Pumpkin Playdough

So today is Little Man's Halloween party and we were in charge of the treat bags for 20 2-3 yr olds!

We put in some random little toys from JoAnn's and I made ghost bags with white lunch bags and black card stock eyes and mouth. I decided that I needed one more homemade thing and decided on pumpkin playdough. I have seen this ALL OVER the place and decided I could adapt  own recipe from my basic 'dough recipe. 

I thought as a last minute Halloween post-I should share it with you!

To make 20 palm-ish sized pumpkins of dough (lol) you need:

2 c. Flour

1 c. Salt

1 tsp. Cinnamon

4 tsp. Cream of Tartar

1 tsp. Allspice

2 c. H20 

2 Tbs. Veggie oil

Yellow and Red food coloring

Directions

 

Mix dry ingredients in a large sauce pan or pot, mix with a whisk  until well blended.

Add wet ingredients and mix until blended. I used 28 drops yellow and 12 drops red food coloring.

Put pan on burner over medium heat and with a rubber spatula stir constantly-even if it feels like your arm is about to fall off! It took me about 6 minutes or so for the dough to form a dough. Try not to over cook it (it gets to dry)

Turn out when it cools a little on a clean counter top and kneed until smooth. 

Roll the pumpkin into a log and cut in half, cut that in half, then into fifth's to make 20. Roll into little balls.

I put mine in sandwich baggies tied off with green ribbon "stem" and drew on little pumpkin faces. 

These will keep about a week; if it gets a little to dried out you can dampen your hands and roll again.

My Halloween Costume; A Review of Simplicity 1773

Simplicity 1773

Pattern Description:

Misses' medieval dress in two lengths has square neckline and flared skirt. Under dress A, C has back zipper, long sleeve and ruched or trimmed neckline. Overdress B, D has front lacing and short puffed sleeves. The short version of the over dress has a slit on each side of the skirt portion.

Pattern Sizing:

Sized from 6-22

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

I think so!

Were the instructions easy to follow?

Very easy.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

I did have to tack the overdress to the under dress to my bra. It just wouldn't stay up. I should have muslin-ed it first and decreased the measurement in the square neckline and it would have been fine. However, one of the options is to wear it off the shoulder and it did look cute that way!

Fabric Used:

The under dress is a crepe-backed satin (the same pretty blue that was from Little Man's costume. ) The overdress is a faux suede and lined with kona cotton.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:

None. I did opt to do a regular hem on this dress, I may have done the jagged look if I used taffeta but satin frays like a motha.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

I probably will not need another one of these. However I have already thought of other ways to wear this costume in the future to recycle it. Like I'll make a drawstring neckline shift type dress to wear under it and a white sleep cap to wear with the over dress. OR wear a LONG wig and be Rapunzel. OR throw on some wings, mask and glitter and be some kind of woodland fairy.

Conclusion:

Very cute costume. It was a little daunting when cutting out all the pattern peices. The overdress has some peices that get cut out 12 times between the lining, interfacing and fabric but it came together relatively quickly even though I hate to iron and only can sew a little bit at a time. 



In other news Oh My Goodness the rain is REALLY coming down here in Pennsylvania. Thank you Sandy lol

Is anyone else in my situation? What did you buy/get to prepare? 
I got pop-tarts, PB crackers, water and canned ravioli. . .Sad, I know. Luckily I already have some stuff at home. Until you actually TRY to find things that do not need refrigerated/cooked you do not know how hard it is to find. I'm sure ravioli will be gross room temp but it's better than being hungry haha

(In my defense the stores were already sold out of camp cook stove's and the liquor store was closed) 

The Final Reveal

 

Little guy is being a musketeer for Halloween but he normally will tell you he is being Puss is Boots. (Except of course today, when he decides he is being a fire fighter.)

I have posted all my parts of his costume but here are the pictures again.

The pattern I used is McCall's 5214 and I cut a size 3 for him.

Okay, Okay, Okay! Enough stalling HERE it is ALL together!



