Happy Halloween!

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Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch with our friends Emy and Nicky!  It was a hot and gorgeous day, but we couldn’t resist getting a few pics of Yuki in her (super thick and warm) costume.  We tried to make it quick and she was a trooper, but poor thing, we found out later she was actually sick 😦

Totoro is real.

Yuki’s favorite part of the pumpkin patch was playing all the instruments along with the live music.

Getting up close and personal with a Scottish Highlander.  These guys were HUGE but Yuki did not seem impressed.

“Ok, get me out of here now.”

Wearing flip flops and sunscreen and it’s nearly November.  Happy Halloween from California!  Hope everyone has a fun and safe night!

Tutorial: Making Whiskers and Bendable Parts

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I wasn’t really planning on doing a tutorial on anything costume related, but I thought I’d share these two small projects with you.  These can be used to help you complete a lot of costumes and technically, you don’t need a sewing machine to do either.  We’ll start with making whiskers.

*I apologize for the crappy and sparse pictures.  I didn’t really think about posting this until after I had already made the whiskers and everything was done at night in our not-well-lit apartment*

Making whiskers
Yuki’s Totoro costume was starting to take shape, but it was definitely missing whiskers.  I knew that I wanted something thin, but stiff enough to stick out and not be droopy.  I decided to try some fabric stiffener and embroidery floss.  And it worked!  Here’s how you can do it.

What you’ll need:
Fabric stiffener (don’t have any?  read on for other ideas)
Foam brush
Embroidery floss
Wax paper
Flat surface like a cookie sheet or a cutting board
Needle

Lay the wax paper out on your flat surface.  Cut and lay your embroidery floss flat.  Cover generously with fabric stiffener and brush to coat evenly, but leave about 4 inches of embroidery floss without the stiffener.  This part of the floss will be used to thread the needle later.  Let it dry (overnight works well).

So this is my cookie sheet with wax paper and my six extra long pieces of embroidery floss.  It’s a good idea to give yourself extra inches that can always be trimmed at the end.  It may also be smart to make a few extra in case you make a mistake.  These have already been brushed with the fabric stiffener and dried.  The three on the left have been peeled off the paper and the three on the right have not.  You can see the ends (closest to you) have not been stiffened.

Peel the embroidery floss off and thread the needle using the unstiffened end of the floss.

Starting from the outside of your costume, pull your thread through your costume wherever you want your first whisker to be.  Pull it far enough so that the stiff part of the embroidery floss comes through.  It’s a bit stiff (duh), but tie a knot on the inside.  I tied it twice to make sure it wouldn’t slip through the fabric.

Trim the end.

Now you need to tie a knot on the other side of the whisker so that it doesn’t slide out from the inside.  The trick here is to tie the knot as close to the fabric (and the other knot) as possible.  If there is even a bit of space between the two knots, the whisker will sag.  So tie the tightest knot closest to the fabric, sometimes a bit of fabric even gets pulled into the knot – this is good.

Can you see the little knots?  From far away you won’t even notice them.

Now repeat with the rest of your whiskers and give them a trim!

DONE!  If you don’t have fabric stiffener, there are probably other ways.  Fabric stiffener is basically water soluble glue.  Now I’ve never tried it, so I can’t guarantee anything, but I have a feeling that this would work using your regular old white glue (like Elmer’s) or Mod Podge.  If you try this out, let me know if it works.

Now moving on . . .

Bendable Parts – in this case, a leaf.
In the movie Totoro, there is a scene in the rain where Totoro only has a tiny leaf on his head to provide protection from the rain.  I thought it might be a cute addition to the costume.  I wanted the leaf to have shape, so I made it bendable.  This method would be great for any small part of a costume that you want to have some form and bend – like EARS!

What you’ll need:
Fabric
Pipe cleaners
Needle & thread (if you’re hand sewing)
Paper

Start out by drawing whatever shape you want on a piece of paper (I always use something out of my recycling bin which is super full around election time).  Add about a 1/4 inch around your shape for seam allowance and cut it out (I forgot the stem on my pattern).

You’re going to need 2 pieces of your shape, so fold your fabric in half or layer two pieces of fabric on top of each other.  Then use your pattern to cut out your shape (I added the stem in here).

