Ack! There's a Monster Eating my Head! {A Carnivorous Hat}

My oldest son, Weston had been eyeing all the funky winter hats. He especially liked the ones with ear flaps and the strings or braids hanging down with pom-poms.

Well, I aim to please! Coming up with a handmade gift to make him for Christmas was easy peasy.

I flew by the seat of my pants with this child-eating hat though. No one was more surprised than me when it actually turned out so good!

First I found a printable pattern for a hat with ear flaps (sorry! I can't remember where I found it....I was in the haze of holiday midnight crafting...) I cut the hat from a fifty cent sweater....yep, that's right. 50 cents!! I know. So cool. And, boy it was a pretty ugly one. I think the sweater is much happier being reincarnated into a hungry monster hat.

So, after I had the lining and outer hat pieces cut out, I added a row of fleece teeth and stuffed striped knit horns.

I braided three strips of fabric....two strips of the striped knit and one strip of green fleece and sewed those in before I put in the lining. Once it was all put together I added the eyes and the fleece pom pom to the top.  For the pom poms on the braids I unraveled the sweater. 

Weston....you look a bit too happy for one who is getting their head eaten though, dontcha think?

Ok. There's a little more terror. Thank you. (This shot was taken right after he opened it on Christmas morning...er....more like afternoon by the time we got home from church and back to the opening of presents! :)

Hmmmmm....we took a lot of pictures, didn't we? Well. We were having fun....

Oh my. This boy is so much fun. He didn't want me getting his jammies in the pictures at first. But then he decided he didn't care.

While making this hat, I had to plop it on my head every so often and race to a mirror. Then I'd giggle in happy anticipation of Weston opening it. And, boy....that was an awesome moment. He was THRILLED! That monster, Floyd (as Weston named him) perched on his head for probably three days straight. 

Upcycled Sweater Dress Tutorial

Alright. So, I didn't take a before picture of this sweater. I know! So so so not cool. I cruised around the internet trying to find something comparable.

This is similar...

Source: Bonanza

Although you can see that the one above has a row of buttons on the front. And no hoodie. And, well, of course....it's brown.  Ok. This is as good as I could fine.  Moving on...

When I spotted it on the thrift store rack, it was love. I decided to make it into a dress for my wee girl. But I wasn't sure what to do about the big neckline which swamped her little shoulders.

Well, I started by taking it in on the sides and the sleeves all in one go. And also putting in a new seam along the shoulders from the neck to sleeve.  (First I turned it inside out and then pinned it where I wanted the new seams....and... let's hope I first tried it on her to see where I wanted the new seams to go....but I can't really remember.... I actually made this last year and when I finished it, it was too big on her and looked funny. I chalked it up to a Craft Fail. But then Zoe found it a few days ago, slipped it on and I realized it fit and looked good! Yay!)

So, I serged it from the sleeves to the hem and also from the neck to sleeves (is this making any sense?) and tried it on her. (I probably had to take it in a bit more on the sides....)

And then I pondered about that neckline. What to do...what to do?

Hmmmm, what about some darts? Yes. darts. I put one in each side. The Nordic design disguises them rather nicely, I think.

This looks a bit like the outline of a body at a murder scene. Poor sweater....

Can you see the new seam line and dart?

No clue what a dart is? Or maybe you're picturing some yellow foam Nerf darts and wondering how I put those into the sweater dress?  Well, let me help you out. Go check out this Dart Tutorial for more info.

This is a another pic of the new seam and dart, but from the inside.

And there you go. Ridiculously easy. 

A woman's sweater to little girl's sweater dress.  

Comfy.

Cozy.

And super cute. 

Thrifty Thursday: My Adventures in Stenciling

I wanted to make a little baby gift for a friend who had a sweet little boy about a week or so ago.  So, I bought a white onesie and a little pair of blue pants (each $2 at Wal-mart) and stenciled this...

This took me about 15 minutes (once I found the stencil and brush and paint...).  Fast and easy and cute! Yay!

I love stenciling shirts for my kids and I've made loads over the years.  I originally posted a tutorial for how I go about making the stencils at Craftster in 2007.  But I'll repost it below...

Well, there are a lot of different methods for stenciling, so I'll just tell you what works for me....

I buy clear vinyl.  They sell it by the yard at wal-mart.  It's on big rolls at mine, near the red and white picnic vinyl.  I buy the thickest they have.  Then I print out my image.  I cut out a piece of vinyl a bit bigger than my image and I place it under it and trace the image with a fine point sharpie.  Then I tape it to a thin board (it was just some scrap stuff my husband gave me) and I cut it out.  I started out last year with just a plain ol' exacto knife.  But then I discovered the world of Hot Knives!  And, oh, they cut so nice!  I just bought mine in the craft section at wal-mart.  It was about $20 and totally worth it.  (Sorry I can't remember the brand and the exact name and it's in the basement in a box and I'm trying to type this while my baby falls asleep in her sling....)  It plugs in and came with all sorts of attatchments for wood burning, fabric embossing, etc.  And it came with a stencil cutter, but I found I didn't really like that--it does something weird to the vinyl.  I just like the exacto knife-looking one. 

