Sharing some FO's

It's been a long while again... Moving really takes a toll on your time, eh? Well, that, and lack of internet at home for the first couple months...

I don't have a lot of time for explanation, but here are some FO's for you to love. Most of these are cel phone pictures, since we moved & I still haven't found my digicam...

Remember my batwing tuorial? http://craftyconcoction.blogspot.ca/2011/09/basic-childrens-bat-wing-tutorial.html

Well, we painted those wings, and I made a gargoyle costume for DS for halloween!

It was a huge success!! The belt & axe were purchased; the tail was made by me, detachable, the horns were made from air dry modeling clay (the really lightweight kids stuff) & the gray jumpsuit was made by using a shirt & pants of his to make a pattern, then stitched together. It has a couple buttons in the back.

A couch-arm organizer for my step-dad who lost both of his legs to diabetes & vascular disease. He is getting around in his wheelchair better now, but he was confined to a hospital bed in the living room for quite some time, and this made it much easier for him to keep his remote, the phone, a drink, his meds, etc close at hand. Both sides have two large pockets (big enough for magazines) and three smaller, elasticated pockets for phones, remotes, drinks, etc. It is backed in fleece, which creates a nice no-slip effect on my mom's couch fabric.

These shirts were made for a friend's daughters, who are 5 & 6. I have one that I made for the onesie swap, which Shaun now wears. The girls loved them, and refused to take them off for about 4 days, until their Mom said they had to take them off to wash them!

Hubby & I got a puppy, then another puppy about a month after. The first puppy is huge & fluffy, the second not so much. She was forever cold, so I used an old hoodie that I no longer wear & made her a sweater. Sadly, she was not a good fit for our family (she was biting DS & jumping) so a friend of ours is raising her in a child-free home, but she still has her sweater!

I have an adjustable dress form, whom I have named Dolly. I scored an awesome deal on her ($2 at a garage sale!) She is a little smaller than me maxed out (about 2" smaller in the waist, and we won't mention the bust difference) but I make do with a layer of padding and a bra. Well, a friend of mine is downsizing and getting ready to spend some time finding herself (maybe travelling?)

She was selling her dressform, which is the old cage style that is fully adjustable to ANY size!

I snapped that up! When I brought it home, I named her Jane, and then got DS to climb inside the cage, and made it to his size. Jane is usually to mid-hip on most women, but that was enough to make some legs...

Here she is as a creepy replica of my son with a foam head & some of his clothes:

Now Jane has a different outfit on - she is wearing DS's birthday suit for this weekend!

And last, but not least; DS turns 4 this weekend! He wanted a "Superhero" party, where all of his friends dress up as their favorit superheroes. For nearly 2 months he has requested to be Spiderman. Last Thursday I told him I didn't have time to make a Spiderman costume, and couldn't find one for sale anywhere. I asked him to wear his Spiderman jammies instead.

Well, he assured me that he never wanted to be Spiderman, and wanted to be Batman instead. Same dillema....

Until! I found a plastic batman mask for $5. I then re-used the jumper from his gargoyle costume that I made for halloween. I sewed & topstitched a quick belt out of an old t-shirt, and made a felt & jersey pin-on batman logo. A quick black jersey no-sew cape, and I have a cery happy little birthday boy! He was skeptical of everything I did, but loved the outcome of the old-school batman costume :)

Now, I have so much more to accomplish for his party this weekend, as I have tried to DIY a LOT of it. Plus, two swaps on the go over on Craftster, which I need to focus on. And studying for my MCQ in two weeks? Ugh!

Baby Santa Hats

I have made two of these for other people, so far.

They are super cute for baby's first Christmas ;)

Dinosaur Hat!

A couple years ago, I made DS a balaclava. It was red, and tied in the front, and had a mohawk, and was awesome. He loved it. So did lots of other people.

Anyways, I made the pattern available for free, but I'm really super glad that I wrote everything down, because it has come in handy again.

