DIY Smurfs Costume

Two posts in 24 hours!

I had planned to use r's Bamm Bamm costume for his school parade and party, but it's gotten much colder these past few days, that I was worried that r may get cold today.

So, I had to come up with a Plan B.

Plan B needs to be simple, and made of clothing that we already have on hand.  It also needs to be comfortable, since r will need to wear it for most of the day.  I browsed through photos on the Internet, and saw this costume:

Photo credit:  www.buycostumes.com

This is what I came up with:

I took a blue long-sleeved onesie, a white pair of pants, and white sneakers, all of which r already had.

The only thing I had to make, was the Smurf hat.

I measured one of r's baseball caps, to make sure that the hat will fit.  I drew an outline of the hat on white felt, making sure that the base was a few centimeters bigger than r's head (to make room for stitching).  I sewed around the outline, leaving the base open, of course.  I hemmed it up just to make a finished look. :)  Being new to sewing, I was a little worried about this Smurf hat idea, but I'm happy with the way it turned out.

I think that's it.  I'm all done with Halloween for now. :p

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

Halloween Treat "Pumpkins"

Halloween is finally here!

I've been planning and planning for Halloween for weeks -- nothing major, just costumes, and treat bags.  As much as I would love to host a party to have an excuse to make cute and yummy Halloween treats, I couldn't because of time and health issues.  R had been fighting off this awful cough and cold for the past two months, and his doctor believes it's a bug.  Well, the bug jumped ship to r and me, and he has croup, and I have the adult version of it (if there is such a thing).

Since r's classmates are under 18 months old, I had to be creative with their treat bags.  The bag should be visually appealing, and the treats should be what they can safely eat (read:  store-bought, nut-free).

Take a look.

Inside each treat bag is a pack of goldfish crackers (cheese), goldfish crackers (vanilla, fudge brownie, or s'mores), vanilla wafers, and a cereal bar.  I wanted to include a small bottle of 100% fruit juice for babies, but it won't fit in the bag.  Boo.

The pumpkins are orange paper bags from Michael's.  I stamped a jack-o-lantern face in black ink on the front of the bag.

The green leaves were made with 4x5 pieces of green cardstock folded in half, and punched with a Fiskars punch.

I taped this to the bag, and attached a green ribbon for the handle.  I attached a tag saying "Trick or Treat" and then "To/From."

All the stamps I used were from Papertrey Ink.

All parents/families are invited to r's school's Halloween parade, and then to the class party later.  We're bringing these treat bags for r's classmates.

I hope they like these.  And I hope you do, too.
Happy Halloween!

My First Sewing Project

I have never sewn anything before, and I can't explain why I decided to make my first sewing project a big one.

To celebrate our niece's first birthday, my sister-in-law hosted a costume party last Saturday.  All the guests were asked to come in costume (including the adults).  So, in true Stamped by C fashion, I decided to take a big bite of the sewing bug, by sewing our costumes.  

Yup.  Costumes for me, R, and r.  Go big or go broke, right? :p

Coming up with the idea for the costumes was the easy part.  r is in that fun, exploring age, when he's enjoying lugging around his bigger toys, and laughing over them making that big "THUD" when he drops them.  The Flintstones -- or specifically, the Rubbles family -- were our natural choice.

Here are our costumes:

This is R's costume, who is of course, Barney Rubble.  I made his costume out of brown twill fabric.  I used his t-shirt for my pattern, chopped off the sleeves, and extended then cut the hem to make his costume.  For the "X," I used black ribbon.  I used the same black ribbon to accent the costume.  I attached the ribbons to the twill using fabric glue.  For his club, I drew a rough pattern on felt, and stuffed it with Polyfil.  I accented the handle of the club using kitchen twine.

This is my costume, as Betty Rubble.  I made it out of cotton interlock.  I made a simple tube dress, laced black ribbon through the neckline.  The white "shell" was made out of polymer clay (another first for me).

Lastly, this is r's Bamm Bamm costume.  I cheated a little bit with this, since I chose to use his white onesie, and orange pants and hat, which I bought from the store.  I modified the pants and the hat by gluing black spots made out of black ribbon that I cut up.  The brown sash was made with a strip of felt.  His club was made out of felt, also stuffed with Polyfil, and accented the handle with kitchen twine.  The bone was made out of polymer clay, too.

I chose to make our costumes instead of buying them, because r will be running around at the party, and we all wanted to be comfortable while chasing him around.

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!