My daughter's vision of My Little Pony Costume

For Halloween this year my daughter wanted to be a My Little Pony. I tried looking around the internet and local store for a ready made costume but 1) couldn't find any locally and 2) the price just seemed too high online.

So what did I do in this case? I got creative. I went to youtube and pinterest to look up My Little Pony costume ideas.

Over one weekend we went to a local thrift shop to try and see what we could find. While we couldn't find any My Little Pony Costumes we did find some items that could be put together to make her vision a reality. Her costume idea is based on the character, Flutterbye.

Found this dress. While the dress didn't fit her she liked the bottom half quite a bit. I figured that I would cut the top part off and use the tulle skirt. To make my life less complicated (meaning less sewing and altering) ended up cutting the skirt and adding some of the pink fleece to the back of it for a tie.

Found the perfect yellow top for the top portion of her skirt. It is just a plain yellow cotton shirt.  The shirt was not altered at all. What I did was cut the tulle part off of the sleeves of the above dress and just safety pinned it to the shoulders of this top to add just a little decoration.

For the tail I found this pink fleece scarf.  All I did was cut this scarf up into long strips and sewed the seam together to make the tail. The tail was then sewed on to the very bottom of the top.

For the ears I just used a pink child's headband and fleece. I used this tutorial for the ears. Super easy and quick!

We bought wings at a local store and wa la costume completed. On the day of Halloween parties and Halloween we sprayed her hair with some pink hair color and she was all set. She was very happy with the costume and it was very budget friendly! Here is the finished look!

July 16th weekend sewing

I've been itching to sew for the past week but due to time contraints and pregnancy issues just couldn't find the time. So when the weekend came I decided I was going to make it a sewing day. I have a list of projects I want to do and finally tackled some of them.

I had this really cute cupcake fabric in my stash that I wasn't quite sure what to make with it for my youngest daughter. I asked her if she'd like an article of clothing or would she like a purse. She chose a purse. She liked the size of my prior asian inspired purse so I chose the same pattern and off I went.

This is the 2nd time using this pattern and the instructions finally clicked for me. I was able to figure out how to do the lining. It did end up making the inside look much more finished inside. (Not like my first one). The pattern calls for a magnetic snap. I personally don't like snaps on my purses as things may fall out, so like my previous one I added a zipper. I still have to figure out in between which step I should be adding the zipper because I'm still having trouble getting to look right. I did think I was brilliant by sewing the zipper on the lining prior to understanding the directions. Big mistake. Since I didn't have the patience to actually use my seam ripper to rip out the zipper I just cut it off from the lining and left the strip of material on it. Messy I know, but I'd probably pull my hair out trying to fix it properly.

All in all it came out much better than my first one. Guess practice makes perfect.
Here's a picture of the finished Cupcake purse:

And here is a picture of daughter modeling it.

Next up was to try to make an infant light jacket. I used a knit jersey material. The pattern was simple. 3 pieces. I love it. This was my first time working with this type of material and I must say I was pleased with it. I did make a mistake though when cutting the fabric out as I had a decided to try and save some material. Oops cut against the grain. Oh well live and learn.

I took the same pattern from the little jacket and used cotton flannel material to make another jacket. Since I had enough material I also made some pants. These look like little pajamas. I can definitely tell that the cotton flannel lacks the drape from the pattern of the jacket. Oh well. I think it'll look when it gets on him.

So all three projects were made in one day. My sewing area was quite the mess but at least I got something I wanted done accomplished.

Camouflage Fleece Outfit

Every boy needs to have at least some type of outfit which is made out of the camouflage pattern. Originally my idea was to make a jacket that would fit our soon to be new arrival within a couple of months of his birth alas I wasn't thinking when cutting the pattern out and the size used. So instead of having a jacket for a younger age he'll have one for when he's probably closer to 9 months or a year. Knowing me though I'll stick him in it when he's little just because I'll have to see how it looks on him.

Since I had extra fabric left over I decided to make a pair of pants also to go with the jacket. I used the same pattern from my other pants but just cut the fabric a tad bit bigger once I realized the jacket was going to big. So here is the end result:

Here is the back. The hood seems a little big but I just left it as it. Chances are he'll be wearing one of my handknit hats:

Here are the pants:

I'm really happy that I was able to make something like this. The pattern originally called for a button front but if you have kids it's quite well known that the child does not always stay still enough to get it buttoned, so I opted for a zipper. I was proud of myself that I remembered to buy a zipper that separates. (I didn't for when make my daughter's jacket)

Now I can't wait for the "little dude", as my husband calls him, to come.

On a sewing roll

I've spent a lot of time reading the web and books all about sewing. I finally decided that I had better start sewing. Here's a list of projects I've finished this month.

The first project I worked one was a purse from a McCall pattern. The purse picture on the package looked simple enough. So I start. This pattern caused me so much aggravation. I had quite the potty mouth while working on it. Here's a list of what happened:
-Apparently I didn't read the instructions well enough so after I had the pattern and my material and interfacing out, I realized that there was a lining! So back to the pattern to cut out the lining and more interfacing.

-Realized that I didn't cut out all the pattern pieces. Back to the pattern.

-I never realized just how many pieces it take to make a purse.

-Irritated over the instructions on the construction of the purse. So what does my wonderful crafty self do? I wing it and sew it together the way I want to using the pattern as a guideline.

- There are many thick areas on this purse. I'm surprised I didn't break my machine.

Overall I learned a lot from this purse and it's my first and I have pleasantly pleased with it. It's not perfect but it appears to be functional which is what count right? Here it is in in it's finished state:

The next project that I just finished today was making my daughter a pair of shorts. I used a video tutorial by The Crafty Gemini to guide me. Instead of an actual pattern I used a pair of short which she wears. I was going to make it with T-shirt material but there wasn't enough so I just used regular cotton fabric I have in my stash. I'm 50% happy with the results. For some reason there seems to be bulk in the front crotch area. I'll have to read how to fix this.
Picture of the shorts:

And here she is wearing them:

A new baby should be making his way into the world in about a month. The best thing about babies when being a crafter is that because they are small one can make so many cute things and a lot of material isn't use.

I found this pattern on line to make baby pants. It's from Made By Rae blog. Super super easy and fun. My first pair I did take a bit longer and the second pair I had done in less 30 minutes. Totally in love with this pattern and plan on making a lot more pants.
First pair-crayon pants

2nd Picture-pirate pants.

So overall I'm pretty darn proud of myself. I'm having a blast with sewing and I'm learning a whole lot.

New Skirt

So it appears that I'm back on the "I want to learn to sew" kick. I think part of this new craze is because I'm expecting a new baby in August and would love to make some handmade clothes for him. One problem I'm running into is that "cute" boy patterns are hard to find. Luckily I have 2 girls so I can indulge in making pretty girly items for them.

My local sewing/yarn shop, Bobbin's Nest, had a free demo day to make a girl twirly skirt. I figured this would be great to attend to see if I could actually attempt sewing again. The demo was quick yet informational. I was excited the skirt seemed so easy to make. No real pattern just taking measurements of the garment wearer and go from there.

I had a lot of the materials to make it at home so I let my daughter pick out her choice of fabric. Here is the end result:

I can see some of my mistakes and the next one I hope to make will be a bit better. She loves it though and it isn't falling apart on her. So I'll take this as a win in the sewing column.