15 Minute Boot Covers

Today I am going to share with you my son's boot covers for his halloween costume.

No Lie, they took 15 minutes!

I was literally laughing out loud when taking theses pictures. This is the first time I had let him touch his sword and he was TOTALLY in to it.

Any how on to the tutorial!

I measured my little guys leg from his ankle to his knee and it was 9". I took that measurement and then did the ankle part 9" across and the top (knee) 12" across. I used the left over felt from his musketeer hat.

                                                                                             



                                                                         Your felt peices should look *something* like this. I have a tall 2 yr old that is pretty thin and these measurements fit him. His upper calf is 9" if that helps you upsize/downsize your pattern.

Next you just stitch up the back right sides together (or the sides you drew on to the outside). I used 1/4" hem allowance because I wanted to be sure that his clothed leg would fit inside.

Next to make the floppy top to the boot...err boot cuff I mean.

I made a trapezoid that is 12" on one side and just 14" on the top. It is 3" tall. It should look like this:

Lucky for me I had *just* enough of the trim left from his tabard to use on these.

To attach the trim I use the zigzag setting (Stitch #4 on Brother CE-4000) on my sewing machine set like this :

                                                         

I think that the trim just adds a little something. It's all in the small details:)

Now, to attach the cuff to the boot shaft. You need to turn the boot shaft right side out and put the cuff inside the boot with the right (trimmed) side of the cuff facing the wrong side of the boot. That way when you flip it out you have no seams showing.

Flip that cuff out, finger press the seam (beacause with felt you can do that and it stays).

That is it!

Unless of course you feel the need to put some elastic from the bottom edge of the boot cover to run under the shoe. I didn't, he was running around in them and they were not riding up. Plus I feel like, what if he's walking and it gets caught on something in the *dark* Halloween night?

Maybe I should discuss proper handling of swords-even if it is fake!



Bar-lloween

For those of you that don't know what my made up word is referring to - let me inform you. 

Bar-lloween=

That once a year event the Saturday night before Halloween where all the adults head to the bar in their costumes and pretend it is Halloween.

Could we go to the bar ON Halloween?  Maybe. . . Well in all reality; NO. I am "old" and do not go to the bar. I mean like ever, well, maybe only twice a year.  Bar-lloween and New Years.

Luckily my costume is done and I can post pictures later. 

I literally finished it an hour ago. Nothing like waiting until 

the.last.possible.second.

Did y'all see this magazine?

So I was at JoAnn' s and this cute little magazine was sitting screaming for me to buy it. Like.Now.

There are so many adorable things in it that I am dying to make. If you have not bought this magazine yet I totally recommend it. I want to make these adorable ninja chap stick holders that are in there. The little houses you see on the cover-I could make one for each of my siblings with their house number's on it as a keepsake ornament.

Some of my favorite bloggers are even it it!!

 Linda from Craftaholics Anonymous is in there:)

I'm not done!!

So I've been busting my butt today working on my Halloween costume.

It's not done.

I'm doing Simplicity 1773 .

I am working on the short version. I did the under dress is in the same blue as little man's tabard.

That part is 99% done' only needs a zipper, I only have 9 million zippers but not in the right color/length combo. The over dress is only about 30% done. That part has been a little finicky. It looks easy enough but it is time consuming. The over dress is only 10 actual pattern pieces for that but all were cut 2-12 times between the fabric, lining and interfacing. Did I ever tell you I HATE ironing? Ironing all the dang interfacing in was torturous for me. LOL

I know it will be awesome but there is only so many more sewing hours left for me before Halloween. 

...and little man's boot covers still need made!! Hahaa

Making a musketeer hat

So as you may know my little guy is being a musketeer / puss in boots.

What you might not know is that it is rediculously hard to find a CHILD'S size musketeer hat. Pirate hats galore but nothing "just right." Having taken all that time making his costume doublet and tabard there was NO WAY he could not have the "right" hat.

So I made one of course and I wanted to share with you how you can make your own as well.

