Thainie Craft: Spooky Haunted House Fill and Color Cut-It-Out

Another cute Halloween craft for the kiddies.  I got this creative idea from Sarah Jane's blog.  I tried to find a print and cut or any cuts from the Silhouette shop but couldn't find any so I used Sarah's cute template as a template for cutting on the Cameo.  Here's the outline and all you need to do is:
- Click this image and then it will give you the full size image

- Right click and save to your computer
- Open your Silhouette Studio
- Drag or open the image in your new file and according to your paper choice (i.e. A4, letter...)
- "Image trace" the entire house
- Select "Trace"
- Either resize now or you could resize when you first drag to the mat

OR if you don't have a cutting machine, it's easy to cut out with a cutter or exacto knife.

And you'll have a super spooky haunted house for your kids or you to decorate for Halloween.

Halloween: Monster High's Deuce Gorgon

This year my son wanted to be Deuce Gorgon from Monster High and so I looked at the Deuce doll that we had and noted what I needed to get together to make a costume for him.  It's quite an easy ensemble, this was my checklist for Deuce (some items we already had too).

- Red Tank (or a red tee and cut off the sleeves)

This was hard to find on the internet and so luckily we had the doll and so I took a hi res picture of the tee and then recolored the red area.  You can print on iron-on/T-shrit transfer paper and iron on the tank.

  - Striped Tee 

I was really lucky to have found a close enough pattern but it had this hideous embroidered cartoon **that you cannot remove even with patience and a thread cutter** and so I just cut it out and patched it up with the sleeves that were cut off.  Then you can just cut the middle of the tee and create the sleeveless jacket.  I also found the perfect image that I printed on T-shirt transfer paper so that I could iron on the patch.  Here's the image.

- Black Jeans

We had black jeans already and so I took a washable white fabric pencil then thought to use a Crayola white crayon and drew the little diamonds all over.  The crayon is washable (hopefully) so I hope it will wash off!

- Black Glove

We found a cheap pair at a party store, they were perfect.

- Belt

We had a metal buckle belt already and so I just printed the cassette image that I created and then laminated and used foam tape to attach to the buckle. 

- Black cuff piece (piece of felt)

I just cut a piece of felt and then ironed on another skull on it.

- Checkered Shoes 

Didn't have these so he'll just wear his black sneakers he has.  

- Snake Headpiece

This was the most daunting part of the costume to do but I was excited to create it. 

First I needed a head model, so I took a cap of his and stuffed it with clothes, then placed it on a stand  and saran wrapped all over it.

 Then I got modeling clay, the type where it will air dry light.  So I first worked on the

 After the snakes were done and left to dry (I forgot to mention that when you're doing the snakes, use another wire to make scores onto one side of the snake to create a scales look, do the same with headpiece too--I had used this iron grill thingy), I took a big ball of modeling clay and flattened it into a round piece and then put it over the head model and molded around the head then a placed each snake into place and added a bit more clay to help support some snakes but be sure to let your snakes dry before doing this since modeling clay is quite sticky.

Then let it dry completely for about 2-3 days, I took it off the head model on day 2 so that the inside could dry.  I sponge painted the headpiece with yellow and light green acrylic paints.  Then I use Mod Podge Matte all over and topped with Mod Podge Gloss.  The tongues are also made of red modeling clay, just do strips and let dry then cut off that triangular trip and glue into mouth.  The eyes are gold beads that I glued into the sockets.

 - Scales

I printed a bunch of these on tattoo paper.

 - Chain necklace and belt addition + Sunglasses

I found some plastic chains and red sunglasses at the 60 baht shop Daiso and they were perfect for this.

So I hope you will be able to create your own Deuce and hope that I didn't miss anything!!  Happy Crafting!

Halloween: Pumpkin Costume

 Halloween is approaching and I usually try to finish the children's costumes ahead of time so that I wouldn't be pulling my hair the last week of October.  Fortunately this year, their school had requested more "Halloween" themed costumes and not the usual superhero or princess.  I'm not at all against any of those costumes (or the school) but I can honestly say my children would have never chosen a pumpkin costume if it was up to them.  So luckily they wanted pumpkins!  

What I got (2 plump pumpkin costumes for 3.5 and 5 year old):
- 3 meters of orange fabric (cotton mix)
- 1/2 meter of green fabric (cotton mix)
- 1/2 meter of green felt
- 1/2 meter of black felt
- iron on webbing
- matching threads
- elastic 

I had actually searched the web for a children's pumpkin pattern, which I found and paid $8 (240 baht) but it had printed out about 120 pages and I was lost---this pattern paper fiasco is now being recycled for my kids' artwork.  I'm just not capable of patterns!  Gave up and just took one of my daughter's dresses and put it on the fabric and pretty much drafted my own pattern.   Cut into sections and sewn them together.  I'm sorry this is not going to be a very good tutorial but I can offer the following amazing references to help guide you there as they guided me.

