Rainbow Leopard

It's almost Halloween!  You know what that means- time for another homemade Halloween costume.  There aren't too many traditions I've made a conscious effort to start with my child, but a handmade Halloween costume is one of them.  I plan to make her one every year that she'll let me.  And hopefully one day she'll take over and make her own.  Next year I'll have two costumes to make...

This year, Jane was a lot more opinionated about what she wanted to be for Halloween.  Although the idea to be her rainbow leopard Beanie Boo came about kind of organically.  I started asking her what she wanted to be about two months ago.  First it was a duck.  Then a tiger.  Then a fox, which she settled on for a while.  I'm thankful she asked for animal costumes because they are fun to make.  I figured a fox would be a cute costume.  So I started talking about buying orange fabric for her fox costume.  Well.  That was when the floodgate of ideas of opened up.  She didn't want to be an orange fox.  She wanted to be a pink fox, then a purple fox, and so on and so forth (the animal changed multiple times, too) until she settled on a rainbow fox (with spots and stripes and sparkles).  While talking about the rainbow fur with spots and stripes and sparkles, we had a revelation that she was really talking about her rainbow leopard Beanie Boo, Dotty.  And that was that.  I searched online for "rainbow animal print fabric with spots and stripes" and found this awesome fleece blanket on Amazon.  I told her that once I ordered the blanket, that was it.  She wasn't allowed to change her mind or give any more suggestions, which luckily she didn't.

Anyway, I used Simplicity 1731, a pattern for an adult, child and DOG jumpsuit.  Just in case you wanted to make the whole family matching onesies.  I honestly want to make myself a fleece onesie that will accommodate my pregnant belly this winter.  I am serious.  The pattern is great.  I measured the length against a set of footie pajamas that Jane wears all the time.  The length was exactly the same (I used the child's size XS/4-5) as her pajamas but there was a ton more width.  After getting the fleece blanket in the mail, I decided not to narrow any of the width down due to the blanket being so incredibly fluffy.  The rainbow fleece isn't a typical fleece, it's more like faux fur.  It has a super deep fluffy pile on both sides of the fabric.  It was a pain to cut, a pain to sew and a huge pain to clean up later on.  It shed something fierce while cutting and sewing.  There was rainbow fluff everywhere.  It would fly up in the air and then settle all over everything like rainbow snow.  I found it all over the house.  It was all over one of our cats at one point.  I am pretty sure I inhaled some of it.  I sewed everything with a zig zag stitch and serged seam allowances to reduce some of the bulk.  I really had to pull the fabric through my machine due to the pile being so fluffy.

Here she is showing me how fast leopards are and how they sleep in the grass :D

I made a couple of small changes while sewing. I rounded off the back of the hood.  And, of course, added the ears, tail and white belly.  The double layer of fleece at the belly was way too thick to install a zipper, so I had to sew it along the seam line and trim off the allowance of the white fleece.  The white fleece is leftover from her kitty costume from three years ago!  I also sewed on cuffs at the ankles and wrists instead of using elastic.  I used some scraps of black bamboo knit.  I did shorten the sleeves a teeny bit but the legs are the length per the pattern.  The tail is stuffed with a little bit of poly-fil.  And we found almost the exact same shiny pink fabric for the front of the ears.

She loves it!  And I love it.  She's like a big, snuggly stuffed animal when she's wearing it.   She's been wearing it around the house and actually wore it out to a restaurant to meet her grandparents the other day. And thank goodness it will be cold on Halloween this year because this thing is warm.  We took these photos on an almost 80 degree day and she was sweaty afterward.  She could wear this thing in the snow.

Happy Halloween, friends!

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...  

ROOOOOOAAARR!!!!

There! At last.  My patience was rewarded as the elusive Toddlersaurus Rex entered the clearing, seemingly unaware of my presence.  I held my breath, careful not to make a sound and scare her away.  She was a beauty!

I moved silently, closer to the bushes.  She was foraging for food, happily humming her ABC's.  I inched forward with my camera trying to get a close up.  The shot of a lifetime.  I was determined.  But then, my foot slipped and....

SNAP!  I stepped on a branch and surprised her.  She was startled!

She lunged for me and let out the most ferocious roar I've ever heard!  It was terrifying.  Just when I thought I had met my demise, she turned.  She ran back in to the foliage.  It seems she was just as scared of me as I was of her.

