Happy Halloween!

I’m somewhat of a procrastinator…. I just finished our costumes! My husband hasn’t yet decided what to be (hmmmm… does that make him a procrastinator too???). Anyway, the ‘Curious George Dressed Up Like A Monster’ costume, requested by my son, is done as is the Man with the Yellow Hat costume. Just in the nick of time!

We had a good time carving pumpkins last night. My son sooooo wanted a green pumpkin this year, so if you look closely, the little one in the middle is green!

Pictures of the costumes…. Tomorrow….

Off for some Halloween Fun! Enjoy your night!

It’s a Dragon Halloween!

I’m so glad that so many people are attempting the dragon wing tutorial that posted last year!

I thought I’d share some reader dragons today!

These dragon wings were made by Make Jane Make and I love love love the sweatshirt she made to go with them!  I might just have to attempt this to go with my son’s wings.

And this little blue number is by Just Plumb Good.

I love how both of these use different colored fabrics.

I also just made another pair for a reader in Virginia. So beware… There’s a black dragon lurking on the east coast!

And a few more people have commented that they have made some wings, including a pair for a puppy. I’d love to see them! Please send pictures, upload them to the I’m Feelin’ Crafty flicker page or send me a link to your photos!

Gotta get on that Halloween costume. So behind schedule somehow!

Spoooookkkkyyyy Decorating

Man, I’ve been having a scare with the cameras this week… My good camera keeps giving me an error message. So finally I go look in the manual and it that error message means it’s having an error different from all the other messages and take it to a service center or change the battery. Huh? I changed the battery, nothing. of course, neither of my batteries are fully charged… So then I pull out my little camera and start taking pictures, until…. The battery dies… So I change lenses on the good camera and so far so good… ergh! Frustrating… But enough of my ranting…

And on to my decorating! I just thought I’d share what I’ve been up to with my spooky Halloween decorating.

I showed you the art I hung the other day, but here’s the whole area. Finished with spider webs and bats and spiders and jack o lanterns….

The internet overfloweth with Halloween projects and some of those projects inspired me to actually get on it and craft them myself! Three of which I included in my Halloween link love a few weeks ago.

The big BOO was quite an interesting project! (Tutorial here)I look at it and think, ‘I’ll do that real quick…’ Um, no. It takes a while! Easy, but time-consuming! I got the B and the last O that the store had. I just assumed that they would get another one… Um, no. again. So I went to another store and they had a damaged O so I scooped it up! then I got home and was about to wrap it in yarn when I noticed that it wasn’t the same shape of the other O I had… So back to the store I went. No more O’s. And it ends up I had a damaged Q, not a damaged O. And plus the letters were now on sale, so I couldn’t use my 50% off coupon. Then it was one of those Ah Ha! moments… I knew that if I lined them up next to each other and they weren’t the same it would drive me INSANE. So then came the skeleton hanging on to the falling over O and the bats flying out… And it ends up working for me! What do you think?

And the bats (template via Country Living), I cut and cut and cut! Then got some double-sided tape because I didn’t want to use my good double-sided tape. The stuff I had has paper on one side that you have to peel off. But as I was using my ‘new’ tape, I’d put three up, then one would fall off, then I’d hang another and another would fall off… So, I realized the good tape is really good…. Funny!

And the framed piece is from Tatertots and Jello.

And the outside…

We’ve been putting up the sheer fabric with silhouettes and green lighting for the last three years. But this year we got it up and felt that something was missing! we thought that there was more and I though well, maybe the other image fell off somehow??? looking back, nope. It’s the same as it has been for the last three years. So i added more bats. Much better! I’m thinking next year I want more of a real ‘scene’. Any suggestions????

The dining room table….

And my son LOVES the mice we put up every year!

Have you gotten all your decorations up and ready for the big night?

Now it’s off to make the kiddo’s costume! My 3 year old has asked to be Curious George dressed up like a monster! Fun!!

 

Quilt #3 Finished! Finally!

I know, I know, everyone else seems to be blogging about Halloween… So maybe I should be too?? Well, don’t fret, I will again on Wednesday. But today, I just couldn’t wait any longer to show off my latest quilt!

I’ve written some process posts about this one, here, here and here. It actually started as my 4th quilt but ended up being the third one I finished, so now it’s quilt Number 3. The dragonfly quilt for my adorable little niece, Haley.

For this one the backgrounds for the front and back are all thrifted fabrics. I was excited about my fabrics. The purple top  (although it does look blue in the top picture, it’s purple!) is the almost exact color of Haley’s room. And then, I was so lucky to find the swirly back that matched the colors on the front perfectly! And doesn’t the swirly remind you of the dragonfly’s flight path??? The binding is from a sheet set I had about 20 years ago that I found at my Mom’s house. It matched the purple perfectly!