Making your own pattern from clothes you already have
MADE

Sewing dress and lining (applicable to this costume!)
Cool People Sew

For the pumpkin features, first take felt and iron on webbing then trace the eyes, nose and mouth, cut pieces and iron on to the pumpkin.  If you want to, I stitched over the pieces.

Leaves Pattern for felt leaves
Pink Suede Shoe 

*** Print out the leaves the size you want or you can search on the web for any kind of leaves you like and cut out green felt

Note, the lining for the plump pumpkin was a padded quilted fabric (you can get this at Fabric House) and you just sew the same as a lining.  Lastly, fold up bottom at insert elastic.

My daughter had a bit of a diva moment and decided she wanted it to be more dressy (you can take the princess dress away but you can't take the princess out of the kid), so I cut around the existing pattern (copying her dress) and just added the green cotton lining and cut the bottom zig zagged, luckily we had kept a cute black petticoat skirt that belonged to my older daughter and was able to use it under this dress.

Happy sewing!!

Halloween: Hawaiian Hula Costume

My children had Hawaiian Day at their school last week (yes they are in school--very short story but long in so many other parts--but they are loving it) and I wanted to share how I made my daughter's costume just in case you would like to make one for Halloween. 

1) I love these plain tanks and they were so cheap, 90 baht ($3) at Cotton On Mega Bangna.  You will see that I am using these as the foundation of all my costumes this year.  I took brown fabric and used fusible webbing and ironed them on for the coconut bikini top.

2) Then I used some pom pom ribbon for the string of the bikini, you will need to sew all along the back and also the shoulder straps too and just a little right in the middle of the coconuts.  And you're done with your top!

 *** Quick Tip:  I found the lint sticky stick works great when you want to clean up all your thread bits!

3)  Now the bottom part, the skirt I used this wonderful tutorial here and do everything the same but before you put in the elastic, get your scissors and cut strips!  I used 2 layers of different color green fabric so it looks just a bit more grassy!!  

And there you go!  Easy and fun!  Btw the grass skirt gets a bit frazzled if you put it in the washer and dryer but I thought it added a nice effect to the skirt.   As for the lei, I got them at Daiso but cut and strung them on some green yarn.  Made one for my daughter's head piece and one for her neck.  If you like, you can also use the left over petals and decorate the skirt with them.  Aloha!

Happy Halloween!!!

Sorry for being such a slacker, it's been a loooooong time since my last post but hope to make it up with this post filled with adorable cuteness!!!  I love holidays, especially the ones that involve costumes!  When my daughter was born about 3 years ago I took on sewing so that I can make "itty, bitty, cute" outfits for her.  I loved the "idea" of being able to create her costumes, even though I had no clue how to go about doing it.  And so the parade of Halloween costumes began.  

4 months old "Cute lil Pirate" :: this was inspired from a stripe onesie she already had and so I took an old tank top I had and repurposed  it into a little pirate skirt for her and then took the bits and pieces to make a tiny little vest to go with the outfit.  Finished it with a red sash, grocery bought hat and patented flats.  

1 year old "Sweet Strawberry" :: Still a novice sewist, I tried to do a more daring costume that would involve actual buying and cutting of materials.  This strawberry costume was a wonderful beginner's costume since it was an easy pattern to sew.  

2 years old & one more baby boy "The Tortoise & the Hare" ::  And the plot thickens, now with two babies, I had to come up with duo themed costumes!!!  It's so much fun, too bad Halloween is only one time a year.

I would love to share patterns but honestly I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and pretty much improvised from beginning to end.  I truly believe it was the hand of God that guided me!  If you would like help or the pattern, please drop me an email and I will try to help you the best I can.  Happy Halloween!!!!  

All the birds of a feather...

Did I mention my kids are crazy about the movie Rio?  It's playing almost once a day in our home and they love dancing to the songs, the soundtrack is really good.  It made me think of a project that I wanted to do and thought it was the perfect opportunity to tie it in with the movie.  

 Eri of Llevo el invierno has a diy tutorial/pattern avail­able on her site that is ahmazing!!!   I adapted her tute and tweaked it a bit.  Here's what I did:

1) I cut the 2 side wings from the same pattern and I reinforced with fusible lining (sticky side up) so that it would be easier to hold the feathers when sewing (I'm thinking that it would have been more airy if I did without it but too late...you can leave this out if you want)

2) I precut all my feather pieces, you don't have to stick with the rounded feathers, I think it would have looked just as nice with more of a pointier look.  

3) Lay your feather strips in the order you would like and iron if you did the fusible lining OR pin and sew later OR you can just use fabric glue.

4)  Since I did the fusible lining, I just kept ironing my feather strips on.

5) It's a quick project actually and there you have your wings.

6) Sew your layers of feather strips.  Again, this is optional but I wanted to reinforce mine so that my kids don't have them torn off from wearing them.

7) The inside of the wings will look like this.

And there you go, fun wings for your fun kids!!!!  Here's a pic of my daughter modeling hers.