With right sides facing, pin and sew up your shape leaving an opening for turning it right side out.  I left the bottom of the stem open as well for the pipe cleaner.  If you’re making an ear, you can just leave the bottom open.

Flip it right side out!

Now fold that fabric from the opening in and top stitch around the leaf, again leaving an opening at the top of the stem (for the pipe cleaner!).

Now we’re going to sew the casing for the pipe cleaner.  Making sure the space is wide enough, sew two lines along the length of your shape for the pipe cleaner to slide into.

Now it’s time to insert your pipe cleaner.  Take one end and fold it down about half an inch.  This makes it so that the tip is not super sharp (the wire was getting snagged on my fabric and folding it down made it much easier to slide through).  Insert it into your casing and then clip the end about 1/2 inch longer than the stem.

Fold this end up and tuck it into the fabric to avoid any super sharp wires.

And you’re DONE!

Bend it to whatever shape you want!  You can probably sew up the end too, if you want, but I didn’t bother.  Now you can handstitch your bendable part to your costume.

And here’s the updated Totoro hood . . .

My usual model was asleep 😦

Anyways, there you have it!!  I hope you are all having fun coming up with some creative costumes for Halloween.  And hopefully these ideas may even help you put some finishing touches on them!  Remember, it’s all in the details 😉

Sew & Tell: Totoro Costume

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See the full Totoro Costume Tutorial HERE!

**I do not make Totoro Costumes for sale. **   *UPDATE: Since this post has been getting a lot of views, I figure I should at least add one photo of the finished hood.  This post was published with photos from her first fitting and after these were taken, I decided to add the whiskers and the leaf.  You can read more about that in this tutorial.  Hope you like it!* This year, I really wanted to make Yuki’s costume, but we could not decide for a long time what she should be.  We threw around some ideas, but none of them really excited me.  I’ve had this idea of dressing Yuki up as Totoro for a long time (since she was born?), but was worried that no one would know what she was.  But since I couldn’t think of anything better, I decided to go for it.  So what if I would have to explain a hundred times who she was supposed to be!  At least she would be adorable and original . . . right? Well, I finished most of the costume EARLY this year (meaning not the night before or morning of) and I’m a little unsure of how I feel about it.  It came out better than I expected in some ways and not as cute as I imagined in other ways.  In terms of the construction, I’m pleased.  I’d never made a full body suit before.  I’d never done an outfit with sleeves.  Or made a hood.  I just kinda made it up as I went along and it surprisingly worked out alright.  Actually, better than alright, it came out looking pretty damn clean.  On the other hand, it doesn’t look like Totoro to me.  I think there is something wrong with the shape.  Or the face.  Or the proportions.  I’m not quite sure and I might have to do a little more fiddling around (eek, that means I’m not actually done yet!), so maybe you can give me some feedback. I’m actually so impressed that I was able to get these pics of Yuki.  She does NOT like hoods or hats.  She generally rips them off the second we put them on.  I’d tried to get this hat on her a few times while sewing to see if it fit and she hated it.  She wouldn’t even let me get near her with it towards the end.  But I realized that if you keep her really really distracted, she won’t notice it for quite awhile. So in case you don’t know who Totoro is, he is a character from a Japanese animated movie, となりのトトロ or My Neighbor Totoro.  Although it’s a foreign film, there are quite a few people in the states that have seen it.  Here he is! So cute, right?!  Ok ok, so here’s our little Totoro . . .

Something about this costume reminds me of Max from Where the Wild Things Are.  It’s well suited for making mischief!

I’m actually hoping that it’ll be cold on Halloween because this costume is made out of fleece and SUPER warm!  I need to make some adjustments, but here are some of the basic details of the costume.  Overall, it’s a pretty simple design that I based off of Yuki’s pajamas.

I zig zag stitched the chevrons on the chest and the white tummy to the rest of the suit.  This was the first part of the costume I sewed, and the first thing I sewed on my brand new machine.  It was dreamy 🙂

Instead of a zipper and snap in the front, I moved it to the back.

I also added elastic to the wrists and ankles and snaps to the legs for easy diaper changes.

For the hood, I used a hooded jacket to trace the shape.  I cut two pieces and sewed them together, then made the snap collar thing with a long rectangle.  I made ears (and the tail) with scraps of fleece and stuffed it with poly-fil.  Then I hand sewed the ears and face on.

