Shabby Apple Winner

We had such a busy weekend and I've been working on a project for my husband all day today, I almost forgot to post the winner of the Shabby Apple giveaway!

Thank you to everyone who entered. The winner is...

Congratulations Ginger!

I will be e-mailing you with the details.

Homemade Silky Fairy Wings -- Christmas Gift Idea

I've been having a bout of craft ADD lately. There have been so many projects that have popped up with higher priority while I've been in the middle of other projects, so I've had to stop one thing, change gears and complete another thing before going back to the first project. But I have been sewing up a storm lately and that feels good, plus I think they're all great projects so I'm extra excited about posting them all! (P.S. No offense intended to those who are affected by ADD for real.)

One of those urgent projects (well, two of them actually) were birthday presents for my son's friends who had a birthday today. They are twins, a boy and a girl. For a while I was feeling a little bad because our budget is tight and I wasn't sure what I was going to do for gifts. Then it dawned on me -- for the boy I would make a cape just like my son's Superman cape, and I would make wings for the girl. It was budget friendly and fairly simple to make... although for the wings I would have to make things up as I went along. Thankfully I figured it all out and now I can pass it on to you!

By the way, both these projects would work great for halloween costumes, dress ups or Christmas gifts.  I think I'm going to make some for my young relatives.  

For the cape I made one in the same way I made my son's Superman cape, except instead of Velcro tabs on the corners, I sewed on strips of fabric (mine were 27" x 3", with a 1/2" seam allowance on all sides) to make ties, and sewed them on like this:

This is the underside of the cape

Here's how it turned out (Seymour modeling):

The wings are a knock-off of a very awesome company -- I really hope they don't mind me saying this! -- Sarah's Silks. They make incredibly beautiful playsilks and silk dress-ups. They make real silk wings that are hand-dyed in gorgeous colors and patterns. If you have the money (they're $30) I would recommend buying them because they are well made by a great company. But I couldn't afford that much, or the shipping time, so I needed to make my own. Plus I thought the ribbon that had to be criss-crossed around and tied was a bit too much work from my experience with how often kids like to put things on and take them off again. I decided to use simple elastic as the way to keep them on the shoulders and wrists.

I started with about a yard of polyester chiffon. Since it was 60" wide I decided to cut it in half, as well as cut off the selvedges, so I ended up with a piece about 30" x 36". To "cut" the fabric and make sure there are right angles at the corners and it's not skewed in a funny way make a little cut at the right length, then rip it all the way down. There will be threads coming off, but just pull them off and you'll end up with a fairly clean, straight edge.

Chiffon tends to be fairly difficult to work with, whether polyester or silk, so when hemming all four edges to make clean finished seams I had to fold it over once, pin it, then fold it over again to make sure it wouldn't slip out.

Next I folded the shorter sides together so the longer side was divided in half, and marked -- with a water-soluble marker -- a line 5/8" away, parallel to the fold line. I went slow so it would soak through to the other side and I ended up with two lines 1 1/4" apart at the center of the rectangle of fabric.

Then I sewed a gathering stitch along both lines and set it aside. I cut a 25" long piece of 1 1/2" wide ribbon and sewed the ends with right sides together using a 1/2" seam allowance, then trimmed the corners of the seam allowance to make sure they don't stick out.

Also iron it so it is folded completely in half with the connecting seam at one end and a fold at the other. I slid the chiffon into the ribbon loop, evenly gathered the lines and sewed them into place on half of the ribbon. I left one half of the ribbon loose so I could stitch on the ribbon side and make it look nicer.

Next I cut a 32" piece of 1/4" elastic, overlapped the edges 1" and sewed it together (you can do this by hand or machine). I folded it into a loop and laid it on the back of the ribbon where I had sewed the chiffon, making sure the seam was within the edges of the ribbon. I stitched back and forth several times over the elastic.

I cut a 2" long piece of ribbon and pressed the raw edges under 1/2".

And sewed it into place over the top of the elastic, making sure not to sew into the loose side of the ribbon.

Then I sewed the loose side of the ribbon down.

For the wrists I cut a 3 1/2" piece of ribbon (one for each side), sewed a 1/2" seam, turned and pressed them.

I cut an 8 1/2" piece of 1/4" elastic, looped it through the ribbon, overlapped the edges 1" and sewed it together.

I moved the elastic so the seam was in between the ribbons and sewed them to the top corners of the wings.

After that Daisy had a great time modeling them for me.

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

 Monday -  Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party  --  Tuesday -  Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show --  Wednesday -  Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday --  Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday -  Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday -  Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle --  Saturday - Saturday Spotlight --  Sunday -  The DIY Showoff Project  Parade --  Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Superhero Pants and Cape Tutorial

At last!  I can finally say I am totally, 100% done with my son's Superman costume.  Now I just need to hide it away so it won't get trashed or lost before Halloween!  That is, if there is ever a time when he's not wearing it...

Now I just have to finish my costume and make a new shirt for my daughter (she had a growth spurt and now it's too small!).  Soon, very soon!

