Halloween Then and Now

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year and though I love to sew, for some reason, I'm not a huge fan of sewing Halloween costumes. So, 2 years ago when my daughter was 2 and my son was only a few weeks old, I looked into his Halloween future and planned a costume for my daughter I could reuse....

She was a Chef-cook! (she asked what a chef was...I said someone who cooks....the 2 year old brain decided she's a chef-cook, and the name stuck)

Here she is in action at my good friend Jane of All Trade's annual Halloween bash.




Aren't they cute!

And here's the boy, 2 years later at the same Halloween bash. The costume is a little less ironed and a little more stained, but it works.


This time around, the girl wanted to be as girly as can be and was one of a handful of princesses at the party. Her costume came out okay....but she likes it and that's all that really matters. I think I'll be finding glitter on my sewing room floor for years to come! You can't tell from the photo, but that pink fabric is covered in glitter.
Happy Halloween.....and happy costume sewing!

A Vest for the Boy

The fall weather is in full swing and the kids and I have been decked out in our vests. My son has been wearing this old vest that is a hand-me-down from his sister and really starting to be too small......but I LOVE it!


So, since the vest I made for my daughter was such a success, I decided to try my hand at a boy's vest. This posed a challenge since the one thing I avoid like the plague is sewing zippers.

I had this old blanket I'd found when cleaning out a closet. Yes, we had a Patriots blanket for our babies.....yes, we love football.....


And here's what it became....


I don't love the way this came out, it's okay. It's been worn and it's functional, but not exactly what I was going for. Oh well....sewing for boys is sometimes harder than it should be.

A Vest with Sleeves.....aka A Jacket!

As part of the KCWC hosted by Elsie Marley, I made this fleece vest, inspired (ie copied) by one posted by Dana at MADE. It was so easy to make and so cute, that I decided to make one with sleeves.....I guess that makes it a jacket!


I pretty much did everything the same except this time I let my daughter pick the color, hence the raspberry fleece, and I added 2 pockets per her request. This one ended up a bit shorter because I goofed and attached the bottom pieces wrong...oh well, it still works.

Since it has been very rainy here, and a couple of my favorite bloggers have been posting about taking photographs recently (here and here), I used this as an opportunity to experiment.

I used Rae's tip and took pictures using a white board as the background. I tried doing it inside near a window as she suggests, but it's been so dreary that even near the window, the flash came on and I got the photo on the left. I then took my board outside on my deck and got the picture on the right with no flash. It's amazing the difference!




Just to see what how it would look, I took a picture how I normally do, with the jacket laid out on my deck. The lighting is the same, so no flash, but it's amazing how the dark background changes the color! Anyway, it's fun to play around and see what you get.