The small pieces and the dragonflies are made from fabrics given at the baby shower. Using fabrics I found and fabrics given at the baby shower make this quilt a super special gift that included a bunch of friends and family. For babies I like to make the quilts have some sort of tactile interest. Like in my very first quilt,  (and if you go look, please excuse the photography…. I was new to the blogging thing at the time..) the owl’s wings are sewn down so that they can flap around. On this one I thought about doing the same thing with the dragonfly wings, but they would have flopped around too much. I finally decided to make the eyes POP out! I stuffed them with fill as I was sewing them down.

Creepy Crawly Yarn Wreath

Yes, Yes, another yarn wreath! I do love them! I’ve made a few in the past year or so, but these were football themed wreaths! Go Bama! RTR! And they were both gifts… This one is for us!

And a quick tutorial…

As I mentioned before, the original tutorial that I used to get started was here at Take Heart.

1. Materials:

White yarn, the cheap stuff. No need for the fancy yarns!

The straw wreath. And I leave the plastic wrap on.

Spiders

and Scissors

2. Start the wreath by tying off the yarn.

3. And then you go around and around and around and around and around and ….. Ok, you get the point! It’s actually kind of a workout for the arms going around and around and…. But here’s where the tutorial deviates from the original tutorial. Do the around and around for a few inches and then start over in another section across from the first section. Then go a few inches and switch sides again! The problem with this is that you get the web going , your big ball of yarn won’t fit through the center anymore. At this point I started cutting shorter lengths of yarn are just knotted the pieces together as needed. The knot just gets covered up by yarn as it wraps around and around and around and…. Once you get to the end, leave a longer piece of yarn to tie your spider on.

4. Knot all the pieces in the middle together.

5. start in the center and move around the inside pieces knotting the web yarn as you go. I spaced mine about an inch apart from one another.

6. Wahla!

This weekend we’re going to get the rest of the decorations up! I’ll show more of our holiday decor next week. My son is itchin’ to get in the boxes of decorations! Have you decorated yet???

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Whooooo’s Excited About Halloween?? (and some printables)

Me, Me, Me!!!

Now that I’m getting back to normal from the huge news I had last week that kinda left me spinning for a few days and now that KCWC is over (although, I do still have quite a few kids clothes to make…), I’m starting to get my holiday decorating under way!

First up was the art wall! We have a wall in our dining rom that has about 8 pieces of art that we’ve either collected or made. Come to think of it, every wall in our house  has art that we’ve either collected or made! Anyway, I digress… Over the last year, I’ve taken to switching out the art for the holidays every now and then. And this holiday is one of those!

Most of these are downloads that you can print and frame yourselves….

1. I’m kinda a sucker for the play on The Keep Calm posters! This one is from Libby Bonjour.

2. Now, this one is not a printable! I found it while we were out on our family adventure in Snohomish, WA. I loved it! It’s just hilarious to me. The piece is by Kim Loesch.

3. And this is a free printable at Creative Kismet, but instead of printing on photo paper, this one I printed on canvas to give it more of hte look of a hand painted piece!

4. Another thing I’m a sucker for… Subway Art!

And then 2 of the pieces I made myself! The first one I am super excited with the way it turned out!! It’s a paper cut. For some reason I got on a mission the weekend before last to make a paper cut art piece. not exactly sure what inspired it, but I’m not kidding when I said I was on a mission! I got the paper, the boys were out of town, I stayed up late and 4 hours later…..

The house is a real haunted house (or so they say) in my mother’s home town of Marion, AL, named the Carlisle House. The tree is a picture I took on a little road trip through Alabama and the little trick or treaters are just cute! I printed them, and very carefully cut them out. The different depths of each element give wonderfully spooky shadows that totally add to it.

So for you, I’ve made two printables of it here. One shows more of the dimensional aspect than the other. It’s not quite the same as the 3 dimensional paper cut, but feel free to use it in your Halloween decorating endeavors!

Click here for the more 3 dimensional one.

Click here for the other one.

And the last one is another quick one I made the other night. I used the silhouette I found on  Value Village’s website and a frame from The Coffee Shop blog for the frame, fixed them all together with a little Photoshop action and whala…..

Then my husband commented on what a cool paper cut it was. I had to tell him, nope I just printed that one… So now I think I’m going to have to make it a papercut as well!! (We might be revisiting that one soon!)

You can download this one here.

Stay tuned for more Halloween decorating! What are your favorites projects this year?

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Kids Clothes Week Challenge- Day 4 & 5

Since I’m a bit obsessive, I really like to make one thing every day of the KCWC… But life got in the way this time. So on Day 4 I cut and on Day 5 I put it all together.

Yep, you guessed it. Another pair of pants!!

Again, I guess Dana’s pants pattern. Only this time, I printed it the right size and wahlaaaaa… The pants fit! I used my own pocket patterns on the front and back. As soon as he put them on, he was looking for his ‘little guys’ to put in his pockets!

