It’s small FRY-day and our last of the month! We’ve had some amazing talent showcased and we have one more! Today we’re featuring Paige with Cautiously Crafty. She’s got some awesome inspiration for ya! Also, at the end of this post, we’re having a linky party! Everyone link up YOUR favorite homemade Halloween costume…the one you’re most proud of. This is just for fun and I LOVE costumes, so you can bet I’ll be checking out every.single.one! Ok, now to Paige!
-Crystal-
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Hi everybody! I guess I should start by introducing myself. I’m Paige, and I’m the blogger behind Cautiously Crafty, my relatively new craft blog. I’ve got a darling daughter who is 4 years old. Anyway, I’m here today to share with you several costumes I made using the Heidi & Finn Urban Unisex Hoodie. I’ve used this pattern for costumes for the past two years, for a grand total of 4 different costumes. My first venture into costume making was two years ago. I made dog and cat costumes.
Please excuse the shoddy pictures in this blog post, these were not taken with blogging in mind. I make no claims of being a photographer, but I promise the ones I share are usually at least marginally better than these.
Both are basically the same, just in different colors.
First I sewed up the hoodies following the pattern, except I left off the button closures, and because I made them with fleece, I did not do a lining. The tummy panels are felt from Joann’s that I (sloppily) hand sewed on.
The ears are two layers of felt sewn together, with the the inner ear color attached on top. I drew them freehand, pointy for the kitty and rounded for the puppy. Unfortunately you can’t tell in this picture, but I folded down the edge of one of puppy ears for that cute floppy look.
Attaching them was a bit tricky. When I drew them, I drew them a bit longer than I wanted, and I did not sew together the bottom 1/2 inch or so. I cut slits in the top of the hood to insert the ears into, then opened the loose flaps and sewed them down to the hood. I’m sure there are way better ways to do this, but this way worked for some quickie costumes for my girl and her friend.
(The tails were done the same way as Boots’ tail, detailed below)
Now for Dora and Boots!
I’ll start with Dora. Super simple. Made the hoodie in pink fleece, and made some orange pants to go with it. And of course, Dora isn’t Dora without BackPack! I can’t take credit for BackPack though, I followed this tutorial to make her. (I totally just had to google to make sure BackPack was a girl. Surprisingly enough, if you type “Is backpack” into google, one of the suggestions that pops up actually is “Is backpack a girl”, so at least I’m not alone in my wondering.)
Boots was a little more labor intensive, but not hard at all.
Tummy panel was done the same way as the cat and dog, except this time I was brave enough to sew it on using my sewing machine. The boots were originally pink sequined boots that cost $10 at Wal-mart, I just slapped a couple coats of red spray paint on them. The hood was again constructed the same was as the cat and dog hoods, cutting slits in the hood and inserting the ears and waddle. That’s what I’m calling it, because I haven’t the slightest idea what it actually is or what it should be, and to me it looks like a turkey waddle. The waddle was drawn freehand (and trust me, if I can do it anybody can, I am not in the least bit an artist), and loosely stuffed with random fabric scraps to keep it from flopping. Nobody likes a floppy waddle.
For the tail, I sewed a tube of fabric and then slipped it over a long piece of thick jewelry wire. I used the thickest wire available at the craft store, which I think was a 14 gauge. I then cut another slit right where the bottom band attaches to the body of the hoodie, and inserted the tail and hand sewed in. I opted not to use my machine because of the wire. Shape the tail as desired and you’re done!
In case you’re doubting my claim that these were super easy, I made 4 of them (2 Doras and 2 Boots, one set was sent to my niece and nephew) in less than two weeks, in between going to school full time and chasing my kid around.
So there ya go, 4 different costumes from 1 pattern. I’m breaking the streak this year though, unfortunately I don’t think I can transform the hoodie into Mario, Luigi, or Princess Belle. If you’re interested in seeing my versions of those, hop on over to Cautiously Crafty sometime after Halloween. In the meantime, feel free to check out my tutorial for making the Urban Unisex hoodie reversible. I hope you’ve enjoyed the post and have some awesome DIY costumes in your future!
-Paige
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Small FRY-day Spotlight: Ali Cat & Co.
