Halloween 2021: Owl House, Free Guy, & Cruella

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Jenny

Capelet for an Owl House student costume.

I didn’t spend a ton of time sewing this Halloween because I am in graduate school. Between teaching and studying, I just haven’t make sewing a big priority. However, this young man wanted to be a student from the school in Owl House, so I made him a little capelet. His dad made that snazzy staff topper with him. They sculpted the owl from foam, coated it in some crunchy stuff, and painted it. I thought it turned out amazing.

The only other thing I did was cut the sleeves off of my husband’s blue shirt for a Guy costume from Free Guy and hem them. I thought our costumes turned out well, and they were almost effortless.

This girl, on the other hand, was not interested in “effortless.” She spent a lot of money on materials and a lot of time on construction. She created this Cruella De Vil costume from her own design and imagination based on a costume from the movie. Unfortunately the fabric she really wanted was sold out of every JoAnn in the Rocky Mountains, as well as their online offerings. Nevertheless, she persisted and made this great costume. She took these photos herself, and I was forbidden from posting them until she had them up on her own Instagram account for an acceptable amount of time first. I’m so proud of her. I love watching her create.

Jenny’s Daughter Sews

Posted on November 7, 2020 by Jenny

I didn’t really feel the Halloween spirit this year until my daughter emerged wearing the awesome Kyoshi Warrior Costume she made. She was inspired by a group of female warriors in Avatar the Last Airbender. She invoked Suki, and I think she nailed it!

She used an old sweatshirt she had cut up for a shirt pattern, some soft and stable we got from By Annie for the shoulder armor blades. I think part of the skirt pattern was from a library book. I am so proud that all of her practice has lead her here. She made the headdress out of cardboard, and the fans were from a local store called The Gypsy Emporium. She just spray painted them gold with the head piece.

She is getting to be a great seamstress, and I love that she can have a vision and make it come to life.

Stitch Hack: Scooting Trousers Shred Saver

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Jenny

Some of you are aware of my son’s interesting way of getting around. His scooting has lead to the following problem:

Which lead me to hack the following solution:

The Bum Shoe, as I have designated it, has already saved three other pair of trousers from certain doom this week alone.

If I were a Doofenshmirtzian Evil Scientist, I would probably call it the Bum Shoe-enator. But for now, I am not, and mostly just calling it awesome.

Underwire Fix

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Jenny

At the risk of offending my most conservative of readers, I’d like to share a stitch hack I was pretty excited about this week. One of my favorite nursing … pieces of attire … popped the underwire, which disabled its support and caused it to keep poking me under the arm. I was inspired to try to fix it by this post by my friend Zina.

This has happened to me before, and I got rid of the offending bra, thinking it was ruined. However, borrowing from the philosophy of darning, I did this:

And I am back in business. Hooray!

Now I need to hurry and post something else, so when I go for a month without blogging again this won’t be the first thing on my family friendly blog.

Incidentally, I have no problem not blogging for a month, because I think it is silly to blog when you don’t have anything to say. Also, I think adjusting from two to three children covers a multitude of blogging sins.

Pants to Skirt re-fashion

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Jenny

I once found a pair of limey green stretch corduroy pants for $4.50, and they fit, although the waist was a little generous and low for me. I bought them, and just wore a long shirt with them to cover my low-riding. I was thinking the pants would make a great maternity skirt with that generous waist, so I googled and found this tutorial. I was really happy with the results:

Since I didn’t use a pair of baggy jeans, I had to improvise in the back. I made a little two layer ruffle to fill the gap where the former pant legs came apart. It made a good mid-maternity skirt. I am now far too fat for it. Still, I’m happy to have only two weeks left until my due date!