Holiday Hats

I'm sure people are tired of reading about my darn hats, but I made a few variations (for donating to the hospital). If you don't want to go with a traditional type Christmas hat (Santa), you can change things up with stripes of various thicknesses and elf-inspired variations on the puff-ball tipped hat (like the green and white one on the right, which I LOVED, and am now making a larger sized one for my youngest niece).

These are basically the same pattern as the Santa Hat, except you start with 50 sts (these were all newborn sizes).

Kanzashi Fun

Ever since I discovered the existence of Kanzashi flowers a couple months ago, it's been on the top of my To Do list to learn to make them.

And this week, I attempted my first ones! I have to say that it was so fun!

I wanted to make one like this - leave it to me to try the hard ones first.

Anyway, I wanted a classy pin to jazz up my black dress for my husband's company Christmas party. I  haven't decided what I'm going to use for the center yet. I used this old button as a stand in for the pictures.

What do you think? Not too bad, eh?

Felt Christmas Ornaments

It's that time of year again for me...to make Christmas ornaments.

This year I decided to do something I've never done before and that was to make ornaments out of felt.

I had a church activity I was asked to lead again (making Christmas ornaments) so I came up with the tree at the top and this lovely star and bird.

But after I finished those I didn't want to make them for my family.

One day I got an ad/catalog from Shutterfly (which is where I get photobooks - which look great, by the way, if you're interesting in doing that sort of thing) and there was a cute little felt owl ornament on one of the pages....which I then proceeded to copy.

Unfortunately, this post will ruin the surprise for some people (sorry Tammy - but you can choose which one you want!).

Merry Christmas!

Gryffindor Halloween Costume - Part 4, Tie & Robes

Toddler Tie

I attempted to find a tie I could buy, but finding one for a toddler was impossible.

For the tie, I used this tutorial over at the Purl Bee.

I couldn't find a fabric with stripes that had the right color combination, so using leftover maroon fabric from Evie's robes I just top-stitched stripes onto the fabric after I'd cut out the pattern shapes.

Robes


This is the part of the costume that I thought would be exceptionally difficult. You can't just go out and find a pattern for Harry Potter style wizards robes! That would be too ridiculously convenient!

My initial research led me to this website which shows you how to adapt a standard robe pattern into a Harry Potter style robe....for adults, anyway. I used the same method for a child sized robe.

The pattern I use was Simplicity pattern #2571. I scoured Joann's and the internets for fabric in the right color. I found some at Mood Fabrics - it's cotton poplin and I just love the maroon color. It just so happened that I had recently purchased a Groupon that gave me $30 worth of fabric for $15. Go me!

It took me a couple of days to adapt the pattern, which I thought was going to take me forever (!) - hence why I started in, like, August. But it went surprisingly fast and easy.

After the pattern was finished, I made a basic toile out of white fabric and it looked great! (I love when that happens!) However, that one won't be worn outside anytime soon - white robe with a pointy hood.....yeah, didn't think that one through. I'll have to add trim or lace or something to it in the future....can't let a good robe go to waste.

Here's my oldest modeling the toile.

Some improvements I made to the pattern - I added a lining to the whole thing, a side pocket and a wand pocket on the inside. For the neck closure I used a frog closure that I found at Joann's.

Frog closure:

Wand pocket:

Gryffindor Patch

The little Gryffindor patch was hand embroidered by yours truly. 

(It was surprisingly difficult to get a good picture of this thing)

I found a picture of what the patch was supposed to look like, then scaled it down in Inkscape to the size I wanted. I printed it out and basically just eyeballed the design as I was sewing (I used a separate piece of leftover fabric and a small embroidery hoop). The pattern was just too small and the fabric too black (go figure!) to draw it out before I did it. 

The finished product:

I am very proud of how well these robes turned out.

Can anyone argue against this little girl being the cutest Gryffindor ever? No? I didn't think so.