Last Minute Costumes- Curious George and The Man in the Yellow Hat

Last weekend, my husband said to me, "So.... next week is Halloween, and we have a party on Monday, and Friday, and Saturday... are we dressing up?"  He could have said, "Hey, remember 3 1/2 weeks ago when I told you that Halloween is coming and its going to sneak up on us and we need to start on costumes for the kids so we don't have to do it all at the last minute?"  Um, yeah.  So I spent the weekend and Monday running to Jo Ann's and trying to put costumes together (with some help from my very patient, non- complaining husband).
This is what I came up with:

My 2 year old has this monkey that he will not put down all day long and he won't go to sleep without it (I pray we never lose it!).  He loves it and so I thought it was fitting that he be a monkey.  We recently watched the Curious George movie with him, so it became Curious George, and naturally, my husband would be Ted, the Man in the Yellow Hat.

I picked up the Jack-o-lantern costume for the baby from Walmart last year after Halloween for $5.  I made a "whipped cream swirl" out of batting, sewed it to a white beanie, and sat him in a pie tin and voila- pumpkin pie.  I was pretty much out of energy to make a costume for myself, so I donned an apron, grabbed a wooden spoon (which I forgot for the picture) and said I was the baker who made the pumpkin pie.  Not at all elaborate, but it worked nicely.

The monkey costume came together fairly easily.  I bought some brown fuzzy fabric that was way on sale and made the suit based on an old one piece pantsuit that was too small.  I used a big paper bag to make pattern pieces which I drew out by hand.

I made the hat based on this hat pattern I posted last year (which was way too small for him at this point, but was easily made bigger).  I found some furry tan fleece in the remnants at the fabric store, which was perfect for the ears, feet, and hands.  The tail was made by making a casing for this rolled batting stuff which I have no idea what it is but I found it in the home decor section of Jo Ann's.

  I tacked the tail to itself to make it curl and then added velcro to it and the body of the costume to hold it up.  I sewed the front of the hat (the part that goes under the chin) to the front of the monkey suit, but I left the back unattached so it would be easier to put the hat on, and also so that he could take it off without taking the whole monkey suit off.

Same deal with the mittens- easy off to facilitate consumption of monkey snacks.

My husband's costume was pretty easy but time consuming.  We used some white pants and an old white shirt he had and dyed them with Rit yellow dye in the washer.  We tried to dye his tie too, but it was 100% polyester, so it didn't take the dye at all.  We ended up using fabric spray paint to get it yellow.  We also used fabric spray paint to turn his belt a darker shade of brown.  The belt buckle was previously brassy colored, so some metallic silver spray paint made it just right.  Circle fabric markers made perfect polka-dots on the tie, and some cardboard and yellow fleece made a... not so perfect hat.  Blah.  I am not too proud of the hat, but it was surprisingly difficult to make.  The shape did not easily allow for machine sewing, at least not using the method I chose.  After sewing, seam ripping and re-sewing a few times, I told it I didn't care if it was crooked, so there.  I hot glued the black ribbon on.  Not perfect, but what costume ever is?  Anyway, you get the idea, and all the kids at the party on Monday night knew exactly who my husband was supposed to be. 

I should really learn my lesson and start on Halloween costumes a little earlier in the month.  I was in the same situation last year, and while I cranked out a pretty cute puppy costume (in my own humble opinion!) for my son, my husband and I ended up "dressing up" as joggers in workout clothes.

The puppy costume came together from an old pillowcase and corduroy shirt.

Next year I am totally going to start on our costumes earlier- promise! (Maybe.)

Pearl necklaces + Another Anthro-inspired necklace tutorial

I am a fan of pearl jewelry, and tend to make it...frequently. Last Christmas, I decided to try and replicate some of the pearl jewelry I had seen in stores and online, and made this as a Christmas gift for my sister:

And then, I made this one after I saw an awesome tutorial on Infarrantly Creative.

And then Rochelle, made this one - she threaded a ribbon through the pearls and tied a knot between each pearl as she went. I really like how it turned out!

