt that would fit over the legs of his jeans. I cut the tops to look like cowboy boots and tacked the fabric to his jeans so they wouldn't slip off. When paired with brown shoes, they really look like cowboy boots!



9. belt and holster--belt is a strip of brown felt cut long enough to fit around the waist and pinned in the front. I also made the holster out of felt and sewed a loop to the top which the belt goes through.

That's it! Happy Halloween!

Yoda costume

Since Halloween is a little over a month away, how about I share costume pictures from last Halloween? Yeah. I just realized I never blogged about the awesome Yoda costume I made for my Star Wars-loving son.

1) Jacket made from McCall's pattern (M6184).  I made the karate robe (view A) out of Osnaberg, but I did not use the extra facing  and left the edges raw so it would fray.

2) Hood from Butterick pattern (6695).  I used green fleece and made the tiger hood (view C) but made my own pattern for the Yoda ears. I used elastic thread in the bobbin to shirr some the forehead wrinkles.

3)  He wore brown pants and a brown shirt we already had.

4)  I made some stuffed Yoda hands and sewed them to a pair of cheap gloves.

The results were an adorable Yoda costume that garnered lots of compliments!

My Little Scarecrow

So I finally completed one Halloween costume. I made my son a scarecrow costume to wear to daycare because I was worried something might happen to the Elmo costume I was making for trick-or-treating. It was supposed to be a simple costume, but I turn everything into a major production. I bought a pair of denim overalls at Goodwill and sewed on some patches of homespun fabric. I put raffia in all the pockets--

I made this cute little hat to complete the outfit. He's not a huge fan of wearing hats, so I don't know that he'll actually keep it on.

I puchased a shirt at Target, but I didn't sew anything to it because I had to pay full price. And I never pay full price. He'll have it wear it after Halloween, too. I think he looks pretty cute, but I'm biased!

Happy Halloween!

One of the great things about having a child is the excitement surrounding the holidays. I'm the excited one. My son it still too young to realize what is going on. I've been waiting for Halloween so he could wear his costume trick-or-treating. I made him this Elmo costume because it would be nice and warm, but it was an unseasonably warm October day here in Omaha. I love this furry, silky fleece even though it's not fun to cut (huge mess) or sew with, but it makes the cutest costumes. The best part is the hat, and I've decided making costumes is one of my favorite Mom jobs. My mom always made us great costumes, and as the oldest I was lucky to always have a new costume. My poor brothers always had to wear hand-me-downs which is why I never got to be a princess. Anyway, here's the Elmo costume with a better view of the hat. Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

Frosty the Snowman--late Halloween pictures

When I asked my son what he wanted to be for Halloween, his response was "a snowman." Okay, not what I was expecting. Before I started making his costume, I asked him on several different occassions just to make sure the response was always the same. After some thinking, I figured out how I was going to accomplish this. On the way home from the fabric store, my son announced that he wants to be a pirate for Halloween. Sorry, little dude--you're gonna be a snowman this year! I think it turned out pretty well:

You can't see the cute little red buttons on the front because I wasn't smart enough to take his bag from him before I took the picture. This one shows the costume a little better:

And the back:

I used a Simplicity pattern for a toddler pumpkin costume and white fleece to make the body of the snowman. He got lots of compliments!

do the {100 day} hustle!

Kelsey over at Kelsey Sews is hosting is link-up to see how much you can complete in the last 100 days of the year. (It started 9/22 so I'm already a little behind of course!)

All you have to do is link up your to-do list for the rest of the year. How great would it be to get some of those sewing projects completed and head into 2013 with a clean(ish) slate? Here's my very long to do list:

1)  Finish sewing the item I'm making for my WISH do. Good Stitches swap partner. I can't reveal it yet since it's a surprise, but here's what I have done so far.

2) Make a converging corners baby quilt for my coworker who is due in February but the shower is in DECEMBER! I need to get moving on this one!

3) Make some cute fabric baskets for the same coworker's nursery. And some stuffed toys. And some bibs.

4) Make my son's Halloween costume. I'm not starting this one yet since he was going to be an angry bird but decided last night he wants a Ninjago costume. How many more times will he change his mind before Halloween?

5) Make a convergence quilt for the Omaha Modern Quilt Guild challenge.