After two winters, and many washes, the mohawk portion of his old hat went from being a fluffy adorable mess to a matted nasty dead animal on top of his head. Not cool.

So, I decided to make him a new one!

I asked him which colours he wanted, as well as how he wanted it decorated. Not a mohawk this time, but a dinosaur.

I set to work with some blue yarn, and an idea. I worked the balaclava first, then crocheted 8 triangles & sewed them together, turned them inside out, stuffed them, and attached them along the top center. Two semi-domes, stuffed & attached, and lastly, two random trapezoid shapes attached for eyelids.

He loves it :)

Gnome Hat & Tawashis

I was recently part of the Givers & Needers swap round 10 on craftster.

I sent supplies to two lovely folks who both handcrafted me thank you gifts.

I also received supplies from two very generous women, and I made thank you gifts for them. For the amazing rlynn, I crocheted her young daughter a gnome hat, inspired by the amazing April Draven, and some Tawashis.

Here are a coupld shots of her daughter wearing the hat - how cute!

Basic Children's Bat Wing Tutorial

Remember the wings I made for DS's halloween costume?

Well, I promised a tutorial. Here it is, in all it's picture-y glory, including my terrible MS Paint skills applied.

Materials:

• 2 wire coat hangers
• wire cutters
• pliers (2 pairs makes some things easier)
• electrical tape
• fabric of your choice (I chose a navy upholstery suede that I had lying around & no use for)
• coordinating thread
• tailor's chalk
• scissors
• straight pins
• sewing machine
• Elastic

Instructions:

1. Grab your wire cutters, and cut the hanging portion off your hangers at the bend. One of your hangers then needs to be cut into 4 (fairly) equal lengths. Here's an MS Paint mock-up:

2. Bend your hangers. For the first hanger, bend in half on the long (bottom) piece, then extend the angles until it resembles a wide "W" For the second hanger, try to straighten out any bends that are left behind. Another MS Paint diagram, with fancy arrows:

3. Wrap the ends of all your cut hanger pieces in electrical tape to cover any sharp ends & prevent them from poking your little one or coming out of the channels we will make later.

4. Place your fabric, right sides together on a flat surface (like my thread & lint-covered floor). Lie your "W" out upside down, and place your short pieces inside the points like boning in a bat's wing, like so:

5. Trace a wing shape around your wires , remove the wires, pin & cut out. Leave a 1/4" - 1/2" seam allowance.

6. With right sides still together, sew along the top of the wings. Clip the curves, trim any excess & turn right side out. Place the "W" inside the new seam, and pin in place securely. With the wire on the right of your machine, move your needle to the right. Sew a straight line along the length of the "W", creating a channel. Remember to close the ends of the channels so the wire doesn't pop/fall out.

7. Place your straight pieces, pin & sew channels, moving your needle from left to right as necessary, keeping it on the side closest to the wires. Remember to close the channels & encase the wire. Do this for all 4 pieces.

8. Measure the child's arms over the shoulder, & cut 2 pieces of elastic. Sew into loops & attach to the center back.

9. Put them on, wear them, love them, but remember to make scary faces!

If you find them a little floppy, you can throw a couple more stitches in the elastic at the top of the wings.

There are a few more steps to finish this set off to make it flow with his costume, but this should be easily altered & elaborated upon to suit your needs :)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is Coming!

know I have a lot of projects on the go, and a lot of things that I need to complete, but in case you didn't know, Halloween is right around the corner! A month and a half until all the awesome costumes & an excuse to go a little crazy!

DS & I have sat down & discussed costume ideas for this year, and he wants to be scary. A scary monster.

We had written down all of the components that his costume must have, and drawn a little sketch. When he added one more element, I had an "AHA!" moment & showed him some pictures from Google. He loved them! So, costume decision for him is finalized.

Today, he & I sat down to start the first piece - the wings!

A tutorial will follow, but for now, here is a couple cute shots:

There are some things left to do, of course. First, we need to figure out something to stop them from flopping around so much, and changing the colours to something more suiting & authentic.

