Creative Care Bear Costumes

A  friend needed help with her creative Care Bear Costumes.  She had the ideas and I had the sewing know how. Tonight after the trick-or-treating was done, I got an e-mail from her with photos of the costumes I helped her sew. 

A few weeks ago we got together for a four hour sew-a-thon. I taught her how to baste and she sewed on all the "bum" hearts.  We safety pinned giant pom poms onto sweat pants. Now that Halloween is over, these pom poms can be quickly removed and the pants are wearable for every day activities. The tummy images were all created by my friend, Xela.  I handed her my sharp scissors and she cut while I sewed ears in place.  I introduced her to fabric spray adhesive and sent her outside to spray her designs and mount them onto the white felt tummies. All the tummy designs were machine embroidered in place.  

Bear #1, "Nerd Bear"  This second grader loves math...can you tell?

Bear #2: Fry Care Bear - I was told that his favorite food is McDonald's french fries.

Bear #3:  Ice Cream Cone Bear. Xela's second grader thought she should be an ice cream bear & because she's a good mother, she ran with the suggestion. My favorite part of this costume are the ears which were made from fabric her daughter found for her. The fabric had pink hearts.  All the Care Bear ears had soft fleece on one side and a fabric on the other side. Mini pom poms were used as the cherry on top of the cone and cup cake and sprinkles on "Nerd Bear".

It's so fun to help others with their creations. My favorite part was catching up on each other's lives.  

For more creative costume ideas go to this post.  What was your favorite costume you saw last night?

Happy creating!

xoxo Grandma

Practical Pirate Costumes

Why do brother's love poking their sisters?

In November, I'm hosting my grandson's 4th birthday party at his house in Tennessee. The theme he chose for his party is pirates. Months ago, I told my daughter that if she wanted, I'd make her children pirate Halloween costumes. Would any sane mother turn down an offer like that? Well, she is pretty smart & allowed me full reign using my creativity to make her children's costumes. I'm happy that these costumes will be worn for Halloween and my grandson's birthday party.  

For my granddaughter's costume, I decided to make her a black jumper from an out-of-style wide-legged dress pants and on that jumper, I basted a skull & crossbones pocket. After the party, I'll pull the basting stitches out and the jumper will be a classic clothing item, ready to wear during the winter months.  I also made her a white peasant shirt out of battenburg - a battenburg tablecloth to be exact. I love the classic look of this shirt and it does work nicely over the leggings. The red and white leggings were once a shirt - no not mine! The shiny red belt was designed out of leftover blanket binding and the rustic buckle was found when I was jogging.  I'm guessing, she'll never wear the belt - but really, who cares?  Total cost for a girl's pirate costume = $3.

(One legging up and one down -she's only 19 month old & apparently doesn't like her photo taken!)

For my grandson's costume, I made a captain's jacket. The gold cuffs and pipping were from this oriental tissue holder. 

The main part of the jacket was upcycled from black, wide-legged dress pants. (Can anyone guess that I cleaned out my closet and got rid of a few out of style pants?) The red fabric used on the jacket's edge was left-over from my Sailing Sailing quilt.  I found the captain's hat for $2.99 from a thrift store. The total cost of his costume was $2.99.  I machine embroidered the crossbones image onto the front and a larger image onto the back of his jacket. 

How economically easy these outfits are on the bank account.  Total cost for two children's costumes was $5.99 unfortunately for me, I also had to add shipping into their cost.  Did you find any deals for your Halloween costumes?

For more fun ideas go here.
xoxo Grandma

Classic Children's Books

This past weekend I was in Boston with my husband visiting our oldest daughter. 

One tourist place recommended to us by a friendly Bostonian was the Boston Public Gardens.

(Don't you love the enthusiastic team spirit of the Red Sox fans, 

cheering their team on in the World Series?)

Because of this book:

I felt like I knew this beautiful park.

Robert McCloskey was 28 when he won a Caldecott for "Make Way for Ducklings" and this book is listed by the School Library Journal as a "Top 100 Picture Books"

If you enjoy this author or want to learn a little more about this book, here is a fun link to listen to him as he reminisces about "Make Way for Ducklings."

Another of Robert McCloskey's books is Blueberries for Sal.  I read it to my children often when they were growing up.  

Have you read these books?  If not, you really should.  

Happy reading!

xoxo Grandma

Decorative Doll Clip Boards

These little decorative doll clip boards are fun to make. Be creative and have your child help you decorate them for their favorite doll(s).