So, anyway, I cut it out, remembering to add bridges to the design if there weren't any in the orginal.  Does everyone know what bridges are?  Hmmmmm.....well, they are....urgh.  I'm not sure how to explain this....

Alright, this site kind of explains bridges...
http://www.iratethis.com/t-shirtblog/2007/08/how-to-stencil-your-own-homemade-t-shirt

You just have to put the bridges in to keep some of the areas not painted. 

So, then, after it's cut out, I place some cardboard between the shirt, under the area I'm going to stencil.  Then I tape the stencil in place.  I use a stenciling brush (is that what they are called?  It's one of those brushes with really hard bristles....) and apply just your regular everyday acrylic craft paint (remember to blot the brush on some paper towel after dipping in the paint--if you go straight from paint to shirt, the paint will bleed under the stencil and this is not pretty).  I probably should use fabric paint, but so far, I haven't had any problems with the craft paint.  I did robot shirts for my boys last year and they've been washed a gazillion times and the robot is still dancing on the front.

Alright,ANYWAYS (I feel like I get sidetracked quite easy...) after I paint it then I remove the stencil and use a small itty bitty brush to carefully fill in the bridges and fix any mistakes that may have mysteriously shown up (heh.  Yeah, I seem to make a mistake...at least a small one with each one!) I let it dry and then I put a thin piece of fabric or paper towel over it and iron it really good.  Now, my point of this is to set the paint and make it stay.  But I haven't ever stenciled anything and NOT ironed it.....so, I'm not so sure this is needed.  I mean, it works for me and I think it makes the paint stay better...but maybe it would stay just as good without ironing?   Ah well, it's not hard and I don't want to chance it. 

So, anyways (again) I then show my boys and listen to them rave about how cool it is (that is the best part!  Hmmmm, I don't look forward to the day when I'm no longer so awesome in their eyes!!)

And that's it.  I know some people use paper or cardboard for their stencils, but I like to reuse mine over and over.  I hate to waste time on something I can only do once. 

I sure hope this helped and made sense.

Good luck and if you all have more questions, feel free to holler! 
(I just thought of another tip.....if you make a minor mistake when cutting out your stencil, just put a couple layers of clear tape over the boo boo and recut it.)

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Now who is going to start stencling?  Hmmm? Huh?  Come ON! It's way fun. Give it a shot! You can create unique and fun t-shirts for your kids. Or for yourself. Or for your husband! (I made a shirt for my handsome cowboy that says, "Never trust a man with a mustache." Yep. He has a mustache.)

Thrifty Thursday: Boring Jeans to Ruffley Capris (a $2 project!)

Boy, have I got a thing for ruffles lately.  But can you blame me? They are so cute! And they get even cuter when you start out with cheapo jeans from the thrift store....

I picked these up for my 3 yo Zoe at D.I. for about two or three dollars a few weeks ago. I think they were only $2.

I had Zoe try them on last night and I figured out where I wanted to chop them.  Then I let her get back into her jammies and after I got my last and smallest monkey popped into bed, I cut the legs off the jeans and sliced open the leftover bits. 

I cut these into strips to make the ruffles. I had enough to cut out two strips per leg. This made the ruffle twice the width of the pants.  (I ended cutting some other strips though...I didn't like how some of this denim had the vertical stripe thing going on.)

I serged these pieces together, serged the hem, ruffled them up, serged them to the bottom of the pants (sorry no in-process shots since it was super late and I needed to get them done so I could get some work done on Sam's Super Secret Birthday Project), ironed the ruffle down and top stitched them.

I couldn't wait for Zoe to try them on the next morning. 

Ok. Those are totally worth the late night sewing.  Totally. 

I'm linking to...

Thrifty Thursday: Ruffled Bum Bloomers from a T-shirt {with a half-baked tutorial}

Ok.  A ruffled baby tushy is just about the cutest thing ever, right? Ack! They're so CUTE!

So, I've been wanting to make some ruffled ba-donk-a-donk bloomers for Molly.  This week I finally got around to it.  And I made them from a thrifted white t-shirt (you know those white t-shirts that have hardly been worn because they're a nifty promotional shirt that no one wants to wear) 

I used a pants pattern (folded up to shorts length) and sewed them up according to directions.

I cut out three strips of the t-shirt and ruffled them down the middle.

Next I pinned them to the fanny of the pants and sewed them on.  

 Then I added 1/4" elastic to the leg opening and 3/4" elastic to the waist.

Yep. The only thing cuter than that ruffley caboose is the baby herself.

Now go find yourself a rear end, booty, heiny, some hind quarters or gluteus maxiums to ruffle! 

Link up here...