6) Finish 2 shopping bags for my aunt which I had planned to have done in August.  (She needs them for Christmas gifts so it's all good!)

7) Finish this stack--four quilt tops to sandwich, quilt and bind and one quilt to finish hand binding.

This isn't anywhere close to everything I want to complete this year since I haven't even started to think about my handmade Christmas gift list. But it's a start. I know I waste so much time on the computer and watching TV in the evenings and that time could be better spent sewing. So that's my overall goal--get my butt down in my sewing room in the evenings instead of sitting in front of the TV watching reruns!

wip Wednesday {11/14/12} & 100 day hustle recap

We're over halfway through the 100 day hustle, so it's time to evaluate my progress.  (My original post is here.)

Finish sewing the item I'm making for my WISH do. Good Stitches swap partner.  Done!

Make a converging corners baby quilt for my coworker who is due in February but the shower is in DECEMBER!  I'm making good progress!  I only have 4 blocks left to do.  I finally got the Kona color card I ordered so I can order fabric for the backing and binding.  I was a little discouraged because the blocks looks so random and ugly--a mishmash of fabrics.  I finally laid them out and it all came together--it's going to be awesome!

Make some cute fabric baskets for the same coworker's nursery. And some stuffed toys. And some bibs.  I'm not going to get the baskets done.  I'm totally making some of these monster bibs, though, and some of these burp cloths.

Make my son's Halloween costume.  Done and adorable!  (He's the red Lego Ninjago Kai in case you can't tell.)

And I managed to whip up a witch costume for myself.

Make a convergence quilt for the Omaha Modern Quilt Guild challenge.  This did not get done and is moving to the back burner.

Finish 2 shopping bags for my aunt which I had planned to have done in August.  (She needs them for Christmas gifts so it's all good!)  No progress here but it's only November--It's still all good!  (Although I did buy fabric to make more bags when I haven't even finished these yet. . .)

Finish this stack--four quilt tops to sandwich, quilt and bind and one quilt to finish hand binding.  I did finish hand binding one quilt.  It is probably the last quilt I will bind by hand.

And our course I've started new projects.  My son and I adopted a Christmas family through our church.  The mom wanted a blanket for her 17-month-old daughter so I whipped up a quick "I Spy" quilt top.  I just need to sandwich, quilt and bind it.

I have one more chevron quilt to make for my brother who was in need of some baby gifts.  Hopefully I can have it done by Thanksgiving to give it to him then.

I'd better get back to sewing--I've got my work cut out for me!

Parrot Hat

My latest completed project is this adorable parrot hat I made for an alchemy request. It's made of furry polyester fleece. I swore I would never use this kind of fabric again after making my son's Halloween costume last year, but it's so darn cute I couldn't resist. If you're willing to put up with the mess, it's worth it. This is the first non-card item I've sold on Etsy, so I'm pretty happy about that. Hopefully it's the first of many!

zig zag doll quilt

Even though my Christmas crafting to-do list is growing longer by the minute, I took a break to make a doll quilt for the Pretty in Patchwork Lark Doll Quilt Contest.  You can see all the fabulous entries in the Flickr group.  Even though I don't have any use for a doll quilt, I found making one to be an excellent way to try a new technique without committing to a full-size blanket.  I had everything in my stash, so this didn't cost me a penny.  My zig-zag doll quilt:

I was pretty impressed with how well the top turned out.  I'm not much of a precision quilter, but most of my points matched up almost perfectly.  My little quilt measures about 13 inches by 15 inches.  I used gray fabric (leftover from last year's poodle skirt Halloween costume), a yellow and white floral from my stash, and Warm and Natural batting.  I made half square triangles and arranged them in a zig zag pattern.  (Sorry disappearing nine patch, but I think half square triangles may be my new favorite pattern--there are just so many options for arranging them.)  I machine quilted along the zig zags and hand-stitched the binding which took forever but I love how it looks.

This may end up on the wall of my sewing room as a cute little wall hanging.

It's Trick-or-Treat Time!

I'm sharing a tutorial over on the AccuQuilt blog for a cute (and easy!) personalized trick-or-treat bag! Head on over to this post for all the details.