Supplies

One childs pirate hat

One small length of trim or ribbon

One yard of black felt

One piece of a heavy weight interfacing, fusible or not is fine

Elmer's Craft Bond (if interfacing is not fusible)

One large feather

And the basics-pinking scissors, thread and needle, hot glue gun

First take a standard child's pirate hat and cut off the brim. I used my pinking scissors for this.

Trace your hat base and then make a new line a little bit inside that one; about 1/2" smaller.

Trace your felt and interfacing larger than your pattern base. Excuse my pizza pan but it's the only thing I had handy. You can cut your interfacing just a smidge smaller than the felt or if you have any interfacing showing you can just use a sharpie to clean it up after the next steps. LOL

Sandwich your felt and interfacing. Give it a GOOD healthy spray of craft bond between the three layers.

Let dry completely.

Figure out where you want the hat's fold to be, mark it and go just a little to the center of that, place the template there and cut it out.

Slide the brim over the base of the hat and glue in place. 

Did I ever tell you how much I love a hot glue gun?

Stitch on your trim.

Although, I suppose you could hot glue it too! Haahaa

Ribbon could be used too but I thought it made the hat look a little too girly....

and his costume already has lace so I did not want to push it.

Hot glue the feather to the trim and then glue the brim up.

Now you have an official musketeer hat.

Now all that is left is the boot/shoe covers then I will FINALLY be done with little man's costume :)

Puss in Boots costume is ALMOST done

I am this.close to being done!

Here is a picture of the tabard; again only a sneak peek until its all done and together.

It is McCall's M5214 if you were wondering.

When it has the doublet under it too OMG sooo cute:)

You will just have to take my word for it until 

the final reveal.

Now for my next trick-making a musketeer hat.

Did you know that it is dang near impossible to find a CHILD'S size musketeer hat? 

Here are my supplies:

This pirate hat will have to do as a base. I have a general idea of what I want to do but I haven't started that yet. Maybe...tomorrow? 

No worries, I'll post a tut when I'm done:)

After that I'm on to making boot/shoe covers with the same black felt you see above.

YAY! I did it:)

I finally made a blog button! It literally took forever for me to figure it out. I'm not very computer literate apparently; my whole problem was the slanted quotation marks. Go Figure. 

Hopefully it (finally) works...

 I can not say that I did it on my own though. 

If you struggled like me you should defintely check out this blog HERE at My Pregnancy Baby.

The Holiday Mantel

Fall is here!!

All the cool kids are making and posting some cute mantels so not to be left out...

 

Here is mine:)

A very loose tutorial in pictures.

 

 The End.

Oh wait, you wanted to see the actual finished project??

I used fabrics from my stash-the orange is vintage fabric I got in an Ebay lot and the other fall fabric is from Hobby Lobby.

EVERYTHING else is from the Dollar General with the exception of the tin container that the flowers are in.

Ever have one (or two) of those days?

Ugghhh!

So between the regular job and the home/family time I just DO NOT feel like sewing.

I know tomorrow or the next day I'll get back in the swing of things. I have my pattern pieces traced for my undershirt for my Halloween costume ready to go-ready for placement and cutting so I know once I actually sit down I'll knock it out. 

I figured I would share my upcoming projects I wanted to do:) 

Who doesn't need some inspiration?

So the first thing I want to do is these boxer brief's that I found at Sew A Straight Line.  I feel like I say this a lot but it is another FABULOUS blog and you should totally check her out and poke around her blog.

 It never ceases to amaze me the talented bloggers out there

I want to do them in this fabric I got at Jo-Ann Fabrics.

Can I say I just love this fabric-totally "boy" but not baby-boy.

I'll probably make a matching long sleeve tee-shirt with this fabric too. Maybe a raglan sleeve in red? I did one one the motorcycle jacket and I love the retro-esque look:)

I also want to do somethings with thrifted sweaters now that it is getting chillier!

