Pumpkins and Pirates

As I mentioned before, I love sewing Halloween costumes! I have made myself some wicked costumes in the past and now I have turned my attention to creating costumes for Ethan. Here are some of Ethan's costumes over the years:

Lobster Costume purchased from Winners

Frog Costume also purchased from Winners. At this point I realized there are no good quality/cool costumes for boys.

Pirate Costume and Pumpkins. First Costume I made for Ethan.

Canadian Peace Keeper Costume. He wanted to be an army guy, I'm a pacifist...this was the compromise.

This year Ethan decided he wants to be a pirate again. I haven't settled on a pattern yet...but I am leaning towards using this Burda pattern.

Smelly Socks

I bought a new cell phone a couple months ago. Too poor to purchase an iphone, I opted instead for the Samsung touch screen model. The phone is pretty sleek compared to the old dinosaur I previously had. I was as pleased as punch with my new purchase until I notice a couple small scratches on the touch screen. I freaked and started searching everywhere for some sort of case that would protect the phone while it was in my purse. There are not many options for this model and those I found were pretty ugly. For the time being I started protecting my phone by stuffing it into a sock. Surprisingly the sock, while not stylish, did work fairly well. Regardless I needed a more permanent (and chic) alternative. Here is the case I made...

Eco Lunch

For the last couple weeks it has become glaringly obvious that I have the ugliest lunch bag. My lunch bag looks like a suitcase...and yes I have had some snide comments tossed my way at work. For example: 'wow! you must be hungry!' or 'Are you moving in?'. I happened to have some extra fabric left over from the purse I made so I purchased a pattern off of Etsy and low and behold my lunch bag is now to die for!!!

My old lunch bag:

My new lunch bag:

This pattern was ridiculously hard to sew. I actually had to bust out my sewing machine's walking foot for the top stitching. I used oil cloth for the inside and sandwiched between the interior and exterior is insulated batting. As difficult as it was to sew I am pretty pleased with the finished product, it keeps my lunch cold and it is tiny. No more snide comments!

Pretty Perfect Purse

Ok, I finished my Amy Butler purse eons ago but I have been so busy admiring it that I forgot to post some pictures. Amy Butler patterns have, hands down, the easiest and clearest instructions to follow. It took more time to fuse the interfacing and fleece than it did to sew the purse.

I have had so many compliments on this purse it is crazy. Random people will stop me and ask where I bought my purse. I love being able to tell them that I MADE it!

Easter

So I haven't had a chance to finish the purse yet but I did manage to whip up a little Easter treat for Ethan today. Meet Roscoe, I named him after a pet rabbit I had growing up!

Making a sock bunny is very similar to making a sock monkey. One sock is for the legs and body, the second sock is for the ears, arms and snout. Little felt teeth, buttons and some embroidery floss and.... voila! You have a bunny!

Summer Loving

Ethan's summer quilt is finished!

To create this quilt I used a Ticker Tape pattern I found on Sew Mama Sew's blog. I love how bright the colours are! This being a child's quilt (i.e. prone to frequent washing) I decided to machine sew the binding, it was a pain in the butt but I think it will be far more durable.

Pretty

HAHA! 2 posts in one day! I'm making up for lost time!

Ok. I know I should be working on Ethan's quilt but I could not resist making this super cute nightie! Its sooo pretty! I did not have enough coordinating fabric at home, shocking considering how much fabric I have acquired over the last year. Instead of buying more fabric I decided to 'recycle' some of my bedroom linens (this screams 'The Sound of Music" doesn't it?). I used an old duvet cover for my nightie and I happened to have some medium white rick-rack laying around. The best part: I didn't have to pre-wash my fabric!

Here is the finished product. I think it has a kind of 'Alice in Wonderland' feel to it. Sorry the pictures did not turn out too great.