I want to add whiskers to the costume.  Any ideas for what I can use??  I want to use something smaller and not as sharp as pipe cleaners.  Maybe some yarn with fabric stiffener?  I’m taking suggestions.

Now I gotta work on my costume.  It’s going to be super simple this year.  What are you going to be for Halloween??

Sew & Tell: Halloween Costume History

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I love Halloween costumes.  For the last few years, I’ve really been into making them for myself, Hideko and even a few friends.  I probably picked it up from my mom who would always help us put together great costumes or sew awesome creations for us.  Look at me and my siblings back in the day!

I was a princess and my mom made this outfit out of some old dress, I think.  My sister is a bunny and I’m fairly certain my mom made that entire costume.  In the back is Mike and he is a Ghostbuster, using a Members Only jacket with a homemade patch, proton pack and ghost trap (you can’t see it in this picture).  I’m not sure about Rob’s army fatigue.  That may have been store bought.

Anyways, now it’s my turn to make costumes, and since I work at a school, I still have to dress up too (or maybe it’s just a good excuse to get dressed up :))!  Here are some of the costumes I’ve made in the past.

I think it all started with this one in 2004.  I was living in Japan and we were throwing a Halloween celebration for the kids in the city (it’s not traditionally celebrated there) and I thought this would be an awesome character, since it’s from a Japanese movie.  Unfortunately, most people thought I was a Native American!  I was not, I assure you.  Do you know who I am??

(I’m the one on the right :)) This is the only picture I have, it’s too bad you can’t see the rest of the costume.  I didn’t have a sewing machine or any real crafting tools.  But I had a lot of fun scouring the 100 yen store (like a 99 cent store), the second hand store and any other place to find pieces I could use for the costume.  Here’s a pic of the actual character.

It’s Princess Mononoke.  She’s pretty bad-ass huh?

I picked up the sewing bug again in 2008 when I made this bat costume.  I remember coming up with the idea the night before Halloween, running to a couple of stores for the supplies and staying up late to finish it by morning.  I didn’t have a sewing machine, so everything was just hand stitched together.

I really loved how warm, comfortable, simple and convenient this costume was.  It was a hooded sweatshirt with stuff attached to it.  I got to wear sweats to work!  Could it be any better?  So sweatshirt animals has been my thing, pretty much every year since.

I’ve made a cat (2009)

A dog (2009)

And an owl (2009)

Last year was Yuki’s first halloween.  For her, Hideko wanted a lamb costume.

Yes, she slept pretty much the whole time she was in the costume.

For us, I went with sweatshirt animals again.  A cow and a chicken to complete the family farm 🙂 (2010)

One of my favorite costumes to date was NOT a sweatshirt animal.  Hideko decided to be Russell from UP.  I LOVE this movie.  Russell is so damn cute and funny.  I thought this costume would be awesome to recreate.  It was also very very time consuming.

Here’s Russell from UP . . .

Haha, I can’t get enough of him!  And here’s our Russell (2009) . . .

Not bad, eh?  That’s the only picture I have of her in the costume, but you should have seen her backpack!  She actually borrowed rope and a trumpet and hung lanyards and carabiners from her backpack AND attached a bunch of colorful balloons!!

My absolute favorite part is the sash.  Russell is an over eager Wilderness Explorer.  He has earned all this badges except one, the Assisting the Elderly badge.  You can see that he has a space for the missing badge.  The badges are made from felt.  I cut them out based on actual badges from the movie that I found in pictures online and in a book.

Yes, it took A LOOONG time to do all of them, but I really REALLY enjoyed making them.  Does that make me weird??  I could not be bothered with sewing them all on, so these were just glued on.  After being worn a few times and then stored in a bag for a couple of years, they are still looking pretty good.  I wouldn’t dare put the sash through the wash though.

I made more felt patches for the shirt, the hat and a felt flag.  I made the neckerchief out of some orange cotton and used a wooden napkin ring, foam and some paint for the slide (I had to look up what the terms were for both of those things).  The other pin thing was made with more foam and some painted beads and twine.

We bought the shirt and hat from the thrift store.  The shorts were mine and the shoes we borrowed from a friend.  The only things we bought that were new (besides some materials) were the orange shoelaces!  We had a lot of fun with that costume – when we walked around you could here all these people calling out, “Hey!  It’s the guy from Up!”

