Wedding Dress Costume From a Tablecloth

While I was ironing a white tablecloth to get ready for a party at my house, I remembered why I hated using it.  It was an extra long tablecloth and every time I used it, I had to iron it!  Anyone else hate ironing as much as I do?  I swear it's the worst task on earth. Well, as luck would have it, my granddaughter had recently requested I make her a wedding dress for Halloween. When I saw this white tablecloth, I knew that ironing it must come to an end... it's fate was to be a wedding dress. 

The pattern I used to make the dress is Simplicity 0631. Yes, it is from the Wizard of Oz, but Glenda the Good Witch's dress turned into a lovely wedding dress.  I added sequins to the bodice and a lot of tulle under the skirt. The great part about using a tablecloth was that the hem was already sewn!

When my granddaughter tried her costume on for the first time, this four year old proudly exclaimed, "All my wishes came true!"  May you have fun making wishes come true for all your little ones too.  xoxo Grandma

Linked to:  Nap Time Creations, Project Run and Play

How to Make a Spider Costume

A spider costume is just so much fun to wear for any active little boy in your life!  

Download this free spiders arm pattern here.  Make sure your print option, "fit to page" is not checked.  For the hood pattern, I used Butterick #5597.  

Supplies Needed:

Large 3" orange Pom Pom

Black sequins

Red sequins

White sequins

Black fabric

Clear elastic

Black Velcro 

Black thread

Black ready made long sleeve top

Black leggings

1.  Sew together the spider legs leaving the bottom of the pattern open.

2.  Stuff the legs with fiber fill.

3.  Sew the legs onto the black long sleeve top at the sides.

4.  5" from the end of each leg, run a gathering stitch around the width of the legs and then attach the arms together by sewing clear elastic to these areas. Leave about 4" of elastic between each leg.  Do not cut the tread until all the arms have been sewn to the bottom of the long sleeve top.  Tie the elastic thread off securely.

5.  Sew the hood according to the directions on the pattern.  

6.  Onto the eyes, sew the white circle of fabric and then onto the center, the black circle of fabric. 

7.  Sew the eyes together leaving the bottom open.

8.  Stuff the eyes with fiber fill.

9.  To the eyes, sew white sequins in a circle.  Then to the black pupil area sew a circle of red sequins and then around the interior of the eye, sew a circle of black sequins.  Now sew more black sequins to fill in this area.  Onto each sequin, sew a clear bead.  This step will keep the sequins in place.

10.  In the very center of the eye, add one white sequin.

11.  Hand sew the eyes onto the front portion of the hood.

12.  Hot glue or hand sew the orange pom pom in-between the eyes.

13.  Sew together the fangs leaving the bottom open.

14.  Lightly stuff the fangs with fiber fill and hand sew these to the edge of the hood, right below the eyes.

 That's it, your spider costume should be done.  My grandson loved watching his arms move together and the sequins made his eyes glow and shimmer.  Enjoy making costumes!  xoxo Grandma

For More costumes with free patterns, see these posts:

Free pattern for a moppet hat here.

Pikachu Free Pattern & Tutorial

Shared at:  Project Run and Play

How to Make a Little Miss Muffet Costume

"Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey;

Along came a spider,

Who sat down beside her,

And frightened Miss Muffet away."

 - Mother Goose

To create this costume, I used vintage pattern McCall's #9270.

This pattern is perfect for a toddler's costume and the best part of this costume is the dress can be worn later by your toddler as a normal dress. 

For instruction on how to make the moppet hat, please go to this post.

For the apron, I sewed together lace, netting and ribbon to make a rectangular pocket. Once the pocket was finished, I sewed it onto the lower right side of the apron.

This pocket is the perfect size to fit a soft, little pom pom pet spider into.

How to make this pet spider for Miss Muffet's pocket follow the directions below:

Supplies needed:

• 2 extra large 3 inch black pom poms
• 1 .28 inch orange Pom Pom
• 2 wobbly eyes
• 2 black pipe cleaners
• clear elastic thread
• hot glue bun

1.  Glue the two black pom poms together with the hot glue.
2.  Glue the eyes onto the head about 1/4" apart.
3.  Glue the orange pom pom onto the head right below the center of the eyes.
4.  Cut the black pipe cleaners into 3" lengths and glue them onto the body of the pet spider.
5.  Bend the pipe cleaners so they look like feet.

