A Ninja Turtle And A Bum Gallbladder

Well hello there!  Long time no see, er... you know what I mean.  I'm alive.  For the most part.  I didn't mean to disappear for so long because I very much enjoy interacting in this space.  But life has been interesting lately.  I actually have been sick.  My gallbladder!  Having a bum gallbladder has been pretty life altering.  I got really sick at the end of July and then missed the entire first month of school while being sick and having all sorts of inconclusive tests done.  Don't you love it when doctors tell you there is nothing wrong with you when there very obviously is? Twenty-two pound weight loss later,  I made an appointment with a surgeon and had my gallbladder out.  I have been recovering ever since (doing much better now).  It was no fun.  I also have completely changed my diet.  I'm eating very carefully and avoiding all sorts of things at the moment.  Which means I have learned to cook.  And I am cooking all the time.  All the time.  It doesn't leave much time for sewing, this making-dinner-from-scratch thing.  I miss it.  Anyway, I'm figuring out how to balance it all.  I recently sat down at my sewing machine after a three month long hiatus and I made this:

Who is this girl?  This is Jane.  She's definitely not Baby Jane anymore.  She has somehow morphed in to this tall, long-legged little girl who love ninja turtles.  She is such a nut.  She wanted to be a ninja turtle for Halloween.  The orange ninja turtle, to be specific.  I could have bought a costume this year but I'm so glad I didn't.  This is my Halloween tradition.  I wish I could explain how I made this little vest/hoodie thing but I made it up as I went along.  I used fleece again.  I think I've used fleece for all of her Halloween costumes so far.  Its so easy to sew a costume with.  Hides mistakes well.  I used the same McCalls hoodie pattern that I used last year for her dinosaur costume.  I had already cut the pattern but had another pattern piece where I could see the size differences.  I cut the longest length (a size 5, I think) and added a little bit of width to the body (which previously was a size 2).  I didn't change the shoulders at all since her dinosaur hoodie still seems to fit her.  I could have used a bit more width in the body but I think that's because of the shell on the back.

The order of construction is what I made up as I went along.  The shell mainly.  I cut two oval-ish shapes for the shell, stitching hexagon-ish shapes on the top piece.  I sewed darts at each 'corner' of the top shell piece to give it more shape.  I sewed the bottom oval to the back hoodie piece first.  I stitched it on as a big oval in the middle.  Then, I sewed the front pieces of the hoodie to the back.  Then I sewed the top of the turtle shell to the bottom shell, pinning the hoodie inside. I left a hole and flipped the whole thing inside out through the hole.  I probably didn't explain that very well but like I said, I was making it up as I went along.  There was a belt in there somewhere, too.  I was pumped it all worked, especially since I was so rusty on the sewing machine.  There is some seriously shoddy sewing on this costume, so don't look too closely.  I lined the whole thing with some thin knit in my stash and added the drawstring to the hoodie.

The shell is stuffed with polyfill.  It  kind reminds me of a backpack.  I should have made it a backpack! Ah well.  Jane was insistent on having me make the orange mask, but then refused to wear it on Halloween.  She wore the hoodie and carried the pizza slice.  The pizza was a last minute idea/addition.  

She has some great girly ninja poses, doesn't she?  She is so funny.  I can't tell you how entertaining it is to have a three year old.  I'm pretty sure she loved her costume and we had a blast trick or treating the the other night.

  

Hope everyone is doing well!  Life seems to be returning to normal but I'm probably going to be absent from this space for a while longer.  At least until I get the hang of this cooking thing.  Ugh, meal planning...