Saint Edward Haunting

If anyone has peeked at my instagram account, they have probably noticed that I really love creepy photography.  I also love Halloween.  The two blend together into a perfect duet.  I've wanted to do a ghost photo shoot for a while and I finally got my chance yesterday :)

Little Miss was originally going to be a wind up doll...last year.  I did a self drafted pattern based on this photo I saw online.  It's a Victorian dress with lace insets all down the front and broderie anglaise trim.  I was in love the first moment I saw it.  There are more beauties at the Bowes Museum website.

I started with lace inset in the front.  I pieced it together from lace I bought on etsy.  The two I used on the front of my dress are from mingmingworld.  They seem to still carry them here and here.  The anglaise trim is vintage and it's beautiful.  So so beautiful.  I had a rough time cutting it up.  Once I had the lace inset done I couldn't wrap my brain around how to add it to the rest of the dress and then Miss decided she wanted to be Rapunzel anyway so the project sat until I picked it up last month.

The group of kids last year.  My oldest made his own costume and I made the little one's.  My poor chicken terrified all the kids in the neighborhood.

After I picked it up a year later, the pattern fell into place.  I just added two side panels and a back panel and sewed on a skirt.  It really wasn't all that difficult.  I'll admit that the some of the seams are exposed under the front trim, but it's not really noticeable.  The rest of my dress is cotton muslin. After I was finished, I tea stained the entire thing to give it more of a vintage look.  The first time around it came out orange!  Thank goodness a couple of washes fixed that.

She didn't want to be a wind up doll, so I thought a broken doll might be cute but after practicing with the makeup she didn't want to be that either.  She wanted something "spookier".  She thought a ghost would be pretty spooky.  She sat still while I did her makeup and then we ran off to the park to do a ghostly photo shoot.

The photos were taken using a very slow shutter speed, sometimes as long as 30 seconds depending on the look I was going for.  I also used a neutral density filter to help cut out light so that my shot wouldn't be overexposed.  It was nice for Miss not to have to worry about sitting still for once.  We also went later in the day on a damp overcast evening so there was hardly anyone around.  I think they came out perfectly.

I have a couple in color, but I think the prefer the mood of the black and white

I think I'm going to grow up and be a ghost photographer!

Halloween Twirl

I was trying to take a break from sewing so that I could write up a couple of tutorials but then I saw this fabric on etsy. It looked lonely, so I had it sent home to me. I love the whole line.  I bought pumpkintopia, gone batty, pumpkin dot and whatever the harlequin is called.  It's all pretty much sold out most places so I feel lucky to have found it all in one place!  It's all from the Maude Asbury Spooktacular line.

I sewed it up using the Violette Field Threads new Kate pattern.  I left off the apron because it didn't want the dress too busy.  It has a lot of print going on already!  I sewed up teh size 3 which is a size too big for Miss so I had to get clever with the straps on the back.  She's usually a size 2, so the sizing isn't off, I just went up a size because she has a lot in her closet that fits her right now.  Plus, she'll get to wear this next year too :)

The Kate was a very simple pattern to follow.  It sewed up quickly in around 3 hours total from printing/cutting the pattern to finished dress.  I did two panels on the skirt the full selvedge width instead of what the pattern calls for.  This makes the dress a little bit fuller and gives it a +10 to twirl factor.  Miss is in love and told me she wants to wear it every single day!  I win!

I have no idea why she wouldn't keep her tongue in her mouth during the shoot, but at least she wasn't throwing a tantrum and she was holding still.  Sometimes, you just have to take what you can get!

Extra twirl factor!

Ooops, forgot to pull out my gathering threads!

I love a neatly pressed hem facing.

Did you know you could sew on buttons using a zig zag stitch?

A Goodbye Bow

What Time is It?

Adventure TIME!!!!

The show Adventure Time is a favorite of our family.  All of us can sit and watch it together, ages 3.5 to 35 (ha!  clever coincidence in numbers there).  My daughter is particularly infatuated with it and plays Adventure Time often.  She specifically asked me to make her a "hat like Finn the Human"  Every crafting Mama knows that they can't say no to a request.

Naturally, being the overachiever that I seem to be, a hat wasn't good enough enough.  She also had to have the backpack, and the shirt AND the sword.  At some point time, I can make her a little Jake plush to carry around as well, but that will be another time.  She keeps asking me, though.