My later research has revealed that the enigmatic Toddlersaurus Rex is not a meat eater, lucky for me and that fateful encounter.  They seem to prefer things like cookies and apple juice.  And bananas and croissants, too.

I really had a ball making this costume, if you can't already tell.  Especially this year since this was completely at Jane's request.  I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween.  Her first response was, "cow" followed by "dinosaur."  And then dinosaur it was.  She has talked about this costume for well over a month.  And sorry for the picture overload.  We had fun taking pictures.  There were too many to choose from. 

It's really an unoriginal costume.  I got the idea straight from the internet.  Actually, I first saw the dinosaur tails on House of Lane and mentally filed it away for my dinosaur loving girl.  So when she requested a dinosaur, I looked up those dinosaur tails and found umpteen etsy shops that sell them along with dinosaur hoodies.

But of course, I am a die hard DIY-er.  And a handmade Halloween costume is going to be my tradition. So I made it.  I used McCalls 6782 for the hoodie.  My original plan was to use real apparel fabrics (nice sweatshirt fleece) and make this something a little more sophisticated that she could actually use after Halloween.  But after ordering two lengths that didn't work (bad color and really thin) I gave up and went to Joann's to buy the cheapest fleece I could get my hands on.  My toddler came with me and picked the colors.  She was very specific!  And there's not a whole lot you can do to make lime green and hot pink fleece look polished.

The McCalls pattern is a good one.  I chose it because it was on sale.  But I was impressed with the fit.  This is a size 2 and it is spot on my two year old.  Usually I find Big 4 kids patterns to be huge.  I cut the back piece down the middle to add the dinosaur spikes.  And then I lined the hood and back to cover up the ugly seam that sewing the spikes made.  Actually, I planned on lining the hood all along to add a drawstring just like the poncho I recently made.  I used a Pellon product called Flex-Foam for the spikes instead of stuffing them.  This stuff is really cool.  I kind of want to make myself a bag with it.  Great structure but it's soft and squishy.

The tail was just free handed. It's about 20 inches long.  I traced a salad plate for the circle that sits against her bottom.  The straps are 4 inches wide and 10 inches long.  For a child any bigger, they would need to be longer.  I placed the straps slightly higher up so the tail would sit right.  The tail is so adorable, I almost can't stand it.  It will make a great play item long after Halloween is over.

She loves it.  I sewed it all it one day, too, if you can believe it.  I sewed like a maniac and am so glad I finished it.  Anybody else sewing costumes?  I've been kind of m.i.a. in the blog world lately.  And no, I'm not apologizing for that, but I miss it!  I'm going to have to spend some time with my blogroll soon.  I've been swamped at work and my free time is nil right now.   I'm kind of proud of myself for sewing this costume (and blogging it!) this weekend.   I have a huge art show at the beginning of December, a really formal one.  I'm very excited about it but it is eating up all my time.  I'll be thrilled when it's over.  I'll catch up one day!  If I can make it to Thanksgiving when all the art is due, I'll be good.

Happy Halloween, friends!

Meow!

It's starting to look like an exclusive toddler sewing blog 'round here. But I promise that's not the case.  I actually snapped some photos of the last few things I've made for me.  But of course I wanted to post about Jane's costume before Halloween.

And just because I'm reminiscing...remember last year's costume?  Crazy how much she has changed in a year.  I'm not sure that this new costume tops last year's.  In fact, I don't know that any costume will ever top that one.  But this one sure did turn out pretty cute.

Kitties.  Jane is obsessed with kitties.  Or kkkhhhhhhh, as she says it.  We're working on it.  So kitty costume it was.  I started with Simplicity 1288, a toddler dress pattern that includes a bunch of different appliqué patterns for the front.  I thought it would be a good pattern for a costume that is not really a costume.  As in, I can pull it on right over top of her regular clothes.   And also the fact that it is all one piece-- ears and tail attached.  That makes it easy put on.   She can't rip off the hood as she is wont to do with bows and hats.

She wasn't so sure about it the first time I put it on her, but now she seems to like it.  She stopped and pointed at herself in the mirror and said kkkkhhhhhhh, so I take that as a good sign.

The biggest change I made to the pattern was turning the two piece hood in to a one piece hood.  I did that because I thought the horizontal seam across the top would be the perfect place to put two little kitty ears.  However, it did make the shape of the hood kind of block-like.  Which is pretty funny from behind.  If I did it again, I'd probably just tack the ears on the outside of the hood.  Although putting them in a seam does make for a cleaner finish.  Anyway, it's cute.  She kind of looks like batman from the back.

