Crafty Seamstress Intentions: Butterfly Wings

I've made butterfly wings several times.  I love the idea of easy-to-use, not-easy-to-outgrow, dress-up clothes for kids.  Butterfly wings are perfect.  If they slip on to arms, and have loops of elastic for wrists or fingers, they are all of those things I mentioned above.  Today you can find cheapy light weight Butterfly wing scarves on places like Amazon and Ebay.  If you add a couple of Pacifier clips to the neckline of the scarf, you can clip it to a kids shirt and then you'll have your own happy butterfly.  Or you can try to do it the hard way.  I needed to do it the hard way for my son's Halloween costume one year.  He was so into the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I knew he'd love running around screaming that he was a VERY BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY, but I also knew I'd have to make it basically identical to the book to be appealing to him.

This was a lengthy process of cutting up two pairs of every piece of fleece, sewing it to a middle-felt & batting sandwich, and making sure that everything colorful was exactly repeated on each front and back of each left and right wing.  It came out looking great, I think.  But at the same time, it's like a heavy blanket.  Using pacifier clips to clip it to his arms didn't pan out, because it was just too heavy.  I ended up sewing it directly to a cheap orange sweatshirt, and I'm a little sad about that because I am very pro-reusability.  But, it was the only way to fully support the weight of these wings!  If I had to do it again, I don't have a better idea of how to get it done.  Maybe paint a sheet instead?  Hmm.  But he was thrilled.

I had these grand visions (Before making these wings) of making beautiful piecey handmade butterfly wings that you clip onto a child for INSTANT magic.  But... Like I said, it turned out to be a lengthy process.  I tried it again using lighter weight fabric (Not fleece) on Felt, sandwiched between felt cut out to showcase the fabric underneath.  And I glued the blue fabric in place using fabric glue.   However, it ended up feeling like WAY too much glue, gobs and gobs and buckets of glue.  And then I lined it up with a piece of felt and cut out felt windows to showcase the blue fabric beneath... but this was tedious and difficult.  I ended up overstitching the top and bottom felt pieces into place (It looks the same from both sides of the wings, so it was 3 layers of felt total, 2 layers of glued blue shiny fabric).

It turned out decently well, but way too much work and time to be able to make something like this in bulk -- so this is the last version I made!

It was still a hit!

Pincushions forever.

There was a time when I became obsessed with making pincushions.  Why? Everyone needs a pincushion, right? Wrong. Very few people need pincushions.  But I thought that it was a good way to explore making felt-hand-stitched-softies with a purpose.

First there were cacti.  I made the pattern myself. It's felt, stuffed with polyfil (with a little bit of steel wool at the end of each cactus branch to keep the pins and needles sharp!).  I glued it into the terra cotta pot.  Not a great idea, because pots like this break easily.  One curious cat later, and you'd find yours shattered on the floor with no ability to fix it. Also, they are a bit large and in charge - I'm not sure anyone needs a pin cushion of this gigantic size. Fail.

  For a while I dabbled in snap bracelet pin cushions.  I wanted the active seamstress to be able to wear a stylish... Octopus?... on her wrist and stab it as often as she liked.   It was a good idea, but in practice it's quite bulky.  It takes up too much space, and doesn't stay oriented on the wrist.  The snap bracelet itself (that I encased in blue felt above) wasn't quite strong enough, so in the end, it was a fail and a one-off.   I did try again with a Rainbow snap bracelet.  I made a separate arched felt rainbow that was pulled straight when you wore it as a bracelet, but arched into the air between two clouds at either end of the snap bracelet when it was straight... But it had the same issues.  I would show you, but I can't even find a picture!

Cupcakes were my next attempt.  This was a better idea than terra cotta pots and cacti, because the silicone cups I used aren't breakable!  Win!... Ish!  Instead the issues I found were first that the glass beads I used for sprinkles aren't great when you're using it as a pincushion (they get in the way of the pins!, duh. Ugh.), and the glue I used to secure the cupcake into the silicone cup didn't hold.

I started getting warmer with this one!  The Ice cream cone I glued into a wooden cone, and that worked great.  The Glue held, and the wood was not fragile.  Unfortunately, I made the same mistake with the glass beads getting in the way of pins.