Heeeeyy Party Girls! I am Brianne from Ali Cat & Co. I’ve “known”
the TWSC ladies for….well, only about 6 months…BUT I’d totally bail
them out of jail if needed. They are rock stars. Seriously. I didn’t
wait to be asked to guest blog post, I begged and bribed for a slot.
They are that cool. I NEEDED to be involved with the TWSC awesomeness.
So here I am.
About 6 weeks ago, I began asking my 3 year old what she wanted to be
for Halloween.
Response: “A ballerina with a big tutu riding a pink
horse” PHEW! Something easy. I feared she’d say something crazy like
“a globe” or “a giant chicken nugget” or “you’re cooking bananas”.
Where do children get this random nonsense? Well, I know EXACTLY where
they pull it from, but am I allowed so say it????
Over the past weeks, I have periodically checked back in with her to
confirm she still wanted to be a ballerina riding a horse. Lucky duck
me, she has continued to agree. Last thing I wanted was for her to
change her mind at the last minute. That’s the best way to drive a mama crazy.
I had two goals with this costume. First: Make something that she will LOVE. Second: make it wearable outside of Halloween.
Step 1: Find a pink horse. SCORE! Found a pink stick horse. She then
demanded to make it a unicorn. Hum…I did my best. haha. Ok,
probably not my best, but the damn thing now has a horn.
Step 2: Giant Tutu. I immediately thought of Little Lizard King’s Retro Glam Skirt. I took my little munchkin to the fabric store with me and she picked
out these two pink glittery satins. She did a good job! The pattern calls for 10 panels each of triangles and
scallops. I did 18 each and gathered the skirt into the waist band. I
also added two layers of tulle for a small amount of poof. I’m sure she
would want more fullness. But to agree with goal #2, the skirt must be wearable
daily without it appearing that she’s parading around in a ridic tutu.
Step 3: Top. I’ve been eyeing the Heidi and Finn Ballet Sweater for
some time. I knew it would be perfect for the outfit as well as a great
top to wear when it gets cool. I measured the wee-one and decided to
lengthen the sweater to turn in into a full shirt. This was my first
Heidi and Finn pattern. If every pattern of her’s is this awesome, I’m
buying them ALL. I highly recommend this pattern. Fast (2 hours) and
easy and so very adorable. I totally want this sweater in my size.
Step 4: Leggings. Once again, the Go To Pattern Leggings have been
sitting in the queue for sometime. I love all the options this pattern
comes with, especially the peekaboo hole and bow. The cuteness kills
me! I was also able to whip these up in 2 hours and that includes a
whole lotta time spent on Facebook. Again, super simple and super
cute. Did I mention all the options with this pattern? Yea, there are a
lot of options. Me likey some options.
Final product all together. She LOVES the costume/outfit! She did NOT
want to take it off. However, I’m one of those mean moms who put it
away in the closet to not be worn until Halloween. After that, she can
wear it until it falls apart.
So what do you think?
Also, do you like me as a guest blogger? If you do, please let TWSC know. If I
get enough thumbs up, then they will have to “invite” me back.
Wanted: Small Fries and a Cherry Coke!
Ok, maybe not a cherry coke, but if you have one…
This is Crystal and I’m putting this call out there to all of you culinary HEs & SHEs! We need some of you to spotlight in our Small FRY-day posts for November and our theme is “Thanksgiving Nomming” (Well, THEY’RE calling it “Family Favorite Recipes”, but I like Nomming). If you have a favorite fall recipe that you think would be the bomb diggity on the Thanksgiving table, we want to feature you! Fill out the form here and let us know what recipe you’d like to share with us. If we pick you, we’ll let you know all the deets (that’s details in the language of “awesome”) as far as due date and content. We want to spotlight you and your kitchen couture…kitchen calamity…whatever! Thanks for letting us show you off.
Nom Nom Nom,
Crystal
P.S. You do not HAVE to have a blog to contribute. We want to hear from all of the lovely & creative folks out there!
Small FRY-day Spotlight: Diedelbug Handmade
It’s our second Small Fry-day Spotlight of the month (and of “ever”) and this one is going to knock your socks off, too! I’m telling you, there is some rockin’ talent out there. This week we have Erin from Diedelbug Handmade showing off her “super” costumes that are guaranteed to turn you into a mega villain named Jealous Man. She was even nice enough to share some how-to secrets with you. Grab some candy corn and read on! Also if you missed last week’s Small Fry-day Spotlight, you can check that out here. Thank you, Erin for joining us this week!