This pair I made out of old sheets. The pattern looked really big, but when I held it up to his current pants they seemed to match. Even so I was still a little hesitant about the sizing, so I decided to not cut the fabric I had bought and to just use the old sheets I had lying around. It’s getting cool around here, so I knew one layer wasn’t enough so I lined them. I debated with the strip on the outside or the inside… But the stripe seemed almost a little too PJ’s lookin’.

Now that I have the pattern sized correctly, it doesn’t fit on my other pants that I wanted to upcycle… But between myself and my husband, I think we came up with an idea…  Stay tuned!

And as you can see we headed out to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday! It was a great day with the family! And absolutely no sewing was even thought of for KCWC Day 6. Maybe I can make something today for Day 7. I still have tons of projects for the kiddo…..

Kids Clothes Week Challenge- Day 3, interrupted

Does thinking about kids clothes count??? Because I did do that. I was going to make more pj’s. Then decided on pants. Then got laid off from my real job after 10 years. Then looked at the fabric and the patterns. Then went to bed.

Yes, you read correctly. I am now joining the ranks of the other 14 million people in the US that are unemployed. lovely. (note that lovely was written dripping in sarcasm.)

Hopefully, I can look back on this as a blessing in disguise…..

Sooo… I didn’t sew anything for my kiddo yesterday. But despite everything that’s going on and all the emotions I’m going through right now, I did THINK about sewing! And I will sew tonight. I’m looking forward to it.

Hoping you had a better day yesterday and today!

Kids Clothes Week Challenge- Day 2

Another pair of pants! And I’m not saying there’s not going to be more, because there will be!

 

Again, I started with a pair of my old pants.

 

And again I used the adult pants to kids pants and the basic pants tutorials that I used yesterday. Everything was going well until I got them made and realized, man, these legs are really skinny!!! I just couldn’t figure it out. I remember reading Dana’s tutorial and that she mentioned that her pattern was for a taller, skinny 3 year old. Well, my son isn’t chubby, but he’s not super skinny and he’s really not on the tall side… ok, yes, he’s a shorty (we all are!) So I was like, what is up with this pattern??? I laid out the pants and was like, hmmmm, maybe this pattern doesn’t include the seam allowance??? Because that’s about the right size, if I was to add a seam allowance…

So I went back and re-read her tutorial and realized that I had matched up the pattern pieces wrong, so the pattern was a little off.

I then reprinted the pattern and the one that came out of the printer was BIGGER than the one I had!! So after I had already made the pants, I realized that not only were the pattern pieces aligned wrong, but that there were also the wrong size!!

So here’s my new dilemma… Parts of the wrong pattern fit and parts don’t… So tonight while I’m working on my Day 3 project, I’m going to try the pattern one more time! :)

The thighs ended up a little tight and the booty is a little big…. But, to my surprise, they did end up fitting!

Anyway, despite all the ‘issues’ I was having, my son seemed to really like the pants I made! I put them on him just to see and he wouldn’t take them off. So he wore them all day at school. I even took an extra pair of pants just in case he decided he didn’t like them. And then we went to soccer lessons in them and he ran around all over and they didn’t fall down (remember I mentioned the booty was a little big?)

Kids Clothes Week Challenge- Day 1

WooooHoooo! It’s that time of year again! 

So if you’ve ever followed along with me, you know that I post my projects the next day. So technically yesterday was the first day. I sew at night. So I always post the next day….

I guess I could start the day before and then I’d actually have something to post the very first day… Hmmmm…. Maybe I’ll try that next time!

I prepared this weekend by cleaning out my closet. Cleaning out your closet, you ask??? yes, my closet. there were tons of clothes in there and they are about to be repurposed into clothes for the little guy! I’m going to try to use them all.

The first project last night was a quickie PJ project. I didn’t spend a lot of time cutting everything just right or any of that. This project was mostly to try out a couple of ideas. I’ve been wanting to try out the basic pants pattern from Dana Made It. And then I made my own top pattern and I wanted to give it a try.

They started as PJ’s of mine.

Then I used this tutorial from Cook Clean Craft for turning grown up pants into little pants. The pants fit pretty good (luckily, there was already a drawstring in the pants, because I kinda forgot to stretch out (or size down) the elastic!)

The top worked out pretty well, too.

One problem I had… I made the pattern from one of his snug PJ’s. The intent was to make it out of stretchy pj material, but I switched gears at the last minute (the fabric I was going to use hadn’t been washed yet) and then I continued and used my old pj’s that weren’t stretchy! OOPS! Well, the shirt fits great, but the sleeves are a bit tight. I’ll redo those tonight!

I used this Ringer shirt tutorial for the shirt, even though I didn’t use the knit. But man, I did learn how easy it is to make a shirt!! Why haven’t I done more of these? I’ve been scared for some reason. Tonight I’m going to try it with the jersey knit… We’ll see if I’m still as excited!

So all in all I think for an hour and half of work, it was a productive evening at the sewing machine!

Are you sewing along with the KCWC???