This was a small hat I found in a craft shop, that was just begging for a little white rabbit.  So I made it look like the rabbit was hiding in the hat and everything was so great!  The hat is not breakable, the glue held, and there was no interference for the pins.  However, I underestimated how disturbing it would feel to stab pins into the back of a helpless little magic hat rabbit.

Once I entered the world of disturbing, it was hard to turn back though.  This one was built on a recycled bottle cap weighted with pennies.  The beads get in the way, but it turned out well for what it is.  Very few people seem to enjoy it the way I do, unfortunately.

Have you ever seen these cheapy little plastic pumpkins?  I'm not sure what they're supposed to be fore, halloween party favors maybe??  But, I decided to try them for pin cushions!  MORE EYEBALLS.... Maybe?  Hmm, maybe not.

This one might be my favorite.  It worked up quickly - a little piece embroidered like a brain.  The glue held, the pumpkin isn't fragile...

And then I figured out that I prefer to keep my pins in a box.
Oh well.

Halloween Costumes!

Since my children were born, I have done a new Halloween Costume every year and most have been handmade.  There have been rules and guidelines for these costumes that I follow.  1) They must be Cold-weather friendly.  2)They must match when I have more than one child.  3) I prefer book-related costumes.  This year they are finally making individual requests (She wants to be a Pink Cat,  He wants to be Max from Where the Wild Things Are - (Revisited, as you'll see below), Sigh), and I will no longer get to choose.  So to celebrate 8 years of Halloween Costumes done my way, I would like to share those costumes with you!

Year 1: Astronaut [Bonus costume!  First Ever!]

Hand-assembled... Yes, I put my precious baby's head on a plate in service of looking like an astronaut.  I stand by my actions.

Teddy Bear [Official Halloween]

Store bought, hand-altered.

Year 2: Monster [Official Halloween]

Hand made all the way!  ... Mostly by my mom.  Though I did  do the adult hoodie decorations myself.

Year 3: Max, Where the Wild Things Are [Official Halloween]

I store bought the one-piece pajamas.  I hand-made all the detail (added the feet/paws, buttons, ears and tail.  Made the crown with fur edging)

Skeletons [BONUS Costume! aka My Daughter's first costume!]

Pajamas with skeletons from Carters, Shirt for me with Skeletons from Etsy

Year 4:  The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Beautiful Butterfly [Official Halloween]

The Hungry Caterpillar handmade from fleece as a slip on costume (sandwich board style) over top green pajamas.

The Very Beautiful Butterfly with a store bought Orange sweatshirt and handmade butterfly wings from fleece.

Year 5:  Sorcerer's Apprentice & Minnie Mouse [Official Halloween]

Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey was cheapy knit winter gloves and a golden rope I found at a craft thrift store.  My Mom made the hat, I added the ears.  I sewed the red robes!

Minnie Mouse was a machine stitched Red white-polka-dot dress from a pattern on Etsy with lots of petticoat material and lace underneath, over a black long sleeved t-shirt and leggings.  I made the ears from felt and bows attached to hair clips!

Bonus Costume!  I was particularly ambitious this year and made homemade costumes for the Renaissance Fair for both kids! 
Flynn Rider utilized leggings, a white button down shirt, this free pattern for boot covers using microsuede material, and a Flynn Rider vest of my own making!

Renaissance Fair princess was made using the same pattern as the Minnie Mouse dress, just with some alterations for the over-lay!

Year 6: The Cat in the Hat and Fox in Socks [Official Halloween]

Both costumes used store-bought solid-color one-piece pajamas.  The fox in socks used 2 pairs of blue soccer socks, and handmade ears and tail.  The Cat in the Hat costume used a store-bought hat and gloves and handmade belly and tie.

Year 7: Superman and Wonder Woman [Official Halloween]

Superman was store bought 100%.  Wonder Woman was partially store bought, and partially handmade.  I added glow in the dark stars, I altered store bought accessories to fit her. 

Year 8: Peter Pan and Winter Tinkerbell [Official Halloween]

Peter Pan was store bought.  Tinkerbell was almost all handmade!  I bought a hair-bun, as we had cut her hair short, and I bought green boot covers.  I found light-up fairy wings at a yard sale.  The Dress was made from an adult sweatshirt, and extra large pipe cleaners.  Brown accents are lengths of elastic!