My most recent pearl necklace creation was inspired by a necklace design I saw a few months ago at anthropologie:

I really liked how the strands intertwined, and thought that this design would look pretty in pearls, and I had a ton, so I decided to go for it. It turned out to be kind of an interesting/tedious process, but I like how it turned out - here's what I did:




Materials:
- bead stringing wire
- a boatload of beads
- 2 x 16" lengths of ribbon

1. Figure out how long you want your necklace to be, and string the beads onto the whole length of the string.
2. Tie both ends of the strand into a good, tight square knot (plus a couple more for good measure ;) )
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you have what looks like 4 necklaces. I used different sized beads for each strand - so I had one strand with large pearls, 1 with medium, and 2 with small.
4. Repeat step 1, and this time, loop the strand through the first 4 necklaces, and then tie.
5. Repeat step 4 until you have 8 total strands.
6. Now, tie one piece of ribbon securely (I tied it in a knot) on each side of the necklace, this is what you will use to put the necklace on - you just tie the ribbons together in a bow.

Hopefully that makes sense! I think its pretty straight forward, but please let me know if you have questions or anything!

Photo Clock Makeover

Remember Marissa's post about revamping a clock?  Well here is another one... I thought I was pretty clever for thinking of this idea, but it turns out that it has been done before.  And the way it turned out isn't quite as beautiful as I envisioned it.  Oh well.

I think part of my problem is that I am not loving the bright turquoise in my kitchen, but I guess I will keep it there for the time being.  It would go better in another room in my home, but I need a clock in the kitchen!  So for now it stays.  I do think it is an improvement on what I had before...

Yep, it looks better now.  How did the transformation take place?  Some masking tape and a grocery bag...

A can of spray paint...

A wedding photo and Inkscape...

Some experimenting with pretty fonts and a sheet of card stock...

And finally some mod podge and matching ribbon and white tape for the clock hands.

I think I would like to try this kind of thing again, just with a photo inside.  The text on the outside was pretty hard to get right, at least with the programs I currently have available to me.  The rest of it was fun though and I would say it was a good learning experience!  

Any other clock makeovers out there?  I'm still in the market for ideas.

Refashion a Man's Shirt to a Woman's Shirt Tutorial

Some may recognize the following tutorial from the archives of this blog, but it has never really been "posted" here because I imported it from my personal blog last year before the Home Sweet Homebodies blog became public.  Also, it was shared as a web album, and I thought this was a better way to share at this point.  So here it is again!

This is what my finished shirt looked like- kind of a tunic style shirt.  This shirt can be made without using any pattern- just use a favorite shirt as a guide. 

Here is the starting point: a man's long sleeved collared shirt bought from a second hand store.  Going patternless really allows you to give license to all your creativity, and if you are refashioning an item of clothing that is not being used or would end up being discarded, you have nothing to loose!  This was one of my first refashion projects, so it is definitely not professional looking, but I had so much fun doing it, and it turned out to be very wearable.  So get out your fabric scissors and don't be afraid to start cutting that poor unloved shirt (for the moment) up!

  
The first step is to make the new neckline.  I used a pencil to freehand draw the line I would cut on.  I suggest making the neck fairly wide because you are going to eventually gather it, which of course makes it smaller.  If you are worried about making it too large, go ahead and start with a higher neckline, and you can always trim it down. 

Cut along the line you just made until you cut the whole collar off.  Now even up the neckline so it is round and symmetrical.

It is really helpful to use another shirt as a guide.   Choose one that you like the fit of, both in the neckline and the waist.  You will use it again later!

Measure the length of sleeve you want, mark it out, and then cut off the excess sleeves on both sides.

 Cut off the rounded bottom of the shirt so that it is straight.  You can leave it fairly long, like I did, if you want more of a tunic- style shirt, or cut it shorter based on your shirt length preference.

Grab that shirt you were using and lay it over the shirt you are working on, so you have a guide when making the new side shape.  Be careful not to cut into your guide- shirt!  This step not only makes the shirt less baggy (remember, it was a man's shirt!) but gives it a more contoured shape instead of a straight edge.  The part you cut out will be used for another part of the shirt, so don't throw it away!

