The Ariel Cosplay!

I'm so thrilled that the artist, Mirian, who inspired the look dropped by! Here's the costume in it's entirety:

I know the boots aren't really all that visible, but I made my best effort to recreate Mirian's work in fabric.

Tūt Tuesday – Cosplay for Halloween

This year for Halloween, my oldest child has decided she wants to dress up as Ariel. Which is no real surprise. She lurves her some Ariel. But the same-old same-old fins and a bikini top were just not going to happen here. So after Googling for some inspiration, I found this picture at DeviantArt.com.
  What makes this doubly cool is that not only is it Ariel with a Lara Croft twist, my daughter LOVES rpgs. Kingdom Hearts, specifically. So this is what Ariel would look like if she were the heroine of Kingdom Hearts. WIN! Until my daughter informed me that she would need the Crabclaw Keyblade.

 

GREAT! At least I’ve got about 6 weeks to scratch build it. I’m not a cosplayer, so this is uncharted territory for me. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE cosplay, I just have never done it myself. So the next few tūts are going to be related to the Halloween costume. On with the tūt!

Like George Foreman isn’t going to pay a lot for a Meineke muffler, I’m not going to pay a lot for a costume prop. For an eight year old. I wouldn’t even do it for myself! So after a trip to the local Dollar Tree ($4) which included earbud covers for her Christmas gift and my local craft store ($11) I called it a day. I figure $13 is good enough for a custom weapon and parts of main costume.

 

I scored:

• Plastic sword - $1
• Disney princess chain bracelet with Ariel - $1
• 2 pack of mermaids - $1
• 2 cans of Valspar touch up paint in pink pearl/gold - 2@$1.99
• 3 sheets of self adhesive glitter foam - 3@$1.49
• 1 shell wooden thingy - 29¢
• 1 crab wooden thingy - 29¢

Step One – Cut a hole in the box

 

I scanned the crab into Photoshop at 200%, selected the crab image, deleted the background, put a 5px stroke around the crab image and printed it out to use as a template. Cut TWO from the RED glitter foam and set aside. Repeat the process for the shell. The size of your finished shell will depend largely on the size of your sword. In this case, size DOES matter.

Step Two – There’s so much we can do

Take the sword outside and spray the HILT only, the little mermaids and the chain from the bracelet only GOLD. Let them dry WELL. While they are drying, take the wooden shell and cut out TWO from the BLUE glitter foam. Set aside the shell template for later. You’ll use that again on the costume. Cut two larger shells from the template you made in the computer. Set aside. Once the sword is dry, spray the BLADE only with the pink pearl paint. I lucked out that my sword came apart by unscrewing 3 screws on the back side.

 

Here’s the tricky part. You need to attach the golden mermaids and the chain to the hilt. I’m using some clear elastic bead wire and superglue for that part. Then you need to attach the larger set of shells to the hilt. Depending on your hilt shape, will depend on how you attach them.

Step Three – It’s just you and me  

Attach the crab and small shells to the blade and chain respectively. Match up the edges and use the self-adhesive of the foam to adhere it. I made a tiny hole using the pointy end of my trust Cinderella mechanical pencil and then made a slit to allow the chain through. Once the chain was inserted, I used a teeny dab of superglue to hold it together.

Step four – I can give you more

MUCH, much more! Check back next Tuesday for the boots! Meanwhile, check out the finished product!

Not too bad as a reasonable facsimile of the original concept, if I do say so.

UFOs

or Unfinished Fabric Objects

They lurk in every sew-person's stash. They hide in obscure places waiting to jump out at you and stick you with a straight pin when you least expect it.

Today, my UFOs were put on notice: "You will be complete. Yes, you will."

I've taken the pledge not to begin one more sewing project until all my UFOs are dealt with appropriately. I'm only a little bummed about this because I wanted a spiffy new outfit for our 10th anniversary dinner tomorrow night but oh well.

I solemnly pledge not to begin any new projects until these are finished or lower in priority.

Here's my list (in no particular order):


1.Denim skirt repair
2.Denim skirt finish
3.Flannel jumper finish - for Fall
4.Crib blanket finish - post to Etsy - needs blanket binding
5.Captain Jack Sparrow t-shirt finish
6.Hem Gabriella's jeans
7.Replace Lorenzo's button - needs buttons
8.Batik blouse finish
9.Girls' sundresses finish
10.Boy's pjs finish - for Christmas
11.Kids' robes finish
12.Kids' t-shirt refashion/transfers - for Christmas - need measurements

I've cleared three UFOs last night - some machine embroidery for the kids' Christmas gifts.