-Crystal-
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Well first off let me introduce myself. I’m Erin, the craftermind (inset evil laugh, well maybe it’s more of a cackle hehe) behind Diedelbug Handmade. I’ve just started to sell handbags but I mostly sew for my little monsters, umm I mean angels, 2 and 4 year old boys. Need I say more? They’ve reached the constant picking and bickering stage. More recently I’ve started to dabble into sewing actual wearable clothes for me. I can only use so many bags you know? Ok, enough about me and back to the “angels.” The boys FINALLY decided what they each wanted to be for Halloween. I have to start asking in August because they change their minds daily. Who am I kidding? More like hourly. At one point I was going to have to come up with Optimus Prime. Really? I had no idea how I was going to make that happen for a 2 year old. Whew!
Last year Zander, my oldest, went as the Incredible Hulk, complete with crazy Hulk hair.
Cutest thing ever! So this year we’re in total super hero mode. The boys decided they wanted to be Iron Man and Captain America. Now I’m a pinterest addict, so of course I scoured for hours looking for inspiration for prefect costumes to recreate. I had come across this tutorial for a muscle shirt from Sew a Straight Line. Thanks Sabra!!!! I followed the tutorial exactly last year, and used a glue stick to stick the muscles on before covering with the second layer of fabric and waited the hour for it to dry. But this year I’ve found the wonders of spray baste! Spray baste=magic
Who’s got time to wait? Just spray, stick and go! But make sure it’s temporary and washable. For both costumes I started out with the Scientific Seamstress All the Rage Raglan shirt pattern which includes the hood option. Gotta have the hood because both the Captain and Iron man have their heads covered. Ronan’s Captain America costume I used the muscles from the tutorial. I modified the shirt by cutting just under the arm pits to create the bottom part of the Captain’s suit. Then I cut stripes of red and sewed the onto the bottom white part before attached to the top half.
I used this same principal for the sleeves. Now you need two pieces of the front part of the shirt because you sandwich the “muscles” in between the two layers. I pinned the two layers together around the edges, to keep them from shifting too much while I sewed.
For the Captain’s muscles I wanted them to blend in with the suit so unlike the tutorial I didn’t just sew around them. I sewed around with the same color thread so it just looked like real muscles under the shirt. Of course at this point I realized I forgot the star! Doh! So I just sewed the star on top. Worked out just fine J. I then tried the shirt on him to check the length to add the “belt.”
Someone, *cough* Zander *cough* was a little bent out of shape that his costume was not done yet. Well if you’d take a nap and go to sleep when I put you to bed I’d get more done kid! LOL, back to the Cap. I cut a little off the length and added a rib knit band around the bottom of the shirt for the belt. Same thing for the pants, except I chopped under the knee and added a band around to simulate the boots. He’ll wear red shoes and red gloves. The Captain is complete!
You should have seen his face light up, melted my heart. Say it with me, “AHHH.”
Now Iron Man was a little bit more of a challenge. His “costume” is more machine than man so I had to draft my own armor. I traced the top part of the shirt bodice and sleeves. I rounded out the pieces and subtracted half an inch from the edges to make room for seam allowance.
Although once I started sewing I should have cut a little more off because it didn’t leave much room after the muscles are between the layers.
A little “muscle” on my part to catch all layers and squish the muscles through the machine as I sewed and we have armor! Now on to the bottom half of the armor, I was running low on red knit and didn’t want to have to run to Joann’s for the millionth time that week. So instead of cutting two layers for the pants I just cut the “armor” pattern out of the fabric and sewed it on top. Knit doesn’t fray so I didn’t need to worry about finishing the edges. And we’re done!
Avengers ASSEMBLE!!
Now I have two of the cutest happiest super heroes on the planet. They ask to wear their costumes daily and wear themselves out saving the world from the bad guys.
How can I say no? Score one for mom J Hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings.
Small FRY-day Spotlight: Life of a Compulsive Crafter
That's What She Crafted 