Princess Leia

 I've been working since January or so to make Alex's Halloween costume. she decided a long, long time ago (probably the day after Halloween 2014) that she wanted to be Leia. I didn't really think thru the fact that it would be such a popular costume this year. but she doesn't seem to mind. in fact, she said hers would be better than everyone else's anyways because i made it. so anyways, here's how i made Alex's A New Hope movie accurate Leia costume. I started with the hat. I asked Alex if she wanted to wear a wig or a hat and she wanted nothing to do with a wig. so i set out to find a Leia buns hat pattern. I didn't really like anything I found so i pieced together a few different patterns and put my own twist on the buns to crochet her hat. I love the part in the hat - i had to redo that several times to get it right. And the hat is really warm and cozy - it basically has built in ear warmers. Then I started working on both the belt and the dress at the same time. The dress looks rather simple to make, but as it turns out it is way more complicated than you'd think. It's a double layered white jersey gown with the long hood - that's a lot of fabric. I basically made this dress twice since I made the pattern myself and made a few mistakes along the way. I researched and read a bunch of different tutorials and padawan guides for making adult sized Leia gowns. I took Alex's measurements and set out to make a pattern out of excess old fabric that I had on hand. I had to make adjustments to the pattern, but not too bad. I wish I had made the arms a little longer, but I am happy with the length since I didn't want her tripping over the gown. There's even the slit in the sides like in the movie. I don't have a lot of experience with this type of fabric and i hand stitched quite a bit of it (which I prefer to machine sewing anyways.) I made the hood pattern wrong the first time - math error! so i made that part a second time as well. and i had never made a keyhole opening in clothes before nor had I made a mandorin collar before. I made the collar wrong the first time as well, but re-measured; made a new pattern and made it again. So, yes, I made every single part of this gown twice! and before i hemmed the bottom of the dress I sewed an elastic waste into the gown. I know, that part is not movie specific, but this is an 8 year old and it would be way easier for her to wear with that waste line sewn in. And finally I hand stitched the hem of the dress. I am so happy with how it turned out. It did not dawn on me until I finished that she would be wearing this at school at most likely get chocolate frosting or cupcake or something on this gown. I sprayed the entire thing with scotch guard - recommended by a friend of mine (thanks for the fabulous idea, Alison.) We'll see how well that works, but I figure if it doesn't then she'll just be post trash compactor Leia then. Finally the belt. I made the fabric part of the belt out of faux leather - I kind of wish I had gone with real leather just for the sturdiness and thickness of it. the faux leather was kind of a problem. the first time i tried putting snaps onto the belt for fasteners they ripped right thru the fabric. so yes, I also made the belt twice! This time i used snap fabric strips that I sewed onto the faux leather as the fasteners and those seem to be working beautifully. the plates on the belt: I cut them out of aluminum sheeting; filed down each one; and punched a hole in the middle. I then attached those to the belts with an eyelit brad (or whatever you call those things) using a resin button that I had made as a washer. They still were rotating and spinning so I did add some glue (e6000) to the backside of the metal plates. I bent the plates to curve around her waste for betting fitting. Finally i finished off the belt by glueing silver button covers over the hole of the plates. Oh, the blaster. I bought one of those cheap toy blasters that are white and orange; spray painted silver first; then spray painted black; sanded some areas for wear and tear so the silver would show thru; and sealed it with a matte coat. I made the blaster strictly for pictures; she will not be leaving the house with it. She loves the costume and might even wear it (if it survives the weekend) when we go to see The Force Awakens in December. Happy Halloween.

