Halloween bag and luggage tags

I don't have a picture of the Halloween bag, but I did make one! I basically used the cloth grocery bag pattern that I had made previously, but this time I used skeleton fabric. It made a rockin' Halloween bag that can hold a ton of heavy candy. Always a win as far as my son is concerned.

Today I made a luggage tag that my daughter claimed. We are going on vacation soon and I was looking for a quick and easy project to do on this long Thanksgiving break. This was both. The only trouble I had was not having a teflon foot and sewing on the plastic. It was doable but not perfect and if you look too close you can see I sewed it on a little bit crooked. It serves its purpose, though, and my daughter is pleased so that's all that matters, right?

If you're interested in making one or a few of these, you can find Morah's tutorial here.

This first picture appears cut off on one side when I insert it onto Blogger (click it to see it full-sized at Flickr), but you get the point:

birthday shirts

birthday shirts, originally uploaded by pearljamfanatic.

It's annual birthday shirt time once again. They picked out their own applique fabric and then I went to work. It's been a long time since I've done it so it felt strange at first!

Spring tunic and leggings

This is the same pattern I used in my previous post for the monkey pajamas. The only difference this time is that I used elastic in the hem of the top as the original pattern called for. I like how the back is longer and curved -- it makes it interesting and different than what you would normally see in a store or something. This time, I also shorted up the neck elastic a smidge to avoid gaping when she bends over. I'm glad she likes it, as she is getting to the age where she is particular about what she will wear sometimes. ;)

I used a set of Nick & Nora monkey jersey sheets that I got on sale at Target a while back as fabric from which to make some pajamas. Here is the first set done. I used #34 from the 1/2010 Ottobre, "Flower Fields" tunic top in size 128, and left off the elastic at the bottom hem. The leggings were from the 1/2009 issue, #32, also in 128 cm. Other than leaving the elastic off the hem of the tunic top, I made no adjustments.

St. Patrick's Day Skirt

I haven't been sewing a whole lot lately due to business with work and well, just life in general. I've mainly been doing repair jobs and Girl Scout patches.

However, the girl and I decided that she wanted a festive skirt to wear for St. Patty's Day this year and I had some pretty good fabric in my stash for it. May I present her new skirt, made especially so her brother won't pinch her today. I used the Rendondo skirt pattern and a rolled hem on the outside to attach the panels.

Halloween Jedi costume

So I finished up the boy's costume yesterday afternoon just in time for trick or treating. He's happy with it and that makes me glad.





I used natural muslin for the clothing and brown fleece for the robe/cloak. For a pattern, I winged it for the robe. I had him lay on the fold of the fleece and cut a loose robe shape with bell sleeves for the back piece. I used that to make the two front pieces. This gives a seam on the top of the sleeve; you could do it a different way if you really wanted to avoid that. For the hood, I just took about a 12 inch wide by 24 inch long piece of fleece folded in half. I sewed a seam up the back and attached it to the robe. All of the edges are finished with simple serging. Nothing fancy.

For the muslin, I used an uncut pattern I had in my stash, Butterick 5565. It's a children's scrubs pattern. The pants were used as is. I used the basic scrub top pattern, except I made the sleeves long and finished the neck diferrently. I made a faux wrap-around band that goes around the neck. Then you have the tabards and the obi (the shouder things and the wrap around the waist). The tabbards are simply long pieces of fabric sewed in half and turned and placed over the shoulders. The obi is a wider similar piece, but then I pressed the front into folds to make it appear to have layers. Wrap it around the waist over the tabards. Keep it closed with hook and loop tape, snaps, or a safety pin. Safety pins are also handy for keeping the tabards on the shoulders. Over the obi is a normal belt with the buckle placed in back that he could hang his lightsaber from. The funniest thing is that he is wearing my brown boots. They were a bit large, but they worked for our purpose. He had no shame in telling people they were mine. ;)

I'm glad he liked the final result, seeing as how I started on it the day before Halloween. There are many sites out there that can give you hints and close-up pictures of Jedis if you need them. Happy Halloween!

Halloween time again

I realize it's been a long time. Life has been happening at a faster pace than before, with changes happening all around. Can't neglect to sew for Halloween, though!

Here is the first costume I have done for the girl child. She wanted to be a bunny this year. I used McCall's M6106 for the pattern (99 cent sale at Hancock's, of course) and let her pick the color. It had to be fleece because she wanted to feel soft. Naturally, I had to shorten the pattern quite a bit. I thought about taking it in on the sides as well, but she liked the roominess of the outfit so I let that go. Also left out were the spats. They would get filthy in about 2.5 seconds. ;)





I must warn those who use this pattern and fleece that sewing machines do not like going over so many layers on the hood -- the ears were sort of a pain. If I had any sense, I would have figured out a different way. Now I have 2 machines that I have to fiddle with because they are no longer working correctly, and I still have a Jedi costume to throw together. Time to break out the vintage foot-pedaled Singer for what I can't serge.