October journal

- RG's Gryffindor robe. My only Halloween sewing this year, and she was Hermione of course.

- Letter Z for zig-zag stitching - my rope purse! It's actually kind of heavy because of the amount of rope, and I'm terrified the handles are going to rip right off if I put anything more in it besides my wallet and phone. They're only glued - it's too thick to sew.

It only took me an entire four years to do the Sew All 26 Challenge, but I have persevered and completed it!

- one 10-inch block for the Night Sky quilt, for the first time in months. I have the second section of the quilt top almost together - just a hole of 10 or 11 inches. I'm debating about another 10-inch block (there are already four in that section), or a group of 4-inch blocks.

July journal

Just two projects this month: the seven mermaid tails for Peter Pan ...

... and continuing work on a decorative pennant garland (May journal #5) that I'm making for youth camp in 2 weeks.

The garland pieces will all be attached across the top by a (really, really long) strip of dark blue with stars on it. So far I have 60 triangles of various sizes, depending on the size of scrap fabric I was working with, and 40 circle flowers done. I'm using every piece of blue in my scrap bin that won't be added to a quilt because it's too scratchy, too flimsy, or I just don't really like the print. It's going to be outside at camp, so I'm using the less-loved fabric that I don't care about it getting trashed. (And for that matter, it's all scraps that were given to me when people were cleaning out their sewing - someone else's rejects!)

still insane

Two years ago, I went a little insane with making ten togas for the community theater's summer production of The Music Man (which I was in with 3 of my girls). We weren't able to do summer theater last year because it was the same week as our family reunion (it was Annie, which we were very sad to miss) but we are back at it this year! Peter Pan!

I am still insane, because this year, I declined taking an on-stage role and instead, I was backstage as the costume manager. I figured I needed to be backstage to help take care of my own kids - JK is technically too young to be in the production (the rule is 6/entering 1st grade - she's 5 and entering Kindergarten), but she was going to be dragged along to all the rehearsals anyway. As for me, well, I can sew or figure out costume planning, as already demonstrated with the togas, so that's where I ended up even before the end of the auditions.

JK arrived at the audition and marched straight up to the executive producer, Jane ...

JK, very firmly: I want to be the pink mermaid!
Jane: Oh? Is pink your favorite color?
JK: No. My favorite color is purple.
Jane: Don't you want to be the purple mermaid?
JK derisively: There aren't any purple mermaids. I want to be the pink mermaid.

Her role was pretty much cast in stone at that point. And since I'd already agreed to take care of costumes, I needed to figure out mermaid tails ... seven of them.

This is a small community theater that's all volunteers, so there's no big costume shop. Everyone is pretty much on their own, unless it's a specialty piece. My job was basically to decide (with Jane, and some consulting with the director) what the costume guidelines would be for the various groups - pirates, lost boys, islanders - and everyone was on their own to get a costume. The theater organization was able to rent an outfit for Captain Hook and a few of other pieces. We also raided the high school costume room (where we perform) for some more items. Lucky for us, the girl playing Peter Pan is a major cosplay fan, and had multiple Peter Pan costumes of her own - the director chose the one he liked best. And I'm traffic control for all of it.

Back to the mermaids ... specialty piece, so I made all the mermaid tails. Most was fabric pulled from my own boxes, but I did go buy PINK.

I looked up a couple of tutorials, but basically they were all made totally freehand and based on each girl's measurements. The body part goes all the way to their feet, with the fin separate. The fins have stiff interfacing between two pieces of fabric. I couldn't figure out how to enclose the seams and still be able to turn them on the curves, so I left them raw edge and finished them on the machine with a wide blanket stitch. I also sprayed everything really thoroughly with starch to cut down on fraying and unraveling, and used glitter glue on the edges. They're holding up pretty well.

Some of the girls did their own decorating with tulle, pearl beads, shells, and flowers. I worked on the ones for my own kids and a couple of the younger girls. Lots of glitter paint. Another mom covered them all in a glitter spray. They seriously look really awesome.

The mermaid scene is that they help Peter play a trick on Hook, when he "disguises" himself as a woman and covers his head with a lace shawl/veil. There's a duet between Peter and Hook that's really funny, "Oh My Mysterious Lady." My two littles are bottom right, and you can see that JK is indeed The Pink Mermaid.

Another costume I'm proud of is Tiger Lily - this one was all me. I decided that she'd wear a Polynesian sarong, and I made her flower crown.

(When TA and JK were not being mermaids, they were also islanders so they could run around and not have to sit the entire time.) 