Optional - add clear elastic cording around the neck of the spider and add a slip knot to fit around Little Miss Muffet's wrist so she doesn't lose her little friend.

Please join me tomorrow as I share with you a free pdf downloadable pattern to make this child sized spider costume.   xoxo Grandma

Shared at: Project Run and Play

Make a Vintage Looking Moppet Hat

A moppet hat may be just the thing to top off a vintage looking outfit.  This is an easy sew project. Here's how I made the moppet hat for my granddaughter's Little Miss Muffet outfit:

1.  Start by cutting out a 17 inch round circle of white fabric .

2.  2" in from the edge of the circle add single fold bias tape all around the circle.  Make sure you leave an opening in the tape to insert elastic.

3.  Add lace onto the edge of the cap.

4.  Insert the elastic around 1/2 - 1" smaller than the head circumference.  
5.  Sew the ends of the elastic together.

6.  Make a bow out of ribbon.  Tack the bow in place.  

You're done.  Now, wasn't that easy?

This type of hat works great for a vintage looking costume and it's so easy to make without a fancy pattern.  xoxo Grandma

Linked to: Nap Time Creations

How to Make a Child's Pikachu Costume

Anyone here into Pokemon?  My grandson absolutely loves anything and everything Pokemon.  My children were never into this phase, but oh my grandson and his sister sure are.  For Halloween last year, my grandson wanted to be Pikachu, a Pokeman character, for those of you who aren't into this character. I am one of those people who is clueless about this stuff. This meant I had to look at a lot of images to figure out how in the world to make this costume. 

First who is this creature? A quick Wikipedia search told me that "Pikachu are often captured and groomed by humans to fight other Pokémon for sport. Pikachu are one of the most well-known varieties of Pokémon, largely because a Pikachu is a central character in the Pokémon anime series."  

Next, I downloaded a few images for reference. Then I created the following pattern for your personal advantage, so if someone you love wants this costume, you won't have to search and sketch and figure it out like I did. You're welcome.

Supplies needed:

• Download Free Pattern Pikachu here and back strips here
• 2 1/2 yards of yellow fleece (I made a size 6 costume)
• Scrap of black fabric
• White felt for eyes
• Red felt for cheeks
• Yellow and black craft foam for the tail (get sticky back kind if available)

For the basic hood pattern, I used Butterick pattern #5597, the lobster head.
For the body pattern, I used this same pattern enlarging and rounding the front to about 6 inches larger, width wise for the back.

Being the cool dad that he is, my son tried on the Pikachu hood at the school party. Doesn't he look so hip?  Alright, back to your instructions... Machine embroider the eyes and cheeks onto the head. Then machine embroider the black tips of the ears onto the yellow fleece. Sew the ears together leaving the bottom of the ears open. Stuff the ears and pin in place onto the hood. Hand sew the ears in place.

Cut the tail out of craft foam, and if you're not using the sticky back kind then use foam glue to piece this tail together. You'll sew the tail into the back of the costume by slitting a hole where the tail needs to go. The foam is easy to sew right through so don't worry about that, it's just very awkward to sew, as you'll see. 

To get the tail to stay pointing upward, sew a piece of the tail into the upper portion of the costume.  I wish I had made a larger tab for doing that because my grandson's tail came undone & I'm all the way across the US from him and can't fix it.  

Oh well, he still seems to be happy in his costume.  I asked my son if people knew what he was supposed to be. He said not everyone knew, but apparently there are those who are a little wiser (or cooler) than I am and knew exactly what a Pikachu looks like. Happy costume making all!  xoxo Grandma

Linked to: Nap Time Creations, Project Run and Play

Serving Through Sewing

"No time is better spent than that spent in the service of your fellow man."  That quote rings true to me and today, I'd love to get you thinking of ways you can use your sewing talent to bless others.  Below is a list of six organizations that need sewers who are willing to give of their time and create specific projects.  If you're up for a little challenge, choose at least one of these groups and make something for someone you don't know.  When you're done, I promise you'll feel good inside. Service just does that to you! 

