Upcycle Success

My Sister has a yellow carigan:

 

Isn't is cute! Isn't she cute! I love my sister so much, and I LOVE her yellow cardigan. I decided I needed one, but I know she has had it for a while, and I am sure it is no longer availalbe. So I searched and searched online, but the only ones I could find were mustard yellow , I will tell you that mustard yellow must be VERY in right now, because it is everywhere. I was about to give up, but then I had a fabulous idea, buy a white one and dye it yellow! With key in hand, I was about to head to the thrift store, when something told me to check my upcycle bin. I am so glad I did because low and behold I already owned a dingy, stained white cardigan..SCORE! I also already had yellow dye.. DOUBLE SCORE!

So here it was, my old cast of Cardi:

Now it is a (sorta) new sunny yellow Cardi, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE, for the cost of FREE!

 If you have never tried dyeing, you should! It is SO easy, so so easy. This is a fantastic tutorial, in fact this is fantastic blog overall.
I am beyond excited about it! In fact, I will be wearing it today, because we are having lovely weather here in AZ and I plan to be out in it! Thanks for stopping by, Happy Monday!!!!

Frakenstein Costume Tutorial

HAPPY Monday! It was another normal day around the Kimery house. The boys headed to school, and Bobby had an errand to run. I did some laundry, watched Pan Am (is anyone else watching this show, I LOVE it), and put dinner in the crock pot. We had Chicken Tortilla Soup, and not only did I not burn it, it was sooooo good!

I have almost completed my Christmas shopping for the boys, and have been thinking of what to get Lucy. Santa had planned on bringing her this, but I after seeing her sit and play with a dollhouse at the party yesterday, I think Santa's plans have changed. I am looking for a wooden one, and on the shorter side. I have found some gorgeous taller ones, but I'm afraid they would tower over tiny Lucy! Hopefully we can find something perfect for her! Until then she will have to continue using her brothers Imaginext Firehouse instead... haha!

Today I am going to share a tutorial as well! Aiden wanted to be Frankenstein for Halloween. I started to look for costumes that were more cute then creepy, as cute is a lot more Aiden's personality. I found this one:

There were a few problems. A. It doesn't come big enough for him, and B. I was not about to pay $28.00, seeing as we had a suit and undershirt (that I scored from Goodwill for $3..whoot whoot) and all we needed to purchase was a headpiece. As I looked at this more, I thought "I can make this!" So that is what I did, and here is how it turned out:

Now I am going to give you the play by play so you can make one too!!

The first thing I did was draft a pattern. It may sound intimidating but it isn't, I promise. The pattern consists of four pieces:

In addition to the pattern pieces, I also cut out some accent pieces. I cut 2 1 inch wide rectangles that were as long as the top of the main head piece out of black felt. Then cut it to look like Frank's hair. I made a lightning bolt shape out of red felt, a thin strip from black felt and there small grey rectangles to look like stitching.

The last thing I cut was 4 T shapes out of grey felt for the knobs, sewed them together and stuffed them a little. 

Okay so once you have drawn the pattern and cut out your pieces, it's time to sew!

The first thing you want to do is sew the hair to the head piece. I went around every individual v shape for security.

Repeat this for the other hair and head pieces. Then you can look at the two and decide which head piece you would like to use for the face side. I chose the one with neater looking hair v's :)! When you have chosen  you will sew your accent pieces onto that piece (now it becomes the front head piece), and set the back head piece aside for later. When done you will have something similar to this:

Next you will want to sew the lining piece to the wrong side of the front head piece It is sort of difficult to see in this picture, but just lay it on top of the wrong side, and sew up the two vertical sides.

Now turn the piece back over so the right side is facing you, and line your face opening piece up in the center.

Cut around your pattern piece, being sure you cut through both the main and lining pieces. This will leave a hole where your child's face will go. Topstich around the opening.

Now take the back head piece you set aside and put it on top of the front head piece right sides together, adding the knobs we made earlier where the x's are in the photo. The knobs should be sandwiched between the two head pieces. (I forgot to add the knobs and had to go back and add them later, so some of the picture moving forward may not have them.) Now you can sew the two sides. 

The next step is to attach the crown to the top opening of the head piece. Carefully pin to the top and sew around.