Anyways, those were some of our costumes from the last few years.  This year I’m busier than ever so while Yuki is getting a new handmade costume, Hideko is reusing one of our old costumes (with a twist) and I haven’t decided what I’m doing yet.  I was thinking about bringing Russell back (I mean, all that work and you only get to wear it for one day!?).  But we’ll see.  Yuki’s costume is done and the post is coming up soon!  Here is the sneak peek – do you know who this is?

Sneak Peek: New Sewing Machine

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Sorry to keep you in suspense!  I thought I’d be able to post before the weekend, but I’ve been buried in work and projects and then went out of town for the weekend.  I don’t have time to tell you all about it now, but here’s a peek at what was inside ONE of the boxes.

I’m excited and proud to introduce (one of the) newest additions to my work space, MY NEW SEWING MACHINE, my first sewing machine EVER!  It’s a Brother PC-420 and it is incredible.  I’ll give you a full review once I’ve spent more time on it, but I just wanted to show you one of the reasons I’ve been so busy – I can’t get off the machine!  I want to call in sick from work and sew, sew, sew!  Stay up all night and sew, sew, sew!  This thing has more settings and feet and stitches than I’ll ever need, but it’s nice to know they are there!  Now I have to read the 200 page manual and figure out how to use everything.  And maybe give her a name?? 🙂

Now, I don’t think that new and fancy machines are necessary for good quality sewing.  The ones I’ve borrowed in the past were excellent machines and I was perfectly happy with them (and extremely grateful that I was able to use them).  But it feels good to finally have my own machine.  And to have something BRAND new.  I feel like I have to take good care of it.  And make amazing things with it.  And I WANT to make amazing things with it.  And it was all possible because of some very generous and loving friends and family members.  They pulled together to give me the money for the machine.  Their support and belief in me as I pursue my passion is priceless.  And now they’ll be a part of everything that I sew!  And any successes I have, will be thanks to them.  And through all the struggles I have, I know they’ll be right there with me.  And now I’m getting ridiculously cheesy, so I need to stop.

I LOVE MY NEW MACHINE.  Now I just need more time to play on it!!

Packages

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Look what was waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday . . .

What do you think they are??  I’ll give you a close up look when I get some photos taken, but I’ll tell you, I seriously considered staying home from work today just to play with them 🙂 🙂 🙂

Update: Stop & Go

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I have to say, things are moving a lot slower here than I hoped they would.  Opening up an etsy shop is a lot of work and I just don’t have as much time as I need (who does!?).  I feel like I’m trying to find little bits of time here and there, but always getting interrupted by work, chores, distractions, other projects and technical hang-ups.

But machines are humming along busily in the shop this week and I’m hoping to get a lot done.  That means I probably won’t be blogging as much which is a bummer since I enjoy it so much.  Just know that there are a lot of exciting and new things coming up soon.

I’ll leave you with something new I learned today.  A single welt pocket!  Here’s the tutorial from ikat bag.  And here’s my mini practice pocket that I made with scrap fabric.  What could this be for?? 🙂

Check out her amazing list of tutorials for 26 different pockets!!  There are SO many free tutorials and patterns out there.  It’s my goal to learn something new every day and since there are so many amazing and generous crafters and bloggers out there, it is very possible!

What have you learned recently?

Ok, wish me luck as I bury my head in a pile of fabric.  Hopefully I’ll come out with something cute on the flip side.

Tutorial: Simple Skirt

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My first tutorial!  The first few tutorials I’m going to put up are very easy projects and are nothing unique or original.  I figured we should start with some really basic items and then we can get into more add-ons, embellishments and complicated patterns later.  And this is also really good tutorial writing practice for me.  I would LOVE feedback on things that I missed or things that need clarification.

Although I’m starting with a really simple project, I am not starting from the very beginning.  I’m assuming that you already know the basics of how to use your machine and use some of the basic stitches.  If not, that’s ok!  Just search the internet for some sewing 101 info and I’m sure you’ll find TONS of helpful tutorials.

So today I’m going to show you how to make a simple skirt for a toddler.  This is probably one of the most basic pieces of clothing you can make.

If you haven’t already, take a look at the supplies I consider essential for almost any sewing project.

