Doctor Who Cosplay - Vortex Manipulator and Pattern

I do so many little projects for myself, my kids, or friends, and I've decided to start sharing the patterns I create so others can create with them as well.

Last year I made myself a costume for Halloween.  It was a steampunk version of River Song.  I made a leather vortex manipulator to go along with the costume.  I've turned it into a PDF pattern and listed it for sale in my Etsy shop.  Click the image below to check it out!

Halloween Wrap-up and Low-Key Grown-up Costumes

How was everyone's Halloween?  I hope you all had a fun, safe night!  We had a great time going trick-or-treating with my brother and his family.  My little super heroes were so excited and ready to go.

Here's how our whole family of costumes turned out: (Please pardon the extremely goofy/lame photo... I actually hesitated posting it, but I did want to show how the grown-up costumes turned out.)

Can you tell who I'm supposed to be? Here's another hint:

Know now? Hawk Woman! Well, actually it's Hawk Girl, but my kids thought I deserved the title of woman. :) And by the way, there is a serious lack of female superheroes. It seems like most of the women are on the villain side of things...

But anyway, we had a great time and I hope you all did too!

P.S. I love Halloween for the experience of dressing up and going trick-or-treating for the kids, but I do not enjoy the candy. It makes my kids even crazier than they are normally (even with just one piece per day) and it's very hard for me to resist as well. I'm very temped, especially after watching the video below, to just throw it all out. But the hard part is helping my kids to understand that just because something tastes good, doesn't mean they should eat it. And I would understand peoples' arguments when they say "It's just once a year", "Let them binge and throw the rest out", "Just be sure they brush their teeth well", etc, etc, IF it really was just once a year. But the problem is the Western culture has become so saturated with sugar. It's in everything and everyone has tons of sweets for every occasion, or just daily for no reason at all. That's a major problem for many reasons.

Here's the video that has changed my perspective about sugar in a lot of ways. There's a lot to the professor's lecture, but essentially he explains how sugar is just as toxic to our bodies (i.e. our livers) as alcohol is. It also explains how sugar, NOT fat, makes people fat. (The whole "low fat" craze is completely wrong). If you have the time to watch it's an amazing video!

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.

------------------------------------------------------------------
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

T-Shirt Superheroes -- Part 2, The Kids' Costumes

I finally finished the kids costumes!

(Well, pretty much... grr..)

There were definitely a few hang-ups along the way.  Just having so many steps to the process and making two costumes at the same time, plus having to continue life as normal made it take a very long time.  BUT it's over now.  So I can heave a big sigh of relief.  Now I just hope they can stay intact nice through Halloween!

Here they are:

The only thing I have left to do is make another cape for my son.  Why?  Oh, because an adult in my household who shall remain nameless (not me) lost it at the park.  Need help visualizing it with the cape?

Here you go:

Hahaha

One of the best things about making things for your kids is how they [usually] completely and utterly enthusiastically LOVE what you've made for them.

For the costumes I used t-shirts, thread, interfacing, stabilizer, fabric glue and puff paint.  I was thinking of writing out full tutorials for each of the costumes but at this time of night I just wanted to get the post up to feel like I had actually completed the project!  But be sure to let me know if you're interested in a tutorial, either full or for a certain part. 

Next up part 3 -- The low-key grownups' costumes
or
Back to part 1 -- Superhero t-shirts using applique and reverse applique

------------------------------------------------------------------
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 -- 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 T-Shirt Costumes Using Applique and Reverse Applique -- Part 1

My son has had a pair of Superman pajamas since he was 3 years old.  [These are the same Superman pjs I mentioned in this post about his knight costume last Halloween]  They're a size 4T, so he has worn them even past his 5th birthday.  But the fact that they are now just too small and my son wanting to wear the shirt every single day led me to decide to make a new Superman shirt, but more durable than the printed version he had before (that was cracking and peeling off, yuck!).

My kids happen to be on a superhero kick, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to get a head start on Halloween costumes for this year.  Also adding to the timeliness of the project was Michael's (arts/crafts store) having a 2 for $5 sale on their blank t-shirts.  (This was back in July so I'm not violating my Stash-busting September pact, and I gave myself a little loophole in my project-acquisition fast to allow for a project here and there for the kids... don't hate!)  So I picked up a bunch of shirts with plans to transform them into something my kids will LOVE (and hopefully will last for a couple years at least!) plus a shirt for my husband. My son will be Superman, my daughter Wonder Woman, and my husband Batman. Me? I don't know yet... I will rant about the lack of female superheroes later on. 

Note: I apologize for the lack of photo quality below... but I hope you can follow the idea.

I started by pre-washing all the shirts. I cannot stress enough how important this step is! Things get really messed up when different parts of clothing shrink different amounts, or at all (like in the case of embroidery and appliques). Just launder them as you will launder the finished project.

Then for my daughter's Wonder Woman shirt I had to alter a child's small shirt to make it even smaller ('cause size small is meant for kids 6-8 years old). I traced a shirt that fit her well (use a non-stretchy shirt because even though these t-shirts are knit, they do not stretch much at all!), added 1/2" seam allowance, folded it over and cut it down to size.

Then I cut the sleeves off the original t-shirt and cut them shorter.

I don't have photos for the next steps but I sewed up the side seams, sewed the hem of the sleeves using elastic thread to make them gathered, then gathered the top of the sleeve and sewed it into the new smaller shirt.

For the logos I decided to use applique and reverse applique techniques. The Batman and Superman logos each have two layers while Wonder Woman has one layer. I went around online and found logos for the different characters. I re-sized them in Photoshop and printed them out. I first cut along the outside shape of the logo. I used that as a template to trace the shape onto the fabric for both the upper and lower layers of the logos. For the lower layer I also cut a layer of fusible interfacing and ironed it on.