So this is what we've done nonstop in the three weeks since getting back from vacation. And probably what we'll end up doing most summers for as long as we live here. It's long and tiring, but it's FUN. Theater is AWESOME.

P.S. Because I've been asked - yes, all 5 of my girls were in the play. SM was one of the Lost Boys. RG and JE were islanders. TA and JK were islanders and got the extra of the mermaids.

Y is for Yellow

When I found some super soft yellow and pink fleece at a garage sale, 

I knew I needed to make a Fluttershy costume for Snowflake.

See?  Perfect match!

It is a simplified Abbey Jacket, a tweaked hood from the Michelle Jacket,

plus a whole bunch of making-it-up-as-I-go-along for details.

The pants were just lengthened Basic Shorts. Much easier.

 

I even went so far as to hand-stitch some wings onto the back.

Even though it was for Halloween, it can keep her warm all winter!

The whole My Little Pony family:

Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy and Discord.

2017 Finish-A-Long Quarter 4 

Red Riding Hood

For book group this month we were asked to bring a book that makes us happy.  We all love reading (obviously, since we are in a book club) but what other things do we love?  I immediately decided to read a sewing book.  As I usually do for our assigned books, I headed to the library, and while perusing the shelves I came across: Oliver + S Little Things to Sew.  I knew I couldn't go wrong with that since we are fans of O+S around here!

It wasn't exactly a "reading" book, but I enjoyed looking at all the projects and picturing how I would make them.  After much debate I settled on making the Red Riding Hood Cape as part of my "show and tell" about the book.  The book will come home with me again another time so I can make mittens, juggling balls, or the cozy winter hat.  I would even make more capes - a smaller one for Snowflake's future dress-up box, or it would make a great gift.

The red fabric came from my Mom - I got a ton, Trina got a ton.  After making my first pair of pants, and Little Bo Peep's skirt I had just enough left for the cape.  The lining is the same butterfly fabric from my Glass Petal top.  And an adorable teapot button to finish it off.

Sewing it probably took less time than tracing off the pattern and cutting out the fabric.  The directions didn't include top-stitching, but I would definitely recommend it.  It fits fabulously and looks adorable.  I forsee hours of fun and pretending ahead!

H is for hatinator

My hat for "The Music Man" ...

Th original hat was in a box of random hats, and this was the only one that fit my head over my hair ... but it was too big, and the brim was too floppy. So I cut the dome and settled the top down into it further - you can kind of see the line on the top left in the picture. The stitching was really obvious so I knew I had to cover it with something ... obviously I went with lace. I also cut about a half inch off the brim and that helped A LOT. I originally wanted to get a feather boa and just wind it all around but I never made it to the store to get one. When I was doing the lace, I also pulled out the tulle, thinking I'd make some kind of bow but fortunately (because this was about 3 hours before the dress rehearsal), inspiration struck and I just twisted a long strip of tulle around and around and fluffed it up. Except for the stitching on the dome, the whole thing was done with a heck of a lot of glue in my hot glue gun.

And here we are!!

The hat in action! On stage, I was the Pick-a-little soloist ... "Just melt her down and you'll reveal a lump of lead as cold as steel ..."

And with three of my girls in "Wells Fargo" ...

P.S. This type of big foofy hat, in England anyway, is actually called a Hatinator. Here, we just call it a Kentucky Derby Hat. HA!

more E, F, G

I've picked back up with a bunch of sewing in September and October, after not doing much during the summer because of all of the gardening and food preservation.

Random sidenote - it's becoming apparent to me that I won't be able to do an "every month for a year" type of sewing challenge. Sewing goes in spurts for me, because we're doing so many different things all the time. The summer, particularly July and August, is for the garden and canning. We also spent a lot of time at the local pool this past summer

So with getting into another sewing spurt - 

E is for empire-waist 

TA turned 4 last month and wanted an Elsa dress for her birthday present. I did the same type of thing as JE's Elsa dress from her birthday in April - get a white t-shirt (which was something from her drawer that she never wore so it had no stains!! and I didn't have to buy anything!!) and chop it off under the arms, then attach a bunch of fabric to the bottom for an empire-waist type skirt. Mindy gave me the sheer blue sparkle snowflake fabric, I got the blue satin under it when our mom was cleaning out her fabric, and the white lining layer under THAT (which wasn't necessary after all like I thought it was, but oh well) was left over from RG's baptism dress. I don't think I paid a single thing for this dress.

F is for flowers 

I sew with a lot of floral prints. I made two more Bento bags in September because now we have 4 girls in dance classes. We had 3 last year, but I never got around to making SM's bag. Done. And TA has one too. JK is the only one without a dance bag - might as well just go ahead and do it for her.