Why, yes, yes I am a GeekMom™

Our oldest child has ADD. To say that getting her to remember even the basics like "turn in the homework that Mom sat with you to help you finish" and "bring home your homework assignments, lunchbox and anything that you wore to school today" has been a challenge to say the least... Well, my friends, it's the understatement of the millenium.


So I made her a checklist. I shall laminate it so that it doesn't get all nasty. You wanna see it? You KNOW you want to. It's Geekalicious™. Jen at Epbot, this one's for you.

PipBoy3000 Elementary School Edition

You think this will help? I might cut the PipBoy3000 out for added effect. What say you?

Okay, so I went ahead and trimmed it and laminated it. Here's the finished article:

I changed the font color so it would show up better on the black background.

Ask and it shall be given!

Yesterday was the rye-less rye bread test, courtesy of the Gluten Free Goddess. It came out well, I think. The bread is slightly crumbly, but overall it tastes like rye bread and makes a great pastrami sandwich.

On my other blog, I have a feature called Fortune Cookie Friday where I post the wisdom found in a fortune cookie. On Fridays. Which is all well and good when you can eat the fortune cookies. I love fortune cookies. But fortune cookies have gluten. Which means my trips to the Panda Express are going to be limited in the future. So I thought to myself, what am I going to do? How am I ever, ever going to be able to do another FCF if I can't have fortune cookies? Never mind the fact that I don't HAVE to eat the cookies and I won't break out in hives if I touch one... So I thought to myself (again), I bet I can conjure up a recipe. That's the ticket! But then, I thought some more and said, Just let me Google it first. I bet someone else has ALREADY done the work for me! And they have. Over at Celiac.com, there's a recipe for Gluten-Free Chinese Fortune Cookies. Too bad they don't come with the fortunes already. Oh well... At least I can still steal my kids' fortunes and post them. :-)

First things first

My apoligies for not updating sooner. I've been away for the entire summer and then school started and we're just getting back into the groove. Bewaaaaaaaaaaare the groooooooove!

As you may have noticed, the blog background has changed! I noticed this for the first time today when my spiffy background, courtesy of The Cutest Blog on the Block, was MISSING. Since I had to track down my background and reinstall it anyway, I figured it was time for a change. And let's be honest, the other background was just a little too foofy for my taste but at the time was the best I could do.

How do you like the new background?

In other news, I learned that I'm gluten intolerant. While I haven't had the testing done to see if it's full-blow Celiac's Disease, my doctor has warned me to not eat gluten. So one thing you'll see a lot more of are posts about my adventures in gluten-free baking. Right now, I've got my first-ever loaf of gluten-free anything in the oven. It's from the Gluten-Free Goddess and it's a rye-less rye bread. This had to be my first thing to try because I'm a serious fan of a Reuben sandwich. And since my eldest child is off gluten thanks to her ADD diagnosis - which I know hasn't been "proven" in a double-blind controlled study - it's just easier for everyone to eat what I eat. We'll see how it tastes. I've got pastrami in the fridge waiting for bread.

Favorite Jeans + holes in the crotch =

a major refashion!

SRSLY, what's a girl to do, right? You've got this favorite pair of jeans and they've been worn to DEATH but you just can't let them go...

In my case, it's a pair of Converse One Star from Target that set me back ~$30 2 or 3 years ago. I know, right? But the fabric was just sooooooo sooooooft. So today, I gathered all the get up and go I could muster and headed to the Local Mega Fabric Mart for some microsuede and some pleather. I know, I know PLEATHER. But really, when used tastefully and in small amounts, it's really not all that heinous. I promise. See?

What I did:

• Cut the legs open on the inseams
• Cut off the belt loops
• Cut microsuede on the bias in two long triangles and sew in the space between the legs to fill in
• Cut pleather on bias for hem binding and new waistband
• Sew using a zigzag stitch and a denim needle

I'm not sure if I'm done with this yet. I keep thinking it needs "something" to give it a bit more "oomph" but we shall see. I did score some clearance stretch lace with sparklies that's the same color as the pleather, so I'm definitely making a matching blouse with pleather neck trim (Willow had a shirt like that on "Buffy"). And I got enough pleather to make myself some boots to go with, so it's all good. Yeah, you heard right: BOOTS. Over the knee, I'm thinking. I just have to make the lasts for the base part and get some tooling leather and heels going. Shoe making is SO going to be my next hobby to take up.

I bet you never knew

that a preschool learning activity is also recycling! Bonus points if you did know.

One of my all time favorite activities from my days as a preschool teacher was taking broken crayons (Leftolas) and melting them into custom crayons. How it works is you get all the broken crayons together - and believe me, with 15 littles aged 2-5, you're GOING to have broken crayons - and then sort them by color family. Take a paper (not plastic!) cup - waxed preferred, put each kid's name on a cup and let them put their favorite colors in the cup. Then, you put the cups on a cookie sheet, toss it in the oven @ 350 for 4 or 5 minutes or so. When they're done, you take the whole affair out, open all the windows and doors to air out the room and then wait for them to cool. Once they've cooled, peel the cups off and there you have it: little crayon disks.