Then using an Exact-o knife I cut out the center part of the logo and traced it on to the upper layer.

I placed both layers centered on the shirt along with a layer of tear-away interfacing underneath for extra stability while sewing and pinned it all down. (Looking back, I would rather use soluble interfacing so the added bulk will be gone after you wash it or soak it in water.)

Then I sewed an applique stitch (wide width and very short length) on the outermost outline of the logo. That will help keep everything flat and in place when sewing the inner lines.

Here's a quick visual with the tear-away stabilizer. It actually has a grainline like paper does, so it tears straighter in one direction than the other.



When I sewed the inner lines I went very slowly (and I still made mistakes! grr). I suggest you go slowly and at the corners, lift the presser foot and reposition in the new direction so you don't end up with a curve when you need a sharp corner. When you're done, carefully lift up the top layer of a part that needs to have the lower layer showing through and make a small cut in the middle of the fabric.

Then using sharp (clean!) nail scissors, cut away the upper layer, getting as close to the stitching as you can without actually cutting the stitches.

Continue with all the parts that need to have the lower layer showing through and you have a completed logo!

And in my case, one happy little boy.

Come back soon for part 2 -- the whole costume, where I will make the rest of the costume out of little more than t-shirts! :) This should be fun.

P.S. As I was writing this post my son came in with a suggestion for my character. I got a great costume idea to go with it. Hooray for spontaneous inspiration!

------------------------------------------------------------------

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 -- 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

Dollar Store Kids Knight Halloween Costume

I wasn't really thinking too hard about costumes a couple weeks ago when my kids and I took a trip to the dollar store (to pick up some of those pumpkins you all have been doing wonderful things with). When we walked down the Halloween aisle my son immediately grabbed a knight's helmet and put it on. I noticed they had a breastplate, arm guards, a helmet, and a shield in both gold and silver. Surprisingly the quality was decent (nearly as well made as the set I bought for him for his birthday in April... which I paid almost $25 for... which is still too big, and the helmet too small). The helmet was bigger than his other one, the breastplate was smaller, which was a better fit as well, and the shield could be held at one point instead of two. For $4 I'll take it! [I also picked up two things for my daughter's costume which I hope to post soon]  I must admit, though, that not all parts of this costume came from the dollar store, but everything else I had on hand already, so that was the only additional expense for the outfit. 

As soon as we got it home I noticed the 1/4" ribbon glued on neck of the breastplate was not going to cut it (as it pulled off in about .5 seconds). So I decided to reinforce it a bit, but still try to keep it easy for my son to put on and take off by himself (which he does repeatedly throughout the day).

Cheap glue -- not child grade

So I took some 1/2" to 5/8" (I don't remember which) ribbon that I had and, because it was fairly thin, I sewed two pieces together.  It would also work to use grosgrain ribbon.  I threaded it through the slots at the top and hand-sewed the pieces on.  Then I tried it on my son and crossed the ribbons across his back, pinned them where they intersected, and made sure I could still get it over his head.  Then I hand-sewed the intersected ribbons.

Then I folded over the bottom edges and sewed Velcro (making sure to sew it on the correct side to keep the ribbon laying flat across my son's back!) to the ribbon.  I also tried gluing the other side of the Velcro to the breastplate with hot glue, but it pulled off too easily.  Then I tried superglue and it works great (although it takes longer to dry than the bottle says it will)!

The emblem on the front also started to pop out, so I tried two things (both worked equally well).  I just hot glued around the peg in the back (had to hold it in place until it cooled), then I tried melting the edges of the peg with the hot metal nozzle of the glue gun (making the edges wider than the hole, so they wouldn't slip through).

The upgraded breastplate

I also made a tunic from some fabric I had laying around (which, now that I think about it, is almost the color of chainmail).  The tunic can also be made from a pillowcase and can be narrowed and/or shortened depending on the age of the child.  Just make cuts similar to the picture below.  (You can also make a square neck and straight, slanted armholes to make sewing the edges easier).

Yes the carpet is really that color

Shoulder and side seams sewn, hemmed

The finished tunic

I actually had made a cape a couple months ago for a pair of Superman pajamas my son received as a hand-me-down.  They had two tabs of Velcro on the shoulders where a [now missing] cape had previously attached.

Pardon the laptop trackpad-drawn lines

I made the neckline wider than it had to be, then pleated it

Folded, sewn edges and velcro tabs

So I just had to figure out a way to make it attach to the knight's costume.  I took two strips of Velcro (making sure it was the opposite side from what I sewed on to the cape!  I know, I know, common sense... but I still have to check myself sometimes!), folded over and sewed one end.

Then threaded it through the breastplate's top slot as shown below, bent it backward and attached the cape.  I wanted the tabs to be removable in case my son wanted to wear it without the cape. 

To finish the whole thing off I made a sash to hold the sword and sheath my son previously got for his birthday.  I cut a long strip of fabric that would end up (after sewing) to be the same width as the slot in the sheath.  I had to sew two pieces of fabric together to make it long enough to go around my son's waist, tie, and hang down a bit.

I sewed it as a long tube, then turned it, tucked the raw ends inside at an angle and top-stitched it in place.  

And that (along with the already-owned black pants and white button-up shirt) completed the whole project!  Thankfully my son is still excited to try it on after all the fittings and waiting.  Here it is, in all it's frugal glory...

Stay tuned for "Dollar Store Fairy"...

(I'm linking up to the parties in my sidebar)