After that I can post about the dress and belt I made to wear to my 10 year high school reunion, which happened this past weekend.  I had such a good time, it was awesome.  I really liked how everything I made turned out, and think I looked pretty darn good. 

So, back to the superheroes.  One of you, my fabulous readers, asked for a tutorial on the pants, so I'll do that plus the cape since I had to make a new one anyway.  Click here to go back to the tutorial for the logo t-shirts.

When looking at lots of superheroes I've discovered that most of them have the same style of pants, which makes this pattern very versatile since you just need to customize with your particular hero's colors.

For the pants I started with an existing pattern for a pair of pants in my son's size.  I drew the shape of the contrasting colored brief and "boots" (just below knee level). My son was very insistent that he wanted the "pointy part in the front" on the boots, just like in his Superman coloring book.

I traced the shape of the brief on separate pieces of paper, without any seam allowance on the bottom where it transitions from the brief to the pant. Same thing with the boots, except no seam allowance on the top where it transitions from the boot to the pant.

You can either cut out a full pant and just lay the contrasting color pieces over the top and sew them on (I did that for the brief). Or you can just cut the part of the pant that shows, with seam allowance to overlap and sew together with the contrasting pieces, which is what I did for the boot area. [I really hope that sentence made sense to you!] Once I had the pieces cut out I laid the contrasting pieces on top of the pant and pinned it.

I also pinned a piece of tear-away stabilizer underneath and sewed an applique stitch over the edge of the contrasting pieces. NOTE: Be very careful about the direction of the "grainline" in the stabilizer. Make sure it is going in the same direction as the seam you need to sew. If it's going the opposite direction it will pull, stretch and pucker your seam when you try to tear it off.

Make sure it is going in the same direction as your seam and you'll end up with a nice finished look.

After I finished all those seams, sewed the front pants and back pants together at the center seam. Then I clipped the curves to make sure it fits well and doesn't pull.

Then I sewed the side seams and the inner leg seam.

I left the cuffs unfinished to make sure they were long enough, folded over the waistband, and stitched around it, leaving a space to insert the elastic. I inserted the elastic and finished the waistband in the same way that I did in this tutorial.

Now on to the cape! I started out with 1 1/2 yards of cotton broadcloth. I folded it in half with the selvedges on the top and bottom, then cut from 18" at the top to the corners at the bottom.

Of course after that I measured my son and discovered I needed to cut about 6" off of it (which I did at the top). Then I folded the edges over twice, to conceal the raw edge and keep it from fraying, on the sides and the top. The bottom was the selvedge so I just left it alone.

Then I measured on my son's shoulders to see what would be a good width of cape for him. In his case it was 12". Then I pleated the cape on one side to get it down to 6", then mirrored the same pleating to the other side. I didn't measure, but just played around with it until it was right and looked good.

[I apologize for the photos... I haven't quite figured out how to shoot red effectively!]

Next I added little squares of Velcro (okay, it was generic "hook and loop") to the corners of the cape, and the corresponding spots on the shirt. And then I could check one more thing off my never-ending list of things to make!

I cannot tell you how excited my son was to have another cape! He spent the next 30 minutes running up and down the hallway seeing how his cape would fly behind him as he ran. I think he likes it.

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

 Monday -  Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party  --  Tuesday -  Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show --  Wednesday -  Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday --  Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday -  Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday -  Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle --  Saturday - Saturday Spotlight --  Sunday -  The DIY Showoff Project  Parade --  Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Pardon My Dust

Please bear with me while I figure out why my web hosting company suddenly blocked access to the files I have hosted there (including background image, fonts, blog button and social media buttons).

Just wanted to let you know I'm still here and not going anywhere... except for maybe changing hosting companies!

Buttery Flavored Popcorn Without Butter

The past couple days here have been rainy and cold. When I was growing up my mom would make popcorn each time it rained and I want to keep the tradition going with my kids.

I also love popcorn, especially buttery, salty popcorn. However I don't always like using so much butter on my popcorn (or using the artificially flavored microwave stuff). So the last time I made popcorn I tried something different. I decided to try using coconut oil instead of butter and to my surprise the result tasted like buttered popcorn! Great! Coconut oil is a much healthier fat than butter (although I still use it often).

Here is what I used:

Organic popcorn purchased in bulk from my local health food store, Dr. Bronner's coconut oil (whole and unrefined), and Real Salt (a sea salt naturally containing minerals).

The popcorn popper I used is the one pictured below, but you can use an air popper or even just a plain brown lunch bag with popcorn kernels in it for the microwave like in this tutorial.

After the popcorn was popped I drizzled it with coconut oil (you may need to melt it, but mine was already liquid), stirred it with a butter knife (great when you have a very full bowl and don't want it to spill out), drizzled, stirred and drizzled and stirred again. I didn't measure though. Then I sprinkled with sea salt, stirred, sprinkled and stirred again.

I was so happy with the result! The kids and I shared it while snuggling under warm blankets and watching a movie.

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

 Monday -  Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party  --  Tuesday -  Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show --  Wednesday -  Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday --  Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday -  Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday -  Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle --  Saturday - Saturday Spotlight --  Sunday -  The DIY Showoff Project  Parade --  Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays