Independence Day Attire

This one's a quickie.  After making Q-ball's costume for the baby contest I had some leftover fabric and knew it would be perfect for shirts for the girls.  I already had McCall's 6737 pattern (a pattern that's not discontinued but actually new?  Miracles do happen.) on hand.

Meeting the princess.  The girls had not yet abandoned all semblance of being groomed. That happened later...and so did the potty accidents.

It was a quick sew.  I wasn't pleased with the width of the neck so I narrowed it on Pink Blur's top by cutting the contrast panel smaller. The sleeves also sew in a little funny.  It's probably not a pattern I'll use again but it worked well for it's purpose.  The front and back pieces are identical, making it super-duper easy to match stripes or other designs.  The shirts are pretty cute and the girls love them.  I think Blue Eyes will be able to wear hers another year.

My cutie pies with the sweet princess.  We had a great Independence Day!

Perfect Playtime Pants Pattern Review

Most of what I have blogged (or thought about blogging) this past little while has all been about marathon training.  There are things I've sewn but never got around to posting.  This is one of them.

A while back I was lucky to test the Perfect Playtime Pants pattern from Feather's Flights.  I loved the different options for length and that it's a unisex pattern.

Roomy and comfy

I grabbed some fabric from my stash to whip them a pair in the bloomer length.  These pants don't take long to sew and are a great instant gratification project.  There are pockets for the longer lengths and those are pretty cute.  I wanted the bloomers because Pink Blur was in serious need of some summer duds.

Matching top is modified from the Blank Tank pattern by Blank Slate Patterns

The pattern fit well and the instructions were thorough.  Pink Blur loves her new outfit and gets excited whenever I pull it out of the drawer.  It's perfect for the deathly warmer weather we've been having recently.  Now she's ready for BBQ season!

Check out Heather's stuff here!

Baby Contest 2013

Okay, how have I not blogged this little bit of goodness yet?  Every year I make a costume for the Freedom Festival Baby Contest.  It was really early this year.  Usually it's more toward the end of June than the beginning.  Anyway.  This little Uncle Sam costume was just begging to be made.  It's the same pattern that I used for Q-ball's leprechaun costume, but this time I followed the pattern almost exactly.

image via betsyvintage.com

The picture's a little fuzzy, but you get the idea.  I also really love the little policeman uniform on the top left.  It's pretty adorable.  Maybe next year...hmm...

I started with the idea of making it look identical to the pattern.  But when you want fabric that is simple red and white stripes or blue with white stars then it will be impossible to find.  I had some solid red fabric that I cut out for the overalls, intending to print with white stripes.  As I was getting ready to start drawing lines on freezer paper to make the template I realized that it would be too time (and sanity) consuming.  So I made a run to JoAnn's and got the closest I could find.  I'm not disappointed with the results.

The only real change I made to the pattern was adding piping.  I just like the extra touch and definition it gives the jacket.  The collar would have gotten lost without it.

I modified and cut out a pattern for the hat.  After the first seam I saw that it wasn't going to work as I'd hoped.  Rather than spend the time tweaking and adjusting I decided to take a little shopping trip to a place I was confident would have something I could work with.  It's all about the dollar store hat, baby.  He hates it but the photographer was able to get in a couple of shots where he doesn't look like somebody has just questioned his sister's honor.

The bow tie was one I improvised.  It was a piece about 10" x 6".  Then I folded it lengthwise (hot dog) and sewed down the side.  After a turn and press I folded it widthwise (hamburger) to form a loop and sewed down the side.  I made the center section the same as the bow, just smaller.  Then the bow was pinched in the middle and slid into the center section loop.  The whole thing was attached to some elastic so it would stretch over his head.  I'm all about easy right now.

Q-ball was entered into the age category and the costume category.  There is a rule that the same child cannot win in two different categories.  Last year he got first place in costume and second in age.  There were no other 0-3 month boys in the costume category so he won by default.  In the age category there was only one other boy entered.  Not exactly a lot of competition.  This year they added superlatives (best smile, cutest hair, etc.) in each age group and the costume category included both boys and girls of the same age.  In the age category he got biggest eyes.  That made me laugh, as I don't think his eyes are particularly big.  I was surprised there was any prize at all, as Q-ball wasn't especially friendly with the judges and that is a big part of the criteria they list online.

The costume judge was super impressed with his costume.  She totally loved it, maybe even as much as I do.  When it came time to announce the costume winners I was a bit disappointed when his name wasn't called for second or third place, but two little girl names were called.  Girl costumes are always so much more fun than boy costumes.  I was sure that with the combination of boys and girls that he hadn't won anything.  That left me really surprised when they called his name for first!  Woohoo!  I know it's shallow and petty, but I felt particularly accomplished knowing that he got first place in a field of more than one.

So now I'll be deciding whether or not to dress him up in his costume again for the 4th of July.  Probably not because it'll be too hot with the jacket.  But I'll probably put on a onesie under the overalls so he gets another wearing out of it.  There is also a little children's parade the weekend before the 4th that I'm hoping we'll attend.  It could be fun for the girls.  I'll put them in the shirts they got from the scraps leftover from Q-ball's costume.  I over-estimated my fabric amounts.  Score for the girls!  And here's one last peek at the world's cutest Uncle Sam.

Ta-Da! Tuesday--Day Twenty (b): Surprise Dress

My second installment for this week's Ta-Da! Tuesday is a dress I made for Blue Eyes.  I made it to do the sew along for The Sew Off over at Nap Time Crafters.  The challenge was kids clothes and the rules allowed starting from a pattern or tutorial but needing to add your own creative spin to it.  I started with Simplicity 2464.  I had wanted to make it a hi-low skirt but the realities of how the pattern is constructed didn't fit in with the vision I had in my head.  Surprise, surprise.

I don't always use out-of-print patterns, I swear.

The pink fabrics came from my own stash, that had once belonged in my mother in law's stash.  I love free fabric.  The green trim fabric was an eyelet remnant I bought a few years ago, hoping to make something cute with the gorgeous embroidery at the bottom.  There was never enough yardage for anything I liked.  So I used it here.  The only difference in cutting out the pattern was adding some extra fabric to the bodice back to make it less open, and cutting the skirt front wider to accommodate what I wanted to do for the surprise part of the dress.

I didn't think about how thin the pink gingham fabric was.  If I were to do it over again I would have lined the yoke on the waist.  I was in a hurry.

Once the dress was all made up I tried it on Blue Eyes and found that the front ended up looking really, really low cut on her.  I added a fabric panel after the fact.  I meant to make the top of the panel go to the bottom of the green stripe rather than the top but didn't remember that as I was prepping it.  Then I was too lazy to make Blue Eyes come try it on before I sewed it in.  And I had her entertaining the baby.  I may or may not go back and change it.

Back view

Originally I wanted the bodice back completely closed.  Had I moved forward with that plan without thinking about it I would have ended up with a dress Blue Eyes couldn't get her head through.  No bueno.

Now comes the surprise part of the dress.  I added an under layer to the skirt with lots of sheer tricot ruffles.  I already had plenty on hand because I've made a few pettiskirts and had quite a bit left over.  I broke out my trusty(ish) ruffle foot and let it do the ruffling work for me.  On the wrong side of the over layer I added some rows of bias tape to make a casing for ribbon drawstrings to bring up bits of the skirt to show off the ruffle layer.  I'm pleased with the result.  It took quite a bit of figuring to get the hem right when you include the pink trim at the bottom and the fact that I wanted that part left separate from the drawstrings.  It was a bit of a headache but it all worked out.  The plaid pattern is busy enough that it hides to stitching lines beautifully.

My great fear was that I would attach all the ruffles and Blue Eyes would not want to show it off.  I needn't have worried.  She likes to wear it with the over layer down but gets a kick out of showing it off to people by saying, "Look under my dress!"  We'll work on a different choice of words.

Surprise!  There's a layer of pink and lavender ruffles.

The only thing I would change about what I did is to follow the pattern and sew the skirt to the bodice before sewing the side seams.  I had stopped paying attention to the directions by then and have never had a problem with attaching a skirt this way before.  The elastic pieces in the back and the trim on the front make that method a bad idea with this pattern.  It took me two hours to fix it when I saw what happened after I triumphantly pulled it off the machine and announced I was finished.  Boo.  But now it's right.  In the future I'm going to add butterflies to the ends of the drawstrings (this will further mask the drawstrings when the over skirt is extended) and to the bodice.  With Q-ball's birthday coming up I simply ran out of time.  Blue Eyes doesn't know the difference and is happy in her ignorance.  And so am I.