Like these mittens, pillows and wine bags (MAYBE all from the same couple of sweaters??)-

 Now to be honest...These are all pinned things in my Pinterest. It is redic sometimes there trying to chase down what blog or websites images come from. The mittens are some asian (japanese/chinese?) site, the wine bottles are from DIYCrafts which is apparently a invite only place (sorry again!), and the pillows are from schmath blog but it looks like it was inspiration for her too. So no original maker there. I would like to be able to give credit where credit is due but...I can't:(  

Anyhow it is Little Man's bed time and then it is mine!!

Puss in Boots?

So I'm getting there.

The under shirt AKA as the doublet is done.

 

 

Sorry no "action" shots until it is all done and together! The doublet with out the rest is ...

ummm...

a little girly.

BUT it is necessary in the final look to be lace trimmed and puff sleeve-d to the max.

Although it is cute, it is crazy complicated in my opinion. Fully lined and button holes on crepe backed satin just turn out wrinkly no matter what. Unless someone has some awesome top secret tip for me--it does have an interfacing under that area already.

However, when he see's his costume he says  "Puth in Boot". So I'm thinking that I may have to get some cat ears and tail together so he really can be Puss in Boots.

Here's a peek at the tabard (the over jacket thingie)

Also in weekend fun :

AHHMMMAAZING 

Carrot Cake 

with homemade butter cream frosting

I know you are wondering where I got the recipe:) Well it came from this fabulous blog I just discovered called Mom on timeout. You can get this recipe (and the frosting recipe) HERE . 

I opted to do mine in a 9x13 cake pan because I don't have 2 9" round pans. My cake also did not want to come out of the pan. I opted to Ninja up the pecans to sprinkle on the top and only put them on "my half" of the cake. Big man doesn't like nuts...so we wont tell him that there are Ninja-d pecans inside the cake!! 

I'm taking some to work tomorrow so don't worry that I'm actually going to eat half a cake HAHA

We also took the little man to the Apple Fest this weekend. The only thing he cared about was the kettle corn. Even though we had already purchased some he walked up to every.single.vendor. that was selling it.

How stinkin' cute is he wearing these fake glasses?







Linking up with:

 

Stuck...McCall's M5214

Halloween Sewing

So for my little man's Halloween costume I'm doing this costume:

McCall's M5214

 

Pretty much just exactly like the blue image on the left; which is actually 2 pieces. My concern is that it is not going to be warm enough for Halloween night here in Western Pennsylvania. 

**Remember last year??**

It was dark (duh), pretty chilly and raining. 

So it needs to be lined...and I'm feeling like layer of flannel just wont be warm enough.

AHHHH!!!!! I need ideas STAT!!

Pretty please :)

The Motorcycle Jacket

Simplicity 2292

Pattern Description:

Toddlers' jacket or vest, pants, jumper, and hats.

 I made the little jacket.

Pattern Sizing:

This pattern comes in sizes 1/2 - 4. I went with a 3.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

Well...other than looking way cooler? Yep:)

Were the instructions easy to follow?

Very easy; not a single hiccup. Other than my general suckiness when it comes to zippers. I just never seem to get it "right" if I use the silly zipper foot. It always turns out perfect when I just use the regular foot!

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

Easy directions with not too many pattern pieces. I'm glad it came together quickly because it's time to get crackin' on those Halloween costumes!!

Fabric Used:

Some sweatshirt fabric from JoAnn's. Red Tag of course:) As well as some twill tape left over from the

<a href="http://www.madebymommainpa.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-retro-metro-bag-tutorial-my-very.html">the retro metro bag.</a> and some iron on appliques I've had laying around...forever.

The only snafu was the twill tape on the pockets did not line up perfectly. In person it really isn't that noticeable though! 

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:

I made no changes surprisingly. I almost left off the racing stripes but I'm glad I kept them; they look cute with the white zipper too-which also came from the stash:)

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

I think I may make one more. I really like the pants in this pattern too so I may make those as well even though little man has more than enough pants in his current size.

I would definitely recommend this pattern.I liked it so much that I actually accidentally bought it twice; luckily I found someone to give it away too!

I just love the MOM patch! 

I think it just emphasizes the racer-motorcycle style jacket:)