My son wanted to be a sword guy after his Mastering Knighthood Summit a couple months ago. He received a foam sword (not pictured, as swords aren't allowed at school) and a shield he decorated there. To make an easy tabard, I asked Summit's Queen Emily. She recommended using a long rectangle of fabric folded in half lengthwise, or even a pillowcase (slit the long sides). Cut a head hole and put a belt on it: BAM. You're a knight.
Like Brooke's daughter and 10,000,000 other little girls, my middle girls wanted to be characters from Frozen. We got storebought dresses from Mom Approved Costumes, which arrived JUST in time. I braided some snowflake Christmas ornaments into Elsa's hair and used gel and hairpins along with white and glitter hairspray. Anna got a white strip of hair (hiding in the back plus more glitter, of course!) and a homemade cloak. I used felt instead of fleece and made the undercape a cape (which Anna's is in the movie) instead of a vest, but mostly followed Eclectic Housewife's Anna Cloak tutorial.
The rest of the morning will be spent sewing on the trim and button.
And of course, we have our troll . . . trolling.
Her costume is a towel cut into a long rectangle. I folded it in half lengthwise and sewed up a couple inches of each side, then cut a head hole. Slip on over a gray sweatsuit, tie on a raffia belt and voila, troll!
Someone asked me a couple weeks ago what we were going to be. I said "What do you think?" We went for the obvious choice. This is the first year that PB is old enough to pick her own costume and duh she chose Elsa. We do like to pick unexpected costumes, though so without further ado!
I have to admit that "Elsa's" costume was purchased (thank goodness) but the other outfits were DIY.
Since I didn't have anything to make for her outfit we did kick it up a notch with the hair, makeup, and accessories. So PB always begs to put on my makeup. Well I did for her costume and she hated it! For her make up I penciled in her eyebrows, put bright pink, purple, and blue on her lids, put on a bit of mascara, blush, and lip gloss.
For her hair I knew I wanted pieces that were swept back and then a side braid. I gave her the choice of which hair style of Elsa's she wanted and this is the one she picked. I started by putting mousse in her hair and pinned back with a slight twist, three section on one side and one on the other to look swept back. I gathered her hair to one side and braided it. I put bobby pins in to secure the style. Then her daddy got to work using a whole can of white hairspray on her hair. She loved the results!!
Do you notice her shoes? Well we have two pairs of the same shoes in a 7 and 7.5. She is wearing the left of both pairs which we didn't discover until we got home!
Isn't this the best? When we were at the dollar store they already had out their Christmas stuff and PB wanted a pack of snowflakes. I was thinking of a cute belt with them but she wanted it to come out of her hand. I tied a ribbon on her wrist and one on her ring finger and tied threads onto them which were tied to the snowflake to keep it upright. To stabilize it on her hand I glued it onto a tan piece of paper.
Can you guess what she is? (Other than extremely cute, of course!) She is a rock troll/Love Expert! I made her little shirt out of an old one of mine and splattered it with white paint. I made her necklace out of Sculpey. I used two different shades of green ribbons for her head band.
It doesn't get cuter than her!
For the King of Arendelle, I used his regular black suit and popped the collar and pinned it shut all the way up. I made the accessories from Sculpey, red fabric, cording, fringe, fun foam, and a big of cardboard.
For the Queen of Aredelle, I made the dress (not well so I won't go into a tutorial...) with black and purple fabric along with some decorative trim. I used Sculpey for my broach and fun foam for my crown.
What is the funniest part of all? PB instead wants to be Anna for actual trick'r'treating. Good thing we have one of those dresses too!!
On Saturday it was my best friend's Christmas party. Her invitation said there would be the prize for the most festively dressed person was a 5 course meal prepared by my best friend. I wanted to win! Last year I was an elf:
This year I got my inspiration from a candy cane:
First I made my skirt from an old red t shirt. I used the pattern I made from the Super Simple Pencil Skirt. I really should have made a real waist band, but luckily a belt worked. Then I cut strands of garland from the Dollar Tree in half, doubled it again, and glued at the top. I swirled the garland a bit and glued at the bottom. It was quite eye catching (although a little unflattering!) and the best part was, I won!! Yay!