Here’s what you’ll need:
Fabric (a lightweight cotton or cotton blend should work nicely)
Matching thread
Elastic
Safety pin (optional)

And that’s it!  First (and always) wash, dry and iron your fabric.

The amount of fabric and elastic will depend on the size of the skirt you are making, but I’ll try to help you figure that out.  You’re going to be cutting 2 rectangles of fabric.  It’s easiest if you fold your fabric in half and cut them at the same time.  Here’s how you figure out what size to cut your rectangles.

First, measure the child’s waist.  This will be the width of your 2 rectangles.  For example, if the child has a waist size of 17 inches, you’ll want 2 pieces of fabric that are 17 inches long.

If you can’t measure the child, find a pair of pants or a skirt that fits them and measure the width and then double it.  In this case, the pants measure 8.5 inches across, so if you double that you get 17.  Again, you’ll want 2 pieces of fabric of this width.

For the length, measure the desired final length of the skirt from the waist and then add 3 inches.  It’s always better to have extra fabric that can easily be shortened when hemming, than to cut it too short.  I wanted the skirt to be 8 inches long, so I cut my fabric to 11 inches.

You’ll want enough elastic to go around the waist and then add 1 inch for sewing the ends together.  This will leave plenty of room for your little one to grow into the skirt (longer wearability)!  I cut my elastic to 18 inches.

Here are my two rectangles: 11×17.

Now we’re ready to start sewing!

Place your 2 rectangles on top of each other RIGHT sides together (The right sides refer to the side of the fabric you want to show when finished, the wrong side is the side that faces in when finished.  Most fabrics have a right and wrong side which you can tell by the print.  Some don’t).

Pin up the sides and sew a straight stitch about a 1/4 inch from the edge.  Back stitch at the beginning and end (always!).  If you want, you can zig zag stitch the edges to prevent fraying.

Press the seams open.

Now we’re going to do the waist.  Fold the top edge down about a 1/4 inch and press.

Now fold the fabric down again and make sure that your fold is slightly larger than your elastic. Press and pin in place.

Sew along the folded edge.  I like to start in the back about 1 inch right of the center.   Sew all the way around and stop 2 inches from where you started leaving an opening to slide your elastic through.

Attach the safety pin to one end of the elastic and push it all the way around the skirt back through the opening.

Overlap the two ends of elastic about 1/2 an inch and sew them together.

Close up the opening by sewing along the edge.

We’re almost done!!  Now we just have to do the hem.  Fold the bottom of the skirt up about a 1/4 inch and press.

Make another 1/4 inch fold and iron again.  Pin and sew.

And you’re done!

Now step back and admire your handy work and how cute your little one looks.  Take pictures and then show them to me!

Phew, for a simple project, that was still a lot of directions.  I hope you were able to follow along, but if there is anything that needs clearing up, please let me know!  And really, if you make this project, I’d love to see your pictures.  For the next tutorial I’ll show you a few ways that you can spice up your simple skirt!

Featured: Pumpkin Crafts

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Fall is officially here!  There are so many things that I love about the fall.  The colors, the weather, the leaves, the clothes, and the pumpkins, OH, the pumpkins!!  I love the way they look, the way they smell (unless they’re rotting on your porch) AND the way they taste.  So today I thought I’d share some craft tutorials that I’ve stumbled across recently that are inspired by those oh-so-autumny, fun, orange pumpkins.

No-Sew Fabric Pumpkin
Here’s a quick and easy project that you could use to decorate your home, desk or even use as a centerpiece.  No sewing involved!  I’m thinking about modifying this project to do with my kids at school.

Halloween Hats
One of my favorite crafty bloggers, Delia Creates, did a guest post on Project Run and Play.  Two awesome blogs combined?  Win!  You could sport this as a casual costume, use it to top off a full pumpkin costume, or if you’re just that hip, you can wear on a regular day as a autumn accessory.  And she shows you how to make a witch’s hat and a sunflower too.

Pumpkin Pincushion
Based off the traditional tomato pincushion, Ellen from The Long Thread, created a functional and adorable pumpkin pincushion.  I’d love to have this lil guy sitting next to my machine year round!  These make equally sweet decorations if you want to gift it to someone who doesn’t sew.

Paper Pumpkin Tutorial
This craft is so sweet and simple, I bet you can whip up a whole pumpkin patch in no time.  It’s another great project to do with kids, too.