UPDATE:  My mother in law (the one who gave me the fabric) saw the dress and recognized the fabric.  When I told her she had given it to me she said she should give me more of her fabric to work with.  It's always a big win when the person who gave the fabric is happy and impressed with the finished product.  Even if it took several years to get around to using it.

Psst...Your Irish is Showing

I could kiss this little leprechaun all day (and I do), Irish or not.

I'm sewing along with the Sew-vivor contest and the first challenge was to use the color emerald.  I had wanted to be creative and avoid the gimme of a St. Patrick's day theme to go with the emerald, but I just couldn't help it.  Besides, we really are Irish.  My great-grandfather was born in Belfast and immigrated as an adult.  I'm a full 1/8th Irish and that's just on my mom's side.  The leprechaun thing was inevitable.

Simplicity 0602 (the costume pattern) has been used for no fewer than three different patterns. No joke. They don't even list it in the "out of print" section online.

Lucky to be me! 

To make the costume I used three different patterns from my mom's collection (no need to reinvent the wheel) and this online bow tie tutorial, as well as referencing these instructions to make the top hat.  Learning to tie a real bow tie was a nice bonus.  I bought the fabric at my local JoAnn's.  The buttons came from my mom's button jar.  Someday I will have a nice fabric, pattern, and button stash of my own.  Until that day I will happy raid my mother's as often as she allows.  Which is pretty much always.  The buckles were quickly slapped together with extra gold bias tape..  I attached the buckles to the shoes with regular paper tape, as those are to be his church shoes.  We already had the shirt and I bought the shoes and tights right before taking pictures.

FYI, I made the quilt in high school as a Personal Progress project.  I call it my parachute quilt, but it doubles well as a rainbow.  Those ribbon ties never would stay in place the original bows I tied.

Yes, my son, I did dress you in tights.  I promise I'll never show anyone. Except the internet. And probably your prom date.

I made modifications to all the patterns even though I didn't plan on it.  For the vest I cut out the original pattern but then decided I wanted it shorter in the body.  Easy cheesy.  I added piping around the edges of the jacket to really make it stand out.  The shorts had to come from a different pattern than the vest because the pants pattern simply wasn't there in the envelope when I looked for it.  That's one risk of just reusing someone else's pattern.  The jacket pattern had overalls rather than pants and I didn't want to make that.  The pants were wider than I figured I would want around Q-ball's little knees so I added a band at the bottom.  It made them look more like pantaloons than little leprechaun man-pri pants, but I'm good with it.

They don't make metallic gold piping so I had to make my own.  To make it easy on myself I just bought some white piping and some double fold gold bias tape.  I slit the bias tape up the middle and wrapped that around the piping.  Ta da!  I love the look it gives.  I used the leftover bias tape to make the shoe buckles.

I'm all the pot of gold you need at the end of any rainbow!

The buttons were a lucky find.  I planned on just using gold buttons.  Then I saw these.  They made me think of King Brian's crown from Darby O'Gill and the Little People.  Which, by the way, I watched while I was making the bow tie.  The freaky color flashing horse will forever scare me, though the banshee no longer gives me nightmares like it did when I was a child.  Anyhow, a gold "crown" with dark green velvet just screamed to be used.

"Vintage" buttons from my mom's button jar  

I see something shiny!

What's this stuff?  Money?

Hmm...better put it away for a rainy day.

Wait!  I want it back!

Just inside there, you say?

Maybe if I can just...reach...in...

Got it!  Now where can a guy go to get some green milk?

And then the beard.  Oh, that beard!  It may be the silliest thing I've ever sewn.  And the kid won't wear it.  Uh-uh, no way, forget about it, will NOT have anything to do with it.  Pity.  It's so hilarious.  But Q-ball isn't amused by it.  I took a garishly orange fabric paint and painted it onto dark brown fur and prayed the brown would tone down the orange.  Success!  I love how it turned out.  I guess I'll just have to wear it if he won't.  Maybe next year.

A beard at bedtime is a good look for me, no?

ETA 3/20:  I finally got him to wear the beard!  Not with the costume, of course, but he did wear the beard!  Just imagine it with the top hat.  :)  If there's any interest in seeing how I made it let me know and I'll put up a little tutorial.

MO-OM!!!  How dare you ambush me with the beard while I sleep!?!

I still don't trust you, but at least I have my thumb and my hair.

Peek-a-boo is my weakness.

Okay, Mom; you're right.  This beard is hi-freakin'-larious!