Supplies: 

• mini clips (found with scrapbook supplies)
• cardstock
• glue for paper
• glue for metal
• ink
• lined paper
• brush or a piece of cardstock to spread your glue
• ribbon and stickers to decorate the clip board

To make a mini pad of paper:

1.  Cut lined paper to 2 1/2" x 3 1/4".  You'll need at least 5 sheets of paper. 
2.  Line the paper up 
3. Add glue to the top edge of the paper only.
4. Add a clip and let the glue dry.

To make the decorative clip boards:

1. Cut one piece of cardstock  3" x 3 5/8"
2. Round corners of the cardstock with scissors or a corner rounder tool.
3. Brush the front side of cardstock with a thin layer of glue. (I like to use a scrap piece of cardstock to spread the glue evenly.)
4. Adhere decorative paper onto the front side of the cardstock, smoothing as you lay the paper down.
   
5. Brush the back of the cardstock with a thin layer of glue.
6. Adhere decorative paper to the back of the cardstock, smoothing as you lay the paper down.
7. Decorate the clip board with small silk flower, stickers and or additional accent paper.
8. Ink around the edge of the clipboard.
9. Glue the back of the clip onto the center of the board.
10. Allow clip to dry overnight.
11. Add your mini pad of paper to the clip board. 
12. Write a special note onto your mini pad of paper.  
13. Put it into your doll's hand. 

 

Happy creating! - xoxo Grandma

American Girl Doll Clothes and Giveaway

How would you like to win an American Girl Doll and a huge collection of custom made clothing and accessories?  This may just be your lucky day!

Here's a close-up of the outfit I donated:

This 18" doll outfit includes:  a white peasant shirt, tunic, stripped leggings, headband & a decorated clipboard with a little pad of paper.

Each gift is made with a lot of love.  For more fun ideas go to this post.

               

Good luck!  xoxo Grandma

Felt Food Bag

My two-and-a-half year-old granddaughter loves to pretend she's eating. So, for part of her Christmas gift, I've been making her felt food. There are a bunch of felt food patterns out there and if you want to see where I found all the patterns, you can check out my Pinterest board called "Felt Food".

After I finished making orange slices, donuts, ice cream cones, Swiss cheese, strawberries, bananas, carrots, and her favorite cookies (to see the cookies go to this post), I decided she needed something to keep all her food in one place, thus the creation of this "FOOD" bag. It's a simple rectangular red and white checked bag (the fabric reminded me of a picnic blanket) with a black ribbon drawstring. The front of the bag features a slice of watermelon with two leaves and the word "FOOD," which were machine appliqued onto the bag. The leaves are silk leaves leftover from a daughter's wedding, and were machine stitched onto the bag. The leaves are velvety feeling and add texture to the design.

On Wednesday, this bag of play food left on a plane with my son, who flew home for a few days for a friend's wedding. He asked if he could give this bag to his daughter when he got home. He thinks she'll really like this gift. I told him he could - I really don't think I can waituntil Christmas for her to enjoy this gift either.  xoxo Grandma

Felt Food - Circus Animal Cookies

These little frosted animal cookies happen to be two of my grandchildren's favorite cookies. They call them "pink and whites." They can't get these cookies where they live overseas and they often ask me to send some to them. Who can blame them? They really are a bite of deliciousness, and the inspiration behind my next creation.

As an early Christmas gift, I've been making these two grandchildren felt food. My husband commented that I should make them their favorite cookies too...."why not," I thought?  So that is what I created - felt Circus Animal Cookies.

In case you're now in the mood for a few cookies too, here's a pattern I created so you can have a night of fun making some felt cookies! 

Supplies:

• 1 piece of 8 1/2" x 11" bright pink felt - makes 9 cookies
• 1 piece of 8 1/2" x 11" white felt - makes 9 cookies
• pink thread
• white thread
• embroidery thread: royal blue, yellow, green, pink, red, white
• a little bit of batting for each cookie
• a needle

For the Circus Animal Cookies pattern click here.

1. Cut out the cookies, using the provided pattern. (You'll need two pieces per cookie.)
2. Randomly make French knots using 3 skeins of thread, twisting the thread around the needle twice.  Make a lot of French knots with a variety of colors.  It's easiest to do all one color of thread and then another color of thread. 
   
3. With a sewing machine, right sides together, sew around the edges of the cookies with as small a seam as possible, leaving a 1" opening at the bottom or side of each cookie.
4. Clip the corners.
5. Turn the cookie right side out. (This is not easy to do but they will eventually turn, I used the eraser part of a pencil and carefully pushed using dull tipped scissors. Good luck!)
6. Slightly stuff the cookies.
   
7. Sew closed the opening.
8. Add your finished cookies into a clear sandwich bag.
   

Don't they look so delicious? Hopefully my grandchildren will think it's fun to pretend that they're delicious too. If you're now craving cookies and milk, then I'll declare my work here done for the day!   xoxo Grandma