Recent Sewing Completions

Lately I've been finishing sewing projects. It's nice to be able to mark things off my list. My main priority was getting Peter's monkey costume finished in time for Halloween. Last year I finished with less than an hour before it was time to go. I really didn't want to do that this time around so here's the monkey with no little monkey in it. :) He likes to play with it more than he likes to wear it. Hopefully that will change this Friday at the church party. 

I took a pattern for footie pajamas and left the feet off and just added the hood, tail and front spot. It's actually the same PJ pattern that I used last year for his dragon. I'll be sure to post pictures of him wearing soon.

Monkey front

 Monkey back

The next project that I finished is this nursing cover. I actually cut out all the pieces LAST October and finally got around to putting it all together after I finished the monkey. I modified the tutorial I used for the other nursing covers to make a lined nursing cover. The piece of flannel I wanted to use wasn't quite tall enough so I added the green to the top and the bottom and the back is the same green fabric. I think I'm really going to like using this cover.

The nursing cover

Last but not least is the fitted crib sheet for Peter's bed. He was using the neutral sheets I made for the nursery. I have only finished this one but I've got the 2nd one cut out and ready to go. I was having a few issues with straight lines and it being late at night so I stopped while I was ahead and will finish the next time Peter's sleeping. I modified my friend's tutorial since the mattresses we have are half the thickness of standard crib mattresses. I think I may go back to this sheet and tighten it up a bit.

At first I was looking for a larger sheet set to cut up to make the sheets but the ones I bought I returned because they weren't quite the right color I was looking for. So one day I happened to be at JoAnn's and found the perfect color fabric in the quilting broad cloth section.

The sheet on Peter's bed

Peter's Dragon Costume

Weeks before Halloween I decided that I was going to make Peter's costume and he was going to be a dragon. I used a sleeper pajama pattern and modified it to make it a dragon. At first I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to do it so I mailed the fleece and the pattern to WA so I could work on it with my Mom while I was up there. We actually finished it just in time to go trick or treating with my friend Kim. The glue on the googly eyes was still drying so they actually came off while we were trick or treating luckily Kim had super glue at her house so I was able to glue the eyes back on before we headed over to my Mom's church Halloween party.

I used green, brown and white anti-pill fleece. The green was bought specifically for the dragon costume and the brown was a remnant @ JoAnn's and the white was scraps from a previous project. My friend Kim had some spare bumpy fabric for the bottom of the feet and it still needs snaps over the zipper and the base of the hood. My mom had this spool of stay stiff fabric stuff that we sandwiched inside the toes and the spines on the back.

There was very little modification needed to make the dragon. I left out the elastic around the ankle and added the hood, the spines, the tail and the toes and that's it. We did have some major brain farts when it came to sewing the spines on though. We sewed the spines on first and then sewed the pieces together and we had issues remembering which way they needed to go to poke out when turned right side out. :)

I think that it would have been finished faster if I had just sat down and done it but there were multiple interruptions including a day of me and an awful sinus headache. Otherwise it was quick and easy.

I need to put it back on him and take some better pictures; I'm thinking some of him standing on his own and also crawling around in it.

Front

Back with hood

My ferocious dragon

Check out that awesome tail!

Peter's Pumpkin Bag

A few months ago I went searching for craft ideas that use orange fleece. I have extra from a previous halloween costume that I want to use up. I found this pattern/tutorial for a pumpkin bag online, but the link doesn't work anymore. Thank goodness I printed it out. :)


Basically it said to find a picture of a pumpkin that you like and blow it up to get your pattern. I printed out half of the pumpkin onto a regular piece of paper and jut put it on the fold to cut the fabric.

I used the shape of this pumpkin.

And I used the mouth of this pumpkin.

The bag is the orange fleece and the lining is halloween cotton fabric. The tutorial said that you needed cotton batting but wasn't specific on where it went so I sandwiched it between the fleece and the cotton. I also lined the cotton with interfacing so that it would be stiffer and stand up & stay open on its own. The eyes and mouth are felt and I used some craft spray adhesive to put them on and then I used a satin stitch to keep them in place. I also used a satin stitch to make the pumpkin lines.

The handle is one strand of fleece braided together with two strands of cotton. I used large grommets to reinforce around the holes for the handle.

The original tutorial made a bag that was just a front & back but no bottom. I made my own "pattern" for the bottom & just winged it. It also had bats & leaves and such decorating the top of the bag, but I'm not sure I'm going to add those.

Here's the finished product.




There are a few things that I would do differently:

• I would choose a rounder pumpkin picture.
  
• I would attach the interfacing to the fleece and leave out the batting.
• I would sew on the pumpkin lines on just the fleece.
  
• I would sew on the face BEFORE I sew the bag together.
  
• I would try not to break 3 needles.