Quick one

I haven't done a lot of crafting lately, but I did whip up this pair of Fun Folded Toddler Slippers last night over two episodes of American Dad.

DS has been complaining that the floors are cold in our new place (basement apartment) and asking for slippers, so I finally made him a pair.

Sarah recommends worsted weight yarn & a 4mm hook to make for a 2-year old. I used chunky yarn and a 6.5mm hook to make them fit a 3.5-year old.

On to the pics!

DS showing me how happy he was by putting them on right away & saying "Thank you, mommy!"

"Take a picture of my feet, mommy!"

Onesie Swap!

Have I mentioned that I'm super excited about the onesie swap on Craftster??

Well, I totally am! I got two really awesome, amazing partners, and I have been doing my best to ensure that my workmanship is the best it can be for their little boys, and in hopes that it might come close to their own work.

It took me a while to find unprinted, unpatterned shirts to use for this swap, but once I did, I got to work!

Because of having my own little one running about, and the time I spend at school every day prepping for finals (3 weeks to go, baby!) I have been mostly limited to weekend work. BUT, my amazing, wonderful boyfriend has helped me out with some little fiddly bits (like hand-sewing velcro, or cutting shapes out in ridiculous amounts for me to applique to said shirts).

I had a couple set backs in the work, but all in all, I am very happy with how everything is turning out. DS loves the work I'm doing and keeps telling me "MINE shirt!" and trying to put them on himself. Silly boy - one set is too small for him, and the other is too big. But, I have a feeling I will be duplicating some of these in the near future for him.

As of tonight, I have one partner's package entirely complete. That's 5 shirts, appliqued, printed, stencilled, etc. I have to heat set a few of them (fabric paint and textile paint), but that can be done at the end.

My other partner's package is nearly complete. BF is hand stitching something together on one shirt, but it is otherwise complete, and I have 3 others entirely finished. The last one is a little more complex, as I have to figure out how to make it from scratch. I didn't buy a tshirt for this one, since it would be 10x more work to modify it into what I want than to make it from scratch anyways. I suppose that is a job for next weekend, along with DS's halloween costume.

Then, off to the post office to send them out, and hope that they are loved by the little boys who will wear them! :)

I also heard that one of my partners has already sent her package to me, so I better really get my butt in gear!

Another Craftster Swap

I love Craftster.

Oh, how I love Craftster...

I also love swapping; I've said it before. It's like getting presents in the mail!

So, when the Week of Baby Onesies Swap came along again, I knew I had to join. I keep missing it, so I signed up as soon as I could this time. Before too long, Shaun will be too big for it :(

I requested two partners, with 5 shirts a piece being exchanged. And I got completely SPOILED! The organizer, barbolot, is extremely talented, and partnered herself up with me. She also partnered me with one of my other Craftster Crushes, stacysews. These ladies both rock the boards on Craftster, so I'm a little intimidated, but hope that I can match their skills.

I am currently making myself busy stalking them right now, so I thought I'd post a little here as well...

Pretty, pretty princess

A friend from school has a beautiful little girl that is just a few weeks older than my son. Her birthday was this weekend, and we were going to the party (I brought the only boy to the princess's tea party :) )

I left it until the last minute to get together her gift, because I was stuck.

Then, a flash of remembrance; I bought rolls of ribbon tulle to make tutus out of, and never actually did it...

So, DS & I sat down with rolls upon rolls of tulle, a piece of elastic and a pair of scissors and threw together a standard no-tie tutu for the birthday princess.

Gotta love how 2 year olds "help" by taking your colour-sorted piles of tulle, spreading them all over the living room and attempting to throw them in the garbage...

Regardless, it took me all of half an hour to throw this together, and the birthday girl LOVED it!

She opened presents as soon as she found them, and when she found ours, she wanted her ballerina slippers on, her princess hair stuff opened, and to wear her "pretty princess skirt"

I think the amount of success in a handmade gift for a child is directly measured in their willingness to part with it, and she does not seem at all willing lol

Enough chatter, on to the pictures!