sneak peak on halloween

i haven't posted anything in a while - i'm either working on gifts, longer term projects, or just outside enjoying the nice summer weather. so i thought i'd give a sneak peak into our halloween. can you guess what alex decided to dress up as? yes, she's going to be princess leia for halloween this year. i still have quite a bit of work to do on the costume - the gown and belt will be movie accurate (but child sized and one other detail that you won't even see but makes it easier to wear.) so here we have the hair. alex has short (well, currently short) blonde hair. she did not want to wear a wig whatsoever. so i crocheted her a hat. it will actually work perfectly since halloween here can be so cold and part of the costume struggle is always how to keep her warm enough. i like the part in the middle of the forehead, which was a little difficult to get right - i think i redid that a couple of times. and i just love the buns. i basically crocheted a tube then stitched that into a spiral. i did want the buns to be bigger so i then stuffed the buns and stitched a circle of felt to close them. i attached the buns right over the ear area which also creates some ear muffs to keep her another level of warm. she says the hat is really comfortable and she can't wait to dress up as leia. now if i can only finish the rest of the costume in time :)

snowflake hair pins

alex is going to be elsa for halloween this year (probably along with every other little girl in the world.) we got a great dress from disney on sale already (although i took off the stupid medallion of elsa on the costume.  i don't really think if you're dressed up like the character that you should have a picture of the character on the actual dress.) i just bought some glitter toms on ebay for her to wear; they are the perfect shade of glitter and they will be really comfortable for her to trick-or-treat in (much better for her than those dress up shoes, which she'd end up complaining about.) she just had to have the gloves too, even though elsa doesn't wear the gloves once she's wearing the blue gown, but hey, it's cold in october so why not. alex keeps going back and forth on whether or not she wants to wear a wig, but she has been growing out her hair so she can donate it when it's long enough, so i bet we can get an elsa braid with her natural hair. once elsa is the snow queen she has that big side braid and it's filled with snowflakes, so i decided that's where i can customize alex's costume a little. so i found some small silicone molds of various snowflakes and made a bunch of resin snowflakes. i just used clear resin and mixed in irridescent glitter. i think they turned out fabulous. i then glued them to miniature bobby pins (colored for blonde hair.) i made a whole bunch of them so now we can braid her hair and put snowflakes all over her head. and we got tickets for frozen on ice, so i told her she can wear the full costume again when we go to that :)

lonnie's halloween costume: scooby tags

we are fans of scooby doo at our house, and lonnie has the right coloring to play the part (minus his white fur.) i thought about adding some scooby spots to him also, but i figure he'd sit down and rub the paint or make-up or whatever all over the couch and carpet. so i stuck with making him a scooby tag - quick and easy and i don't think it will bother him to wear it at all - and later if i find time i'll add the actual blue collar part. i made the tag out of sculpey clay. originally i was going to sew it with felt, but my friend aaron suggested clay - which was way faster than sewing would have been and i think it makes it more cartoony looking too. i formed the tag making sure to make a hole thru it for the metal loop, baked it, and coated the whole thing in a glossy glaze finish. i love it and now lonnie is all set for halloween.

loving skeleton ragdoll cut and sew fabric

http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/2380735

I have a new cut and sew fabric up on spoonflower just in time to create for your halloween decorations. it's a skeleton plush ragdoll to make with a reversible dress. it's easy to make (instructions are on the fabric) and it's oh so cute.

fox mask

i have started creating alex's halloween costume for this year! while on vacation i made her the fox mask. i found a pattern on etsy from https://www.etsy.com/shop/oxeyedaisey who has some really super cute stuff - i may have to go back for more patterns. i already have ears for her costume so i adapted the pattern taking the ears off the mask. typically this should be all felt, but i couldn't find the orange i wanted in felt so that part is a suede leather. it looks great, but that does make it more difficult to stitch. in fact, i poked my finger with the needle so many times pushing thru that leather that i didn't notice that i drew blood and kept stitching. that was on the nose section and since i was on vacation i did not bring back up fabric with me (i had already cut out the pieces and that's all i travelled with.) alex was so sweet saying, "it's okay, you've worked so hard on this already i can wear it like that; it's barely noticeable." sweet girl, but it was certainly noticeable and did not want her walking around halloween with a large blood spot on her fox nose. so i took it back apart and decided to attempt spot treating it before throwing that piece away. i happened to have a tide on the go packet so i soaked that orange leather piece in some water and tide; i think i let it soak overnight, if not for at least several hours. and amazingly enough...it came clean! i can still see where the spot is but it's hardly noticeable and nobody else is going to be looking that closely at alex's fox nose. so i restitched that back on and finished up the piece. the nose is sewn on slightly crooked, but that just adds character, right? alex loves the mask and can't wait for the whole costume to be ready.