Tuesday, October 20, 2009

this years costumes

Mostly the Halloween costumes are finished. I mean, there are extra things - like a fancy tiara/headband for the ballerina and maybe some red-checked table cloth pants for the pizza, but then again... this may be it. For whatever reason it's impossible for me to work on a project for more than a few sittings before I get burnt out (this is why I don't make quilts). This happens with Halloween for me every year. So excited October 1st. So done by October 20th. Maybe I'm just tired tonight and the task of embellishing seems daunting.

The tutu I think is to big - width wise. It hangs a little too much. If I made it shorter it would have stuck out in more pancake tutu fashion. It's still really cute in person though. If you make one just know that a lot of patience is required - 7 layers of gathered tulle. 7.

The leotard was a little refashioned fun. A friend of mine who does embroidery professionally gave me a couple of leotards and a skort that she had messed up on and ripped holes in while trying to unpick. Hence, the reversed applique heart to get rid of holes. And since it's Halloween and a little cooler in the evening I cut up the skort and made sleeves for the tank top leotard. I felt myself quite clever.
This was fun to make. Hot glue is my friend. It took a while, but thanks to an entire weekend dedicated to church on the radio I was able to finish it. It stays on for about 5 minutes max. I guess that's all I can expect from a 2 year old. Maybe I should have just bought a spiderman costume?
I think THIS is the funniest costume ever though!

Monday, October 5, 2009

scrappy abc's


I came across this tutorial the other day for quilted letters. I thought I'd make letters for my son for a Christmas gift. I think they turned out cute and it gave me a chance to use my new darning foot, which I paid $1 at Joanns fabrics. I'm certain it isn't generic enough for MY machine since I have to rig it up with an elastic band... (I think if you enlarge the picture you can see some of the crazy quilting - like on the "U".) It's fun to use, but would take a lot of practice/patience if I wanted to use on something that was for someone who might notice all of the mistakes.

This project kind of takes a while, but is something easy to do whenever you have a spare minute.

and

It doesn't make noise + No batteries required +Can be thrown in the washer + Great use of scrap fabric = great gift!