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-
*****************************************************************************************************************
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.
That's What She Crafted 