G is for green and glitter

I don't know if you can see that these shorts have glitter on the fabric ... but they do. It's really cute. This was another pair of shorts from the MADE pattern that I made in August. (And no, I don't know why it's sideways.) I think I made these earlier in the summer, when I did the flannel shorts for SM. I timed myself - I can make a pair of these shorts in just under an hour. My count is up to 7 total so far. I'm sure there will be more.

G is for Grace

RG was baptized on October 10, and Adam has asked that I make each of the girls their own white dress for the occasion. I love the white-on-white embroidery! RG chose the fabric, but *huffy sigh* plain white is so. boring. She was annoyed that I wouldn't add extra trims with colors, and wore it with a pink sweater to church the next day. The pattern was the Oliver+S rollerskate dress, which I lengthened by quite a bit. It's supposed to end at her knees, and I made it mid-calf. I also lowered the high waist by an inch or two (not sure).

 And now, it's on to Christmas. I have no idea if I'll be able to shoe-horn my Christmas projects into the Sew All 26 challenge, or if that will have to go on a hiatus until January. What I have on my list doesn't fit into the next few letters. But happy sewing anyway!

my little mermaid

This morning I attempted to photograph a mythical creature...

...a three year old that holds still.

Cupcake decided she wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween.

Since we live in a place where there is usually snow by the end of October,

this posed as a challenge. 

"I need a tail and a shell and red hair."

Aunt Taera is taking care of the hat/wig, which we will get soon.

I'll eventually update when she's fully outfitted for trick-or-treating.

I already had this beautiful material, that changes colors depending on the angle.

It is blue and red and purple and perfect for a mermaid tail.

I struggled to decide on how to make it, since the fabric has zero stretch,

but I made it up as I went along and she's happy with how it turned out.

Simple skirt, with an elastic waist.  The hem comes to a point and is

finished with a wide ruffle and three layers of tulle for poof.

She's able to walk in it comfortably, and snow pants will fit underneath if needed.

Long-sleeve white shirt with gold details from Walmart.

The shells are made from multiple layers of gold glitter tulle, 

with a single layer of teal on top.

Gathers in the middle and ends, then sewn on by hand.

I started our Sew All 26 Challenge with Cupcake's Bo Peep costume last year,

and now this is my letter M for Mermaid.  Half way done!

---------------------------------------UPDATE------------------------------------

Aunt TC did an amazing job!  Lots of compliments.

It was a wonderful, snow-free night of trick-or-treating!

Tinkerbell

To set the scene: Just after I entered the sewing world I made a trip to the fabric store.  I stuck to the clearance section and had no idea what I was doing.  I bought fabrics that I will never use because I didn't know what I liked yet.  But I found some sheer, sparkly, light green material and immediately thought, "Someday I will make a Tinkerbell costume with this."

Cut to now; Aaron's Uncle Darren is turning 50 on Saturday, and is holding a masquerade to celebrate.  Any excuse to make costumes, right?  With Halloween being so cold (there is usually snow on the ground) I was very excited at the prospect of finally making the Tinkerbell costume for Cupcake when it will be warm enough for her to wear it!

I started with this tank top, given to me from a friend quite some time ago.  I shorted the straps considerably, and added elastic to the back to gather it in.  And of course, I added the green sparkles.  A bit at the top for modesty, and bunches at the bottom for attitude.

I was still stuck on the idea of pick-ups, like the Cupcake Princess dress.  It gave it a party feel (it is for a masquerade), and the rounded bottom reminded me of leaves. 

But it still needed a little something to make it just right.  Thank goodness for Project Run & Play!  The addition of embroidery was exactly what this dress needed.  I know I wouldn't have thought of that without the suggestion from Frances Suzanne.  

I don't know if this will even count, since it is more of a refashion instead of sewing from scratch (and there is no way I'm beating the Tinkerbell from June), but I did create and I did add hand-sewing.  Let me know if I'm breaking the rules!

I had never done any hand-sewing before, so this was totally new for me.  It is far from perfect, but it was fun to do.  It's all basic back-stitching, with a few attempts at French knots that didn't work.  Nothing fancy, but it did the job I needed done.

To complete the outfit, a pair of light-up wings from a friend and some hand-painted shoes with yarn pom-poms tied on.  Cupcake had so much fun painting the shoes.  When we were finished she grabbed two other pairs of shoes and declared that we paint them purple.  

Did you know that Tinkerbell has a stuffed sheep?

A little magic to wrap things up - because sometimes I do get lucky with the camera.  In a true Peter Pan moment, Cupcake was playing with her shadow!