An easy way to make your shirt symmetrical is to simply fold the shirt in half and make the same cut on the other side.  You may want to trim the sleeves a bit as well to make them a tiny bit narrower (however, these will be gathered as well, which will make them smaller, so it is entirely a matter of preference).

Take the strip of fabric you just cut from the side of the shirt and cut up both sides of the seam, until you get a long strip shaped like this.  This will be used to make a belt loop.  Depending on what is going to be used for the belt, the loops could be short or much longer.  This one is short.

Putting the belt loops in is kind of hard to show, but it is really easy to do, so I will do my best to explain.  Turn the side seam on the shirt inside out.  With right sides together, sandwich the belt loop with the end poking out.  Pin in place.  Pull the other end of the belt loop out so that just the end is sticking out, and pin that in place too.  Sew the whole side seam from the bottom up to the sleeve (and sew the sleeve together too if you ended up trimming it to be more narrow).  Using this side as a guide, mark where you are going to sew the belt loop on the other side of the shirt, so it doesn't end up uneven.  You may have to experiment to figure out where you want the belt to be on the shirt- whether high on your waist or lower.

The next step is sewing a casing around the neckline.  Zig-zag or serge the edge first to help reduce fraying.  Thread your elastic through the casing and sew in place on each edge.  Do the same thing for each of the sleeves, but before you cut the elastic make sure it feels comfortable around your arm and not too tight.

 

This is where I secured the elastic.  You don't want this area where the buttons and button holes are to gather, so I sewed right through the elastic without stretching it, so it wouldn't bunch up.

Use scraps from the sleeves to make a ruffle.  You may need to cut a few strips and sew them together to make it long enough.  Unbutton the shirt and spread the fabric wide at the bottom to measure- you want the ruffle piece to be at least 1 1/3 x the length of the shirt.  When you have a long enough piece, press it in half lengthwise, wrong sides together.  Then do a baste stitch along the raw edges.  Pull one of the strings and gather the material.

With the right side of the shirt facing out, pin the ruffle upside down onto the shirt, with the raw edges together.  Adjust the amount of gather on your ruffle so that it becomes the same length as the shirt bottom.  You will want to remember to finish the short ends too; folding them back would probably be the easiest way.  Now sew the ruffle to the shirt bottom, with your seam above the basting so that it won't show once you flip it down.  You can either serge the seam, or zig-zag and trim the excess material.  Now, flip the ruffle down!  Top stitch it in place.

For the belt: I decided to use a contrasting ribbon as the belt.  You could also use any extra scraps depending on how big the shirt was and make a drawstring- style belt.

And there you go! I later added a couple of darts in the back to help with the fit.  I don't have a lot of experience in making darts without a pattern, so I was only marginally successful.  If anyone has suggestions, or knows of a great resource on dart- making, please share?!

Cooking Tip: Perfect Ground Beef

I have to admit that when I cook ground beef (aka hamburger) I usually do it somewhat haphazardly, i.e. throwing the frozen hunk of meat in a hot frying pan and trying to defrost it and cook it at the same time. Not pretty, not appetizing.  So I was amazed and impressed when I learned this technique for cooking ground beef that yields perfect results every time from my mom after a family dinner. 

First, you really need to start out with completely thawed or fresh hamburger.  Put it in your frying pan, and add water (start with about 1 cup of water per pound of hamburger you are cooking).  Don't turn the heat on yet!  This is important!  You can add onions now if you like them, or you can add them later.  They will be softer if you add them now.  Take your cooking implement and mash the meat so that the water mixes with all the hamburger and gets between each piece of the meat. 

Now, with everything mixed together, turn the heat on high and brown your hamburger as usual.

Turn off the heat and drain the water from the hamburger.  I pour everything into a colander, then put the meat back into the pan.  Turn the stove back on to medium- high heat.  You can add the onions now, if you like them more firm.

If you want to add taco seasoning, now is the time.  You will need to add some water  along with the seasonings so the meat stays moist.  You can use a store bought envelope of taco seasoning, or make your own using the following recipe:

Homemade Taco Seasoning

2 tsp. dry onion
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp. minced dry garlic
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. cumin

Mix! If adding to ground beef, add 1/2 c. water and simmer 10 minutes.

