Superhero Costume - Guest Post by Jaimee from Craft Interupted

Good morning my dear readers I have a special treat for you today!  Another wonderful gal who volunteered to help me out while I am crazy busy with Halloween orders for my Etsy shop.  I am pleased to hand it over to Jaimee from Craft, Interrupted.  (PS check out these amazingly cute Lullaby Baby Bears!  I think these would make a great baby gift!)

Hi!  I'm Jaimee from Craft, Interrupted, and I'm popping over here today to B is for Boy! do my first ever Guest Post.  So exciting!  I'm also a mom of boys.  I have three wild and goofy tornadoes of testosterone.  Our house is full of Star Wars, plastic reptiles (and a real one, along with fish, frogs, and a dog), and lots of dump trucks.  If you came here, you'd be stepping over scooters and muddy boots on the front stoop.  You'd see Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Lego City books on the coffee table.  You would get thumped with a giant inflatable crayon, and have a caped crusader peek around the corner to pelt you with a nerf bullet.

If you could navigate the Angry Bird-esque set-up in the front hallway, you'd enter my studio.  My own room for crafting and sewing, now that we moved into a bigger house.  About a year ago, I started a blog about my projects and inspirations.  I'm so happy to have rediscovered my love of all things creative, and to finally carve out time for myself , to sew and craft, even if it is repeatedly interrupted by requests for more apple juice ; )

I'm going to share a recent project with you that was a test run for an idea I had for my etsy shop.  My creative goal for my etsy work has been to develop a line of dress-up costumes that could be comfortably worn by kids with sensory problems, like my oldest son.  Most of these children cannot tolerate the scratchy fabric or accessories of costumes, or the way they rumple up over top of your regular clothing.  Many of these children have huge difficulty participating in Halloween activities.  I read a lot of special needs blogs (and also write one of my own), and I was struck by some of the posts around Halloween time, about how these sensory kids couldn't wear costumes, or just wore the same football jersey they had worn for the prior three years and called that their costume.  I'm sure some of these kids want to be princesses and superheros, too, and I started thinking of how I could make that easier.

As a bonus, my design is also Mom-Friendly, in the fact that it is easy on/easy off.  Dress-up time in our house usually consists of ten minutes of straightening and stuffing and velcro'ing...and whining and wiggling...and two minutes later my superhero wants to switch characters, or move on to Legos, and we are already on to the disrobing.  Take this process times three children, with the impatient jumping up and down or the Spiderman web flinging poses as you are trying to get the sleeves up...well, let's just say Momma sometimes wants to hide even as they approach me with the first outfit ; )

Here's what I did - we had a Superman costume bought on consignment after Halloween, thin fabric that started ripping and fraying at the seams after a month or so of use.  I thought this was a perfect guinea pig to try out my idea.  I ripped seams apart and cut the front of the costume to fit onto an apron shape of felt.  Once I got them adjusted to the same shape, I sewed right sides together, flipped, ironed, and top stitched. 

I added a velcro waist strap and an elastic neck strap, and then shortened the cape and sewed it along the neck.  I need to fiddle with the measurements of the straps, and the elastic bit, and think about how to get around the front part looking like a skirt (on the boy costumes at least), BUT, I was happy with how it came out.

It goes over the head, and the strap goes around the back to velcro at the side.  No sleeves, no legs, just quick as a superhero in a telephone booth ; )

My little man like it so much, he wore it to the bus stop to meet his big brothers : )

My five year old wore it at the dinner table that night, too.  Ha!  I love having saved this Superman costume by transforming it into an easier version with a longer lifespan.  I'm looking forward to tinkering with the pattern, and at some point in the future, I will have apron costumes for sale in my etsy shop!

Huge thanks to Erica for letting me visit here today to share one of my creations, as well as the story behind it.  Craft on!

I think Jaimee has hit the jackpot with this idea! 

Thanks again Jaimee!

Fabric Pumpkin Guest Post

The other day when I posted about needing some guest bloggers, Chelsea from One Hot Crafty-Mama volunteered to help me out.  She has a really cute pumpkin tutorial to share with you today.   Thanks Chelsea!

Hello!!  I'm Chelsea from One Hot Crafty-Mama.  I was trying to come up with something easy and fun to do for the fall then I remembered some pumpkins that my mom had made when I was younger.  Going off of that memory this is what I came up with, I would love for you to check out how to make them.

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you some pictures of fabric pumpkins I made and I promised a tutorial on how to make them.  Here it is finally!!!  These are really simple and you can make whatever size you want.

Materials needed:

scrap fabric (the body of your pumpkin)

a even smaller scrap of fabric (your stem)

pillow filler or a couple of grocery bags

embroidery floss and a large needle

thread and a regular needle

I wanted to make a bigger pumpkin this time. So I used about a half of a fat quarter.

Then I cut out a circle, you can trace something or just free hand it like I did.

Using the needle and thread I ran the thread around the edge of the circle and then tightened it creating a pouch. *Note: be careful to not allow the thread to go all the way through the what you just stitched.

Open the hole up a little bit and add your filler.  I didn't have any pillow filler so I stuffed a couple of grocery bags in there and it worked great!!

Then tie your hole close.

Now using your big needle and the floss, start your needle on the bottom of your pouch and push it up through the middle, don't let the floss go through completely bring the end of the floss around the outside of the pouch and tie it off in the middle.   *Note:  I used all the threads of the floss on this pumpkin on the others I used 4 of the threads.

Go around your pumpkin starting at the bottom up through the middle, to the top and then around the outside back to the bottom (I hope that makes sense), continue at spacing the thread how you want to.

This is what the bottom of mine looks like.

Here is the top.  Tie off the floss I used the same spot that I started with. Now set it aside for a moment.

Now using your smaller piece of scrap create and strip.  However wide or long is up to the side of your pumpkin and how big you want the stem to be.

Fold the fabric in half lengthwise with the right sides together.  Now either use your machine if its handy or hand sew the long sides together. Then flip the fabric outside out and sew the bottom together.

Now its time to attach the stem to the top.  If you are making small pumpkins its easier to just hot glue the stems on otherwise sew it on. 

Now enjoy your pumpkin!!!


Thanks again Chelsea, I love this & need to make some!

Pottery Barn Owl Costume Knock Off (and boyified)

A few weeks ago a nice gal contacted me about making a costume for her kiddo based on this Pottery Barn Owl Costume:

(Images from Pottery Barn website)

It instantly got my creative juices flowing!  A few trial runs and tweaks later and I finally have it!  And since it's the cutest thing ever I am making it available in my Etsy shop.

As you can see it is now 2 seperate pieces, a cape and hat.  First, of all this is much more boy friendly.  Second, it is practical because the hat can be worn throughout the fall and winter.

The hat has an adorable shabby chic style appliqued face.  It is lined too.  In the picture above I used orange polka dot fabric which matches the lining in the cape.  Below, it's hard to tell, but I lined the hat with another layer of the brown fleece making it extra warm.

Isn't this chubby face adorable!  He's eating fruit snacks... so this is the best shot of the hat I could get on him... he's at the age where he wants to pull off the hat as soon as I put it on.

Here's the duo closer up.

Sorry for the poor quality of this picture... he sat still for approximately 30 seconds thanks to the stick and corn keeping him happy. 

I can also do the hooded cape... this one is a bit small for him... but he's my only baby model.  The cape would fit like it does in the previous picture covering more of the shoulders. 

Lining can be your choice.  I have many fabrics to choose from.  Here is a white with orange, brown, tan, & blue polka dots.

Once Halloween is over you can continue using the warm fall/winter hat!

+

PS. TGIF!