Q-ball also doesn't prefer to keep the hat on.  At least he's good-natured about taking that off instead of the screaming fit I get whenever I try to put his beard on.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Linking up here:

                     

Halloween 2012 Costumes

Insane.  Masochist. Glutton for punishment.  These all pretty much describe my feelings about myself after getting Halloween 2012 all finished.  It was a big year for homemade.  Everything except Hubs's costume was made by me.  And it was exhausting, but so worth it.  I always forget what a big production it is to make everyone a costume.  It only gets more hectic with more kids.  Not only does that add to number of costumes, but it takes away from the time available to actually, you know, MAKE them.  Everyone except me chose their own costume.  Well, Q-ball didn't get a choice.  The only choice a baby gets about a costume is whether to coo or cry.  He chose to coo.  What a good boy.  :)  I was still trying to do everything on the cheap and I think I did fairly well.

I made her put on a white tee so she'd be less naked.

This year became more of a challenge because my kids are starting to have an opinion.  I assumed the girls would want to be princesses.  I brought up patterns on the computer for Blue Eyes to look at so she could choose her princess.  Once she saw this Cleopatra costume she was totally smitten.  No other choice was acceptable.  She liked the "wings" on the dress.  I'm sure it was because it was the most difficult, most time-consuming, and least important part of the costume.  But I'm a loving mother and still made it.  The white fabrics came from my mom's fabric stash, and I purchased the black wig fabric, gold lame, and the jewels.  The jewels really made the costume.  How did I attach them?  I hot glued those bad boys on.

The Pink Blur was one I got lucky with.  She still wanted to be a princess.  At first she requested Cinderella.  I reminded her that she'd been Cinderella the year before.  Tangent:  She'd been Cinderella the previous year only because I'd run out of time to make the Snow White costume for which I'd purchased fabric, and we had Cinderella leftover from Blue Eyes's previous Halloween costume.  I gently directed her toward Snow White and she jumped on that.  Pink Blur was so excited to be her favorite Disney princess.  I was so excited that the fabric I'd purchased the year before had enough yardage to make a costume to fit her.  Hooray for free!  Free for this year, anyway.  I bought Snow White dress up shoes online for the costume.  The only size listed was 3 yrs + and I figured it would be okay if they were a touch too big.  Nope.  They were HUGE on Blue Eyes and her feet are bigger than the average 5 year old.  Maybe I'll have to make another one of these dresses in a few years.  Or not.

Know what happens when his older sisters take off the flying saucer and throw it off the back deck? Mommy searches fruitlessly for the ring and Q-ball becomes naked Shrek...with shiny boots.

I was so so so glad that little Q-ball was here for this Halloween.  His costume is one I'd had my eyes on for years, just waiting for a little boy so I could use it.  Turns out the pattern is out of print and I had to get it off eBay.  I'm not sorry.  I totally love it.  He is adorable as a little Martian.  I ended up buying everything needed for his costume.  Again, totally worth it.

Hubs is a Star Wars geek and went as Darth Maul.  He was scheduled for a raise so he went ahead and purchased his costume.  He also made most of the horns for the costume by carving them out of wood.  It was pretty awesome.  My contribution to his costume was the make up.  Easy cheesy, right?  Yeah.  I think it took over an hour and a half.  I was impressed with how long it lasted.  I'm also impressed that the Hubs left his bald cap on for over 12 hours.

After the neighborhood Trunk or Treat the kids were done.

My costume was a recycle because there simply wasn't time to put one together after I finished stuff for the kids.  I went as Arwen, same as I did five years ago.  There is a ton of satisfaction, however, in knowing that it was bigger on me this year than it was the first time I wore it.  Take that, weight loss!
I felt like I deserved something new after all the work I was doing for everyone else's costumes so I decided that if I didn't get a new costume that I should have elf ears.  I was so excited to open up my brand new pair of elf ears.  I was less excited when my "pair" of ear tips were both for left ears.  I was so tired by that point in the day that I almost cried right then.  Instead I bucked up, put on one ear, and draped my hair over the other ear.  They were non-refundable so I got half my money's worth.  Or something.  Next year, I get a new costume.

The kids all had a blast and got way more candy than necessary.  That's all part of the fun.

In the end it really was worth it because the girls loved their costumes and I loved Q-ball's.  Such fun.

Here's to a calmer Halloween next year!