What lovely texture! It is ready to be eaten or frozen!

KFNEBJVRND8Y

Fixing Jeans With a Broken Zipper

We have a guest poster today... We'd like to introduce you to our sister Cara, who's company we get to enjoy so much more frequently since she came to live out here for school!  Here she explains an easy, alternative method of fixing a broken zipper on jeans:

Hi my name is Cara, and I am related to the Home Sweet Homebodies.
So in about May, I was wrapping up my last few weeks of the High School experience. I woke up one morning and pulled on my FAVORITE JEANS. Everyone has them, you know, that one pair that fits you just right and always makes you feel super cute? These were them. I think I got them Sophomore year, and we had made some beautiful memories together. Please note that they were my first pair of designer jeans which I sort of have a fetish for now. Please also note that I got them at a thrift shop and only paid $38 for them. I'm a cheapo.
Okay so as I was putting them on, the zipper broke. I was devastated. So I did what any rational person would do. I shed a few tears, and wore them anyways. They went perfectly with my outfit! What else was I supposed to do? I had to be out the door in 5 minutes, and I do not do well under pressure.. Well needless to say, that was a VERY awkward day at school, and after they made it through the laundry they got stuck on the bottom of the jeans pile (its really a tall stack) in my closet for the next 4 months. Unable to let them go, I still brought them with me to college, thinking I would find a tailor to put in a new zipper, because those jeans and I were old friends, and you do things like that for old friends.
Well, It got a little depressing looking at them, and being a poor college student, I hadn't quite justified paying to fix them yet. So they sat on my shelf looking like this:

Cue my sister Rochelle. I was at her house one evening, benefiting from a real home cooked meal that I invited myself over for (don't worry, I helped cook) and I was complaining about my poor jeans. After talking for a while, we both realized that there was really nothing to lose by trying to fix them ourselves! We even looked up a zipper replacement tutorial. Well, sewing on a zipper is a little scary, so I was thinking about those other kinds of jeans that have button tabs instead of zippers, and that sounded a LOT easier.

So first I decided that we should just cut the zipper out, not seam rip it, but just cut the teeth out so they wouldn't get in the way and be annoying.

Next we needed some material to use for the button tab. We tried to find some old denim, but settled on some grosgrain ribbon. We even recycled by using some cute pink Bed Bath and Beyond ribbon Rochelle had in her ribbon stash! (I'm from Oregon; recycling makes me happy.)

 Doubling the ribbon over, we sewed it up each side to make it a double layer which would be stronger.

Then, measuring the tab on the jeans, we decided there should be 2 small-ish buttons to hold the fly closed, so I figured out where the buttons should be and I penciled in the location on the ribbon.

After we knew that, we just made 2 button holes using the button hole setting on the sewing machine, and then it was time to sew the tab into the pants. Pinning it to the forward flap, we sewed it straight down using navy blue thread which was invisible on the front of the jeans! The extra portion of the ribbon just got trimmed, threaded through the slot, and tacked down inside.

I measured where the button holes were on the tab and sewed the buttons into the correct location using bright pink thread (to match the fun ribbon!).

...and Voila!!! They were finished! It was pretty simple, and is surprisingly durable! Yay! Now I can wear my favorite jeans whenever I want, and I don't have to worry about broken zippers ever again because I can just fix them! The best thing? It took less than an hour to finish :) Ta-Da!

Here I am wearing the finished product. You cant tell, but I'm smiling real big. Best Clothing Refashion Ever.

Thanks for sharing, Cara!

10/19/2011 UPDATE: So you may be wondering about the stability over time of this fix, so here's what we have learned: ribbon on its own isn't a great long term solution.  We tried a double layer of denim, and that lasted a little longer, but still, after washing for a year, it started ripping.  We suggest trying what a fabulous commenter below has suggested: use stiff fusible interfacing between the layers of grosgrain ribbon or denim for added durability. (Thanks vaccinenurse!) Good luck!