Now you can flip the whole thing right side out and it should look like this (with the knobs being where the x's are):

I stuffed the crown a little for shape using polyfil, then pulled the lining pieces out and added a couple stitches in the center to hold the polyfil in. (This is where I ran into trouble. The lining piece made the whole thing to tight for my son, and I ended up having to go back and sew an extra piece of felt to the inside. I think adding some inches to the lining will help you avoid this.)

Push the lining back into the crown and Voila you are done! Put in on your sweet little Frankie and admire your craftiness!

 If you have any questions, I would love to answer them! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!!

Weekend Randoms and the Floating Ghost Tutorial

Hello! We had a relaxing and fun weekend around here. We didn't do much, just decorated for Halloween and lazied around all day yesterday! Today we went to a first birthday party for a sweet little guy, which was a lot of fun, and the food was delicious!!!

A few weeks ago we were at Target and Aiden saw this stuffed animal crab, and was so bummed when I refused to spend $6 on it! I told him we would make one together, and yesterday we did just that! We also made Jakey a little spider as well. The boys helped cut, were so excited when we finished their new little buddies!

Yesterday I said I would show you how to make a floating ghost for Halloween decor, so here is a mini tutorial. 



So for this you will need cheesecloth or another gauzy fabric, a 2 liter soda bottle, a foam ball (usually in the floral section at the craft store), 2 sticks, 3-4 other bottles ( we used beer bottles, mostly because involving beer makes my husband much more interested in helping me with crafts), and some spray starch.

Step 1- Build your frame thingy (I don't know what else to call it) by pushing the foam ball into the two liter, and making small holes for the sticks.
Step 2- Drape the cloth over the frame, and put the other bottles around the sides (see picture)
Step 3- Spray the whole thing with starch. Be sure to press some to the floor and spray it well, as this is what will support him. Coat it all well, and let dry overnight.
Step 4- In the morning gently pull it away from the frame, add some felt eyes and a mouth and place him on a shelf or any flat surface!

Tips:

1. Make sure it is ventilated where you spray, you will be using quite a bit and it gets strong.

2. The cloth should feel stiff in the morning, if it does not then so another coat of starch and let dry.

3. Do this on a floor that can handle being sprayed with starch, such as tile or concrete. We did it on our tile and it mopped up fine the next day.

4. When packing up the Halloween decor, fold the head of ghost inward, I did this and it was still pretty well shaped when I took it out this year. It made it simple to put over the frame and know where everything goes. Hope everyone had a nice weekend!!

The Ever Changing Pumpkin

I have not blogged in a while, a long while. However I am blogging today! It is still warm here in Sunny Arizona, none the less, in this home fall has officially arrived! I have some fun tutorials coming up, but today I am going to share some ideas for pumpkins!

Last year I really wanted to decorate for Halloween. I didn't want cheesy and I didn't want to spend $500 on all the stuff I was drooling over in the Potter Barn catalog. I was flipping through a Martha Stewart Living (LOVE her) at the dentist office, and I saw some pictures of pumpkins masquerading as other Halloween favorites! So I decided to try my hand and make a few of my own. Here is what I came up with

Well, October 31st came and passed and my cute white pumpkins were still in great shape. I couldn't just throw them out (gasp!!), so instead they became a Pilgrim and an Indian for Thanksgiving. I seriously LOVE these two... they made me smile every time I saw them!

The Turkey was carved, and all the scarecrows and leaves got packed away to make room for Santa and his crew of friends. My little pumpkins however, were in great shape. Still, fall was gone, and pumpkins were SO last season.. :) :)!! I was just about to throw them out, and my Mom had a brilliant idea. I had also bought a fairytale pumpkin around Halloween, so my Mom took it outside and spray painted it white, piled the other two on top, and with that pumpkin snowman was born! I knitted him a little scarf, and found a Magician top hat in the dress up bin, and he was good to go!

Believe it or not those pumpkins made it all the way to Christmas day! I just bought two white pumpkins today, and tomorrow they willl be rockin' the first of their costumes! To my delight I also saw that they now have white fairytale pumpkins at Trader Joe's, no need to spray paint! I hope my pumpkins hang in as long as last year's did! Happy Fall Crafting!!!!!
(P.S. Did you see that floating ghost in the Halloween pics, a tutorial for him is on the way tommorow!!)