Skirting The Issue- Sponsored by Simple Simon. From July through August, sew any size of a skirt for girls in your local foster care system.  These skirts are a blessing to girls throughout this system so they can have something new for back to school. Below are a few tutorials that can help you create a cute skirt:

Free skirt tutorials:

Easy Back to School Skirt, a Refashion & Tutorial

Flock of Birds Skirt

This year Simple Simon has also added quilts to their list of handmade items to donate to the foster care system in your area.

Sew Powerful- Sponsored by Liberty Jane, asks others to sew cross body purses for girls and women living in Zambia. Below is a link to teach you how to use your scraps to make this project.

Using Scraps to Make a Cross Body Purse for a Good Cause

Primary Children's Hospital- Sew monsters, safe sleep sacks, or medical play dolls as shown in the photo below.  You can even make no sew soft blankets.

Feel free to go to this post and download a free pattern and tutorial on how to use fleece scraps to make a few monsters:

1 Million Pillow Cases- "American Patchwork & Quilting is challenging quilters, sewers and crafters to help us reach our goal of donating one million pillowcases to local charities.  Many charities can benefit from the donation of a pillowcase and the challenge gives you the opportunity to donate and make a difference in your community."

The Linus Project- "Provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer "blanketeers."

Humanitarian Quilts- Make a quilt that will be given to those in need.

If you know of any other organizations that you think should be added to this list, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail and I'd be happy to add them.  xoxo Grandma

How to Sew a Few Little Monsters

One of my favorite charities is looking for people to make stuffed monsters for the children's ward.  Working toward my goal of using up the fabric stash I've accumulated, I found some scraps of yellow fleece. So why not use this fleece to make monsters for them? It worked perfectly. 

If you want to make some little monsters of your own, here are the details: 

1.  Download the free pattern here. Then cut out the pieces as follows:  2 each of the body, 4 each of the horn, 2 each of the eye, 2 each of the pupil and how ever many teeth you want your monster to have.
2. Place your eyes, pupils and teeth onto the head of your monster.  I use temporary spray adhesive to hold my pieces in place.
3. Machine embroider the white eyes.
4. Machine embroider the teeth in place.

5.   Machine embroider the black pupils and then the smile.
6.  To make the hair, wrap yarn around four of your fingers four times.  Cut the yarn and hold the ends together.
7.  Machine stitch the four strands of yarn together.
8.  Baste the stitched end of the yarn hair onto the top center of the head.

9.    Using 1/4" seams, right sides facing, stitch the horns together.

10.  Clip the curves and turn right side out.

11.  Stuff the horns with fiber fill.

12.  Baste the horn's openings closed.

13.  Pin and then baste the horns onto the head as shown.

14.  For the tail, cut 8 pieces of yarn 8" long.  Sew or knot the top of the yarn together.

15.  Braid the yarn and knot the end.

16.  For the end of the tail, wrap yarn around four fingers 10 times.  Tie the braid around the center of the yarn.  

17.  Tie the end with a knot and trim the ends so your tail looks nice and fluffy.

18.  Cut a tiny hole on the center of the back at the tail marking.

19.  Thread the tale's braid through the opening.  On the wrong side of the fabric, sew the fabric back together and sew over the tail's end several times, because little children will pull the soft fluffy tail.

20.  Now, pin the front to the back, right sides facing.  Stitch around your monster making sure the horns, hair and tail are inside the monster. Leave an opening at the bottom of the monster between his legs.  Clip the monster's curves. Turn your monster right side out and stuff.  To finish your monster, hand sew the opening closed.

Monster-making is a lot of fun because not all monsters need to look exactly the same.  You can tweak my pattern to create your own unique monster. Not having to make the exact same creature over and over again is just so much fun....don't you think?  

For more variations on monster making, go to this post.  xoxo Grandma 

Shared at:  Threading My Way
Featured at: Threading My Way