I love that the pattern includes a bit of elastic in the hood.  Great way to keep the hood on a busy toddler head.

The tail is stuffed with a little bit of poly-fill.  I bound the armhole and skirt hem edges with the same striped knit I used for the hood lining and facings.  The fluffy white tummy is some of that super squishy minky stuff.  The grey is just plain old cheap-o fleece.  The colors were chosen to match this guy.

I tried, and tried, and tried to get a photo of the two together.  Jane in her costume with the cat who inspired it.  Socks would have none of it.  He is pretty patient with her "petting" for the most part.  He'll put up with almost anything if it means he gets a little bit of love.

What about you guys?  Anyone else sewing any Halloween costumes this year?  Any suggestions on getting a cat to pose for photos with a grabby toddler?

Life Cycle Of A Butterfly

It starts with a tiny egg, attached to a leaf.

 

 Next, a tiny caterpillar hatches and begins to eat, starting with the leaf she was attached to.

She eats. And grows. 

And eats.  And grows.  And eats some more.

Did I mention she EATS?

Soon, the caterpillar turns in to a chrysalis.  She appears to be resting, but really there are big changes going on.  

Guess what happens next?

A beautiful baby butterfly emerges!

 There's a little science lesson for you.  Baby Jane makes quite a cute little caterpillar/butterfly, doesn't she?

I've been up to my ears in cheapo poly fleece this past week.  There's nothing better than making a costume for a baby.  I figured I better go ahead and start the tradition- a handmade Halloween costume for my sweet little bub every year.  I'll certainly be able to keep that up, right?!  Riiiiiggggghhht.

The idea for this costume started with Jane's sleep sack.  She sleeps in these wearable blankets, basically a sack with armholes and a zipper up the front.  The idea is that she won't get tangled up in a blanket when she's sleeping.   I really like her sleep sacks because this baby is all over the crib now.  She's rolling all over the place.  I wake up in the morning and find her crammed in to a corner, sound asleep.  Anyway.  When Jane is in her sleep sack, J and I joke about how she looks like a little glow worm.  Thus the idea of the caterpillar was born.  And when else will I be able to dress her in a baby bunting costume like this?  Never.  I want to enjoy my immobile little nugget while I can.  Then I thought, wouldn't it be awesome if she could turn in to a butterfly?  A convertible costume!

I traced one of her sleep sacks for the bunting and narrowed and rounded the bottom end a bit.  That was the easy part.  Then I made the wings for the butterfly.  I fused the top layer of fleece to some stiff decor bond interfacing left over from my bag.  I cut out some organic shapes for the design on the wings (keeping them symmetrical, of course!) and "appliqued" the shapes to the wings.  I put that in parenthesis because I'm not sure if that's what I should call it.  I stitched the shapes down with a zig zag.   It was all really rough and quick.  But I like it.  There was something really satisfying about the way the fleece puffed up after it was stitched.  Every baby costume needs a little ric rac so I put some jumbo around the edge.  I could have done a better job there at the inside corner, but eh.

The hard part was figuring out how to make the wings hidden.  It took a little bit of engineering.  I sewed the wings to the back piece of the bunting and then cut another back piece that would be used to cover the wings.   Not an entire back piece.  Like a kangaroo pocket.  That's the best way I can describe it.  I knew I wanted the pocket to have two zippered openings.  I ended up sewing the zippers to the pocket piece first and then to the back piece leaving some additional seam allowance.  Next, I sewed the top and the bottom of the pocket piece, enclosing the wings.  Then I sewed the whole back/pocket piece to the front bunting piece being careful not to catch the zippers.  And it worked!  I'm truly amazed that it did.  Truly amazed.  The wings fold up and fit inside of the back pocket.  It's bulky, but that just makes the squishy caterpillar even more adorable.

  

The cap is actually little betty's awesome, awesome bonnet pattern minus the brim with some antennae stuck in the seams.  The leaves were an afterthought but I think they are a crucial part of the costume.  It was all so much fun to make and even more fun to put my sweet little baby in.  Well worth the work for one or two wears and some memorable photos.  Sorry for the photo overload.  I really did narrow it down ;)

Not sure how I'll top this costume next year.  Better start planning now. 

Happy Halloween, friends.  From a very hungry caterpillar who turns in a to a beautiful butterfly- ha! 

Here's to some crazy Halloween sewing.  Anyone else make any costumes this year?