I made the bag for my adorable nephew, Hunter. Last year he was the Staypuft Marshmallow Man from Ghosbusters, and I think it's one of my cutest handmade costumes to date. I need to get going on this year's costume since Halloween is right around the corner. 

Handmade Halloween costumes have always been a favorite project of mine. Check out some of my costumes from past years. Thanks for stopping by!

painted Halloween treat bags

I am making my son a Yoda costume for Halloween, and I purchased way too much Osnaburg fabric to make Yoda's robe. Since I have so much fabric leftover, I decided to sew some little treat bags for my son and I to decorate. His adorable little treat bags:

For these bags I cut pieces of fabric 4 & 1/2 inches wide by 13 inches long. Osnaburg frays like crazy so I made a small hem at each 5 inch end. I folded the fabric in half lengthwise and made French seams on each side--way to much work for little Halloween treat bags! We used a clearance Making Memories foam Halloween stamp set I purchased at Michaels a few years back for $1. (I'm kicking myself now for not buying every set they had.) For the paint, I mixed acrylic Ceramcoat paint with textile medium. (Michaels just started selling Martha Stewart craft paint that is suitable for just about everything including glass and fabric. As I run out of Ceramcoat, I'm going to replace it with Martha Stewart.) We'll stuff these little bags with candy and tie the tops with ribbon to make little gifts for his neighborhood friends.

I also stamped some fabric to make larger treat/gift bags. For these, I cut pieces of fabric 6 inches wide by 20 inches long. I like to stamp the design before sewing the bag together in case I totally mess up the stamping. I think I'll stitch them together leaving raw edges exposed so they'll fray and look a little more rustic. I like the way these turned out so much I'll be making some Christmas gift bags soon.

wip Wednesday {10/24/12}

What does one do when one has a very long sewing to-do list? Why start a new project, of course!

I am in love with the Riley Blake line of chevron fabrics. (And the polka dots, too.) I picked up a bunch of prints for my coworker's baby blanket and decided to get a few yards of the large chevron prints. The large chevrons are perfect for a whole cloth baby quilt. The chevron is printed the length of the fabric which is parallel to the selvage. I purchased one yard, flipped it on it's side (I'm sure that broke so many quilting rules), and trimmed it up to a piece approximately 35 inches wide by 42 inches long. I backed it with some crazy bright orange Kona and am quilting the chevron pattern at various intervals in the white spaces. (Yet another bonus of using high-quality designer fabric is the pattern is actually printed evenly. I can follow the chevron print and my lines are straight!) The original plan was to also quilt in the gray areas but I could not find gray thread that was anywhere close to the right color. I think I'll bind it in a navy blue polka dot then it's off to my brother who needs a gift for his neighbor's new baby boy. (I always find it funny when family members ask me if I have any extra quilts I'd be willing to sell. I never have any extra finished quilts. But if you're looking for an unfinished quilt top or quilts in various stages of done-ness then I'm your go-to person!)

After not getting a chance to do any sewing this past weekend it feels good to sit down at the sewing machine again. For now it's time to put the quilts away and sew a Halloween costume--I've got a 5-year-old son who wants to be a Lego Ninjago. (The red one in case you were wondering.) Happy sewing!

And unrelated to sewing, I volunteered to provide a trunk for my son's school Trunk or Treat. (I really have to stop volunteering for stuff!) If you have any suggestions for a creative way to decorate a trunk, please share!

An Enjoyable Weekend & a Fancy New Blog

After a stressful day at work on Friday, I was looking forward to having the weekend off and just relaxing. Now that my son is almost two years old, I've finally come to terms with the fact that I won't ever get as much accomplished as I did before he was born. And that's okay. He's growing up way too fast to worry about how many projects I've completed or how clean my house is. Saturday finally brought a Husker win. On Sunday, my son and I went to the fabric store to buy felt for his scarecrow costume. I hope to finish it this week and will post pictures. He's getting over his cold and feeling better, so it was an enjoyable outing. We visited Grandma and Papa, got a haircut, and just enjoyed the last of the beautiful weather. I also updated my boring blog. After looking at ALL the free backgrounds at The Cutest Blog on the Block and trying out more than one, I finally decided on this one. My big accomplishment this weekend was completing my application for the 2 Sketches 4 You Winter Design Team. I'm not expecting to get a spot on the Design Team, but I'm proud of myself for applying.