Now let's see who else won! The winner, selected by Random.org, of the Make Change Bracelet is:
Briana Richardson!
Congrats Briana! Please email me your address! jaime (at) waywardgirlscrafts (dot) com!
Thank you to everyone who entered. Make Change Today is such an excellent cause and I'm happy to team up with them for this giveaway! Don't forget about the Make Change bracelets for Christmas presents!
This year, we went easy for Halloween. My older kids used some dress-up clothes my mom sent a while ago, and we put together the rest of the costumes.
"Buzz can't smile!" my 4-year-old insisted.
My youngest was Jessie. We bought a new hat for Woody and used the plastic hat that came with his costume as Jessie's, with a braid made of red yarn taped inside. We took a button-up shirt that fit my daughter and after exhausting all our options, cut a sheet of yellow construction paper to make the yellow yoke (with red marker "embroidery") and yellow cuffs ("bracelets," we told her. She was very protective of them!).
Then we used an old size 6 T-shirt turned inside out. I cut off the sleeves, then cut up the center of the front all the way. The back I cut up to the top collar. That became the back waistband. If I'd had a belt for her, I would've threaded it through the armholes. Instead, I safety pinned the waistband on. I also safety pinned the inside of the legs of her "chaps." A black marker made it cow print.
My husband wore a T-shirt, shorts and Chucks--and a name tag reading "ANDY." I'm not in the picture because I was Andy's mom and was too in character ;) , but I wore an outfit she wears in Toy Story 3.
Happy Halloween! I think this is the first year we've carved pumpkins (or at least the first time in a while). We let the kids choose the features, and my five year old drew the face on. Naturally, the adults (read: my husband) did the cutting.
And as always, I felt ridiculously compelled to sew our costumes. So I altered one of my dresses and sewed a whole new one for my older daughter. (You can see the full family on my blog.)
I had every intention of sewing one for my younger daughter, too, but I realized . . . I like being DONE with sewing more than actually doing it! Plus, I found a beautiful dress she hadn't worn yet. (My son's costume was purchased; it was actually a pirate costume, but it worked perfectly.)
Because it's not enough for me to sew something that's already beyond my skill level, I decided to tackle a new skill while sewing my daughter's dress: sewing a blind hem. I really, REALLY hate pressing narrow hems, so I thought I'd give a blind hem a shot. (You still have to press it, but it was a little better.) I was pretty pleased with the result.
A blind hem is a bit less noticeable way to hem a dress. (It's also especially good for hemming pants . . . but I don't even want to think about how you'd have to fold and twist them to do that!) Here's how it looks:
This is how the blind hem stitch looks on my machine (this is for woven/non stretch fabrics; stretch fabrics have smaller zigzags between the big zigzag peaks).
The peaks of the zigzags are the only parts of the hem stitching that goes through the top layer of fabric to be visible from the outside. It's all in the folding before you sew--which is a bit tricky to explain, but this is how I figured out to do it, loosely based on instruction from the family seamstress maven, Jasmine, (in July) and . The instructions are much easier to demonstrate in a video:
Here's a diagram to show where to sew:
You just want to catch the edge of the fold of the front fabric with the point of the zigzags. I practiced on scrap fabric to try to get the stitch width right so I could aim the fold for the midline of my sewing foot and catch the zigzags.
The pattern is Simplicity 4647, view A, size 3 (with the overlay skirt from view B, size 6). I didn't sew the sash on quite right. I think I could still fix it, though--either take out the stitching line and sew it down further forward, or tack it down. The fabric was the $1.99 costume satin (but it feels nice), with a glittery tulle net for the overlay. Oh, and her crown? $4! (I was excited for the good deal.)
Have you ever sewn a blind hem? What are your best tips?