So when Crayola came out with the Crayon Maker toy back in 2002, I wanted one so badly I could taste it. But I wasn't going to part with my hard earned money ($25 or so) for a glorified Easy Bake Oven for crayons. This past Christmas, the local Fabric Mega Store had the "new" version which only made MINI crayons for $30 that I coulda got for 50% off, but who wants MINI crayons???? If  I  my kids wanted mini crayons, they'd color with the broken ones, ya know? So when I hit my local Goodwill this week, what did my wondering eyes spy but the 2002 model for $4.99?! SCORE!!! 60 watt candelabra bulb included!

So this afternoon, the girls and I sat on the dining room floor and peeled all the leftolas and started up the crayon maker. And there were quite a few little leftolas to peel!

After one round of heating, the glitter/metallic Crayolas didn't want to melt, so I cranked it for a second round to get them nice and warm and melty. The standard Crayolas melted just fine, though. The only hitch to this wondrous contraption is that you MUST use Crayola brand crayons. And I'm fine with that. I'm a bit of a crayon snob anyhow. I refuse to use anything BUT Crayola crayons. They've got the smoothest feel and the deepest pigment of any brand. And getting a pack of 8 for 12¢ on clearance just can't be beat.

Observations from the Peanut Gallery:

Oldest Daughter: So changing the ingredients changes the melt time! Even though the are the same brand, the melt times are different because the metallic ones have an added ingredient! COOL!

So I had this scheme all laid out...

And like every other one of my hare-brained schemes, it came to naught.

I'd planned on posting my cleaning bonanza as a pictorial thingumy and well, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men, right? So anyhow, I got caught up on the laundry and stuff and all of the sudden, out of the blue, I started ironing. Yeah!

And then I got the sewing area sorted out. And then the dining room. And then the bathroom and the bedroom. I was so industrious that I sorted my drawers and closet and filled up a huge bin with clothes to take to the charity shop. I tidied up the living room, ditched the ruined rug and generally got it all squared away.

As I mentioned on my facebook wall, if I didn't know better, I'd say I was nesting. At any rate, the plan of going area by area to get it all tidied before our trip is nicely out of whack. At first, I was beating myself up because I wasn't doing it in "order". But the reality is that doing it this way is more organic and peaceful for me. Attacking each area as it arises doesn't feel forced or contrived.

And while it's not perfect - and I don't ever expect it to be this side of heaven - I'm happy with it. I'm finding the oddest times to carve out a moment to take care of the "little" jobs: scouring the tub/shower happened last night at 11:30. Laundry got tossed in after that and switched over this morning. Yesterday afternoon between my work and picking up the kids from school, I did a load of sheets and remade the bed. Today I folded laundry while watching a documentary - Wild China - on Netflix. Yesterday while the kids were in the bathtub, I mopped the bathroom floor. While my oldest kid was at CCD, I cleared off my dresser.

Now I'm no expert, and I've been subscribed to FlyLady since 2002, but I'm just not good with a "schedule". I don't know if it's the ADD or what. Having a rigid schedule just kills me. But fitting things into my outside commitments? For some reason, that's easier.

Cross your fingers that the roll I'm on stays rolling. I'm a lot happier when my environment is pleasant and stress-free.

A little departure from the "plan"

I'll readily admit that I'm terribly scatterbrained (my oldest comes by that trait honestly!) and I can get sidetracked super easily. Especially when there's fabric involved. ;-)

So I took a bit of a break from the kids' stuff and the cleaning stuff and cut out a new skirt and top for *me*. I've got this amazing green eyelet and burgundy/brown/green batik fabric that jumped off the shelf and into my cart at the local Fabric Mega Mart.

The green eyelet will become this skirt:

McCall's 5431

I added 2" to the waist at the center tapering to the hips. This pattern calls for a back zipper, but I don't like them, so I omitted the back seam and moved the opening to the side. This skirt is very close in style to my favorite skirt ever (DKNY, purchased in Jakarta 2.5 years ago). The length will be the same as the picture, but it will be solid eyelet without a contrast band. I'd rather have something that I can wear with more than one thing, ya know?

And the batik will become the first top (but with the lower neckline):

I don't plan on putting on a collar because I like a more streamlined look. Besides, the pattern of the fabric doesn't lend itself to any frippery. The only modification to this pattern was adding 1/2" to the waist to have enough ease. Cross your fingers that this works out because the fabric is $13/yard and I don't want to have to buy more.

More pictures will come as I complete more projects.