Book Page Pumpkin
Here’s a fun way to repurpose an old book.  I don’t know if I have any that I’d be able to part with, but if you have an outdated dictionary or something, you could probably make several!

Anyways, I hope you have fun with these crafts.  It’s nice knowing that there are tons of fabric and paper crafts, and a lot of them don’t require any sewing!  The materials are pretty basic too – you might even have everything in your home already!  If you find any other awesome fall crafts, please share them with me!

Supplies: The Essentials

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Before we start with any tutorials, I thought it might be useful to go over some of the things I find necessary for any sewing project.  Of course, you could probably get buy with just a needle, thread, and a pair of scissors, but these things make any project easier, faster and cleaner (more professional looking).

1. sewing machine – A standard sewing machine will do for most projects.  If you’re looking to buy a machine, unfortunately I can’t help too much, but I’d definitely do the research.  If you know anyone with a machine, ask if they like it and if you can try it out.  I wouldn’t go with anything super fancy or expensive (it’s just not necessary), but I would also avoid the cheapest “beginner” machines.  They’re just . . . cheap.  I actually do not own my own sewing machine yet.  I borrowed my mom’s for a long time, and now I’m using Hideko’s mom’s machine.  But, my amazing friends and family just pulled together and are going to get me a new machine for my birthday!!!  I can’t wait.

2. iron & ironing board – Hopefully this is something you already own.  Ironing (or pressing) is super important when you’re sewing, so never skip that step.  After you’ve bought fabric, you’ll want to wash, dry and iron it.  Before you sew certain seams, you’ll need to iron it.  After you sew it, you need to press it open.  Your everyday run-of-the-mill iron will work just fine.

3. cutting mat – There’s not a lot to say about this.  You need a surface to measure and cut fabrics, especially if you’re using a rotary cutter.  Get the biggest size that you can, keeping in mind that you’ll need room for storing it.  Mine is 18″x24″.

4. fabric scissors – Go and buy a nice pair of fabric scissors and make sure they are used for just that (and thread and ribbon).  These scissors have extremely sharp blades (so be careful!).  Cutting paper and other things dull the blades on scissors really quickly and you will not get clean cuts on fabric.  Apparently you can get these blades sharpened if you need, but I’ve never had to do that.

5. rotary cutter – This is a circular blade (think pizza cutter).  Paired with a yard stick, this makes cutting straight lines in a fabric a piece of cake.  It is also really useful for cutting through several layers of fabric without shifting the fabric.

6. yard stick, ruler, measuring tape – Get a good quality yard stick, either made with a hard wood or lined with metal.  The first yard stick I had was not meant for sewing and the rotary cutter would cut slivers of the ruler right off.  Measuring tape has only become necessary to me since I’ve started to sew clothing.  You’ll need it to measure your model.

7. pins – You’ll need pins to hold together pieces of fabric so they don’t shift as you sew.

8. marking pen – Not actually an ESSENTIAL item, but very useful.  This is used to mark lines on your fabric before you cut or sew.  I bought this two sided one because at the time I didn’t know what the difference was.  Disappearing ink fades with time (it’s air soluble).  Depending on the fabric, it could disappear as fast as 30 seconds, or it may never fade, so it’s really important to test it out on a scrap of fabric first.  Disappearing ink is also water soluble, so you can remove it with water.  The Mark-B-Gone is ink that is water soluble, so it’ll stay on your fabric until you remove it with a damp towel.  I used this ink when I tried quilting.  I was able to mark all the lines I wanted to quilt and they stayed for as long as I needed them to (which was a loooooong time) until I was done and washed them off.  You can also use water soluble pencils or marking chalk.

The thing on the very right is called an awl.  It can be used for many things, but I mainly use it to unpick stitches.  I was going to include it, but it’s not actually necessary.  Most people probably use a seam ripper, which is a useful tool to have, but since I don’t have one, I use the awl.  It can also be used for putting holes in thick materials like leather.

So that’s it.  It may seem like a lot, but they will make your sewing life much much easier!  I like to wait until I have a good coupon at Joann’s or they have a sale (and they always do) and then you can get most of these things for 40-50% off (except the sewing machine).  And trust me, you’ll use them A LOT and for a long looooong time.

Now that you have all your supplies, next time, we can get sewing!