The hat was tricky because all the tutorials I found were for adult sizes and even though Miss has a big head, it's not quite adult sized.  I had to hack and slash and do many fittings before I came up with something that didn't look absurd.

She's more excited than she looks, I swear!  In fact, I've never seen her happier with anything I've made for her.

The backpack was drafted entirely from scratch.  It was actually a pretty simple affair consisting of two circles and a long piece to go around it.  I did have a difficult time finding appropriate colors in the right types of fabric.  I wanted fabric that would be durable and not stretch so that she could actually use the backpack to carry treasures in.  I settled on two green broadcloths which I then fused to lightweight canvas using double sided fusible web.  Now I want to fuse everything!

The opening on the backpack was a bit tricky.  I just overlapped it where the two green piece meet and added some velcro.  It's not the most functional and the whole thing puckers when it's full of heavy things like fairies, rocks, and books.  If I made another one, I'd put a zipper in the top and call it good.

The sword I really had the most fun making.  It reminded me of crafting for my boys when they were little.  I had all kinds of practice at making swords, guns and other such things before Little Miss came along.  Granted, they were usually fashioned out of Elmers glue, old cardboard and toilet paper tubes or legos, but it was still wonderfully fun.

Unlike this sword's predecessors, this one is made from dollar store foam board.  True to it's predecessors, it also rocks a recycled cardboard hilt and paper towel tube for a handle.  The end is a styrofoam ball also from the dollar store.

I put many layers of glue on and let it dry and then layered more glue.  This actually took longer than any other part of the costume, not really because it was labor intensive, but because there was a lot of wait time while it was drying.

After the sword was dry, I painted it with craft acrylics, let it dry and then mod podged the snot out of it...twice.  I painted red circles on the bottom to represent Finn's rubies on his sword.

Unfortunately, you can't see the fun detailing on the sword in these photos.  I used a sharpie to copy all of the scratch marks from the cartoon.  That's part of what makes Finn's sword amazing :)

and one more quick cell shot so you can see the sword details.

All photos should be clickable and take you to their original source on flickr or web.stagram.

First Sleeves for Little Alice

I decided to finally tackle sleeves when I decided that Little Miss would make a perfect tiny Alice for her second Halloween.  At that point she was watching Alice in Wonderland on repeat, all day if I'd let her.  Sleeves were one of those things I'd just have to learn to do if an Alice costume was to be made.

Drafting a basic bodice and straps is easy enough, but I could not wrap my brain around sleeves.  I searched for the right pattern and settled on Carla's Precious Dress.  The sleeve seemed to have the right amount of puff and the peter pan collar was perfect (who doesn't love a peter pan collar?).

This pattern was perfect for a beginner like me.  It was straight forward, had a ton of pictures and explained everything in great detail.  The need to rip out and resew every seam had nothing to do with the pattern, but all to do with my inability to pay attention and repeatedly sewing things wrong sides together even though I'd double checked *sigh*.  All in all, the process went quit smoothly and I was more than happy with the finished product :)

Of course, a proper Alice needs a very full petticoat.  So, I ruffled and sewed 280 inches of ruffles in layers to make one.  I had some eyelet trim that I'd bought for some crazy cheap amount that I used on the bottom to add a little something to it.  I have used that eyelet trim on so many things since and I've used it all up now.  I'm on the lookout for more.


That was a labor of love!

I drafted a pattern for the apron as well.  The one included in the pattern was merely sewn in at the waist and wasn't a proper pinafore and I'm kind of insane about authenticity when it comes to my costumes LOL.



Of course, it's very cold on Halloween in the Northwest so she needed something warm to go over it.  I think it's such a shame when someone spends so much time and energy on a costume only to cover it with a puffy coat.  I decided to she needed a cape.  The cape is made out of heavy corduroy and lined in black and white harlequin minky.  This puppy is WARM and so soft.  My daughter has worn it on many other occasions instead of a coat.  It's actually a favorite of hers and she's still wearing it almost 3 years later!

 

Apparently, I didn't have enough to do because I also made a red rose brooch and red rose and mushroom bracelet to complete the ensemble.  Then, I busted out mad hatter costume for my youngest son.  Somehow, I never managed to get more than cellphone snapshots of it!  But, rest assured, my son was adorable (but don't tell him I said so because he says he's too old to be cute).