An Awesome Alteration

A friend of mine bought this AMAZING vintage dress at the Goodwill fashion show a few weeks ago. She is planning on wearing it to my Zombie Prom Halloween party. The dress ended up being WAY smaller than the size listed, so I offered to alter it for her.

Luckily, being the vintage beauty that it is, this dress had tons of extra fabric in the skirt.

I cut a wedge from the side seam of the skirt to get the fabric to make the bodice larger. I sewed the seam back together and the volume of the skirt hid the new seam. The fabric will match but it is not going to have the black lace overlay. No worries, I have an idea for how to handle that later.

I decided to add the extra fabric to the back of the bodice right next to the zipper. Otherwise I would have been cutting through, and probably messing up, all those sequins. It means that the zipper wont be in the center of the back, but that isn't all that noticeable.

Here is the new panel sewn in place. The zipper is way over on the left side. It should fit, but that panel looks really noticeable.

So, I pulled out my sharpie marker and matched the lace pattern. I started by making small loops to replicate the netting pattern that is the background of the lace.

After the whole surface was covered in the net pattern, I made a larger flowery lace pattern.

Up close you can tell its not exactly the same.

But from arms length, and especially at night at a party, it's hard to tell that there is anything different. I showed it to my husband and he couldn't figure out that anything was different even up close.

I even drew some lines to match the gathered part of the skirt, but I didn't like how weird the seem looked.

So, I took a nod from the front of the dress and added a big bow. Now the dress should fit AND hopefully the changes won't be noticeable. Awesome!

Designing a Tattooed Lady Costume

Last time I shared how some thrift store shirts and sharpie markers were used to create a strong man costume. Today, I'm showing how a thrift store shirt, sharpie markers, and an old pair of knee high stockings became Lydia's Tattooed Lady costume.

This costume is also constructed from several thrift store pieces. You can read all about the dress by clicking here. Again, the bulk of the outfit was one really good find, in this case a blue and yellow adult size long fancy shirt.

Last year, the dress was intended for an event where I was supposed to be a ring leader. Lydia was going to be a mini-me match of my outfit. That event never happened. At the time, this dress was a little big for Lydia so I thought it could wait a year.

At some point I decided that Lydia could still just be a pint sized ring leader for Halloween this year, OR we could change it up and she could be Lydia the Tattooed Lady from the old Groucho Marx song.

And so began the hunt for tattoo lady inspiration. Once again, I found the tattooed dolls of Mimi Kirchner, and once again I am in love with what she creates.

Thankfully the dress making and idea finding was finished long ago, so all I had to do this year was make the tattoo stuff. I did have a set of store bought tattoo sleeves as a back up plan but I really wanted something a little more tailored to Lydia's size and look.

I actually used an old pair of knee high nylons for her sleeves! I just cut off the toe part and it was the perfect length for her arm! In the first picture she has the nylons on her arm, but the color was such a good match it is hard to see. Then I inserted a piece of paper under the nylons to protect her skin and drew my tattoo designs with a sharpie marker. Remove the paper and the tattoo is on the nylon sleeve and not on Lydia's skin!

I used this image of a tattooed lady for specific ideas and clear line drawings of tattoos. I borrowed the idea of her snake twisting around one arm, a bird and some flowers. I also discovered that I could stretch the nylon sleeve over a paper towel tube to draw the designs without making the four year old sit still for hours.

Here is one of the only pictures I have of the chest tattoos. The original dress was a little low in front, so I added a panel of flesh colored knit from a thrift store shirt ( it was actually scraps from Joshua's strong man skin). On the chest panel, I drew her name, a flower, and I even put a bird on it!

For the back, I cut out a large part of the original dress and added another flesh colored panel. This was the last part that I decorated and I am really proud of my tattoo skills here!

Here is a close up of the back of the dress details, which were still drawn with sharpie markers.

We will go and have some professional pictures taken next week, but I posed Lydia in our yard to get a few pictures with natural light. Here are a few of my favorites!

And finally we got a few pictures of Lydia with her daddy, the crazy mentalist from the side show.

I even got in front of the camera for a picture with Lydia and the ring leader. So now we just have to figure out which circus character Lydia's Aunt wants to be and the whole crew will be ready to go.... And I will be ready to rest.... Or start planning next year's pirate theme!

Sewing a Strong Man Costume!

When I made Joshua a mustache pacifier a month or so ago, I got the idea of making it part of his Halloween costume.

I searched the Internet for inspiration and quickly found the beautiful tattooed strong men dolls by Mimi Kirchner. I love SO much about her work!

A lucky break came in the form of that striped romper. I found it at a thrift store and it was exactly as you see it in the costume, sleeveless with long pants. I didn't have to change anything! I just added parts from a flesh colored knit shirt that was also found at a thrift store to be the outer skin of the strong man's muscles.

I was able to use sharpie markers to add chest hairs and tattoos to the skin fabric.

I thought for a while about different ways to sculpt the actual muscles. In the end it was a simple solution. I cut the sleeves off of a long sleeve shirt that was getting a little small.

So with one sleeve inside the other, I just inserted a little blob of stuffing between the two layers. I could shape it however I needed and it stayed in place without any sewing!

The belt hardware came off an old belt that didn't fit anymore. The red fabric was a wool sweater that accidentally got washed and shrunk.

And here is the outfit all put together on our little strongman! That's the tattooed lady holding him. More on that costume later.

Decorating the Boy

When Lydia was born, someone at church referred to her as "the one they decorate!" It was easy with a girl to make a hair bow or add a ruffle. With a boy, just finding cute clothing is hard enough. Accessories are few and far between.

I have decided to keep my eyes peeled for cute socks and hats. I have found some great striped and argyle socks and I love the grey hat pictured above. (I also seem to have misplaced it during our recent trip to Iowa.... So sad!) So, I'm now in the market for more hats. While looking closely another bigger hat, I noticed that the construction wasn't terribly difficult and thought I would try to make my own.

I bought a flannel shirt at a thrift store and used a larger hat as a pattern. I think Joshua is pleased with the results! Considering how cold it is getting this weekend the new hat should prove to be more than just a decoration!

Christening Clothing and Baptism Blankets

On Sunday, we will celebrate baby Joshua's baptism. For both Joshua and Lydia's baptisms I have been blessed with a beautiful hand sewn outfit from my mom and a special blanket crocheted or knitted by my sister.

Above you can see Lydia's baptism portraits taken at JC Penney's. It's the only set of pictures that I had taken there where I was not terribly excited about the results. So, this time around I decided to try taking a few pictures of Joshua myself.

I set him in our yard, in a basket that was cushioned with the beautiful blanket that my sister made. I can't knit or crochet, so I am always amazed that my sister can make these intricate designs. I am also in awe that she will unravel large portions of her work if she discovers a mistake. I would ignore the problem and my knitting would never look right!

Above is a picture of the christening blanket that my sister made for Lydia. I believe it is crochet. Below is a close up of the smocking on Joshua's outfit. My mom took a class in smocking a couple of years ago. Lydia's dress was made before she knew the technique.

I feel so fortunate to have such talented and giving people do so much for my children on these special occasions!

DIY on the FLY: Backpack Custom Creations

The fabulous Margot Potter and myself have gotten a (hopefully recurring) gig doing DIY on the FLY segments on Live at 5 at 4 on WBIR! The first segment was Margot's craft, making book covers from old jeans. Click here for a link to the video if you missed seeing it on Monday.

Today on Live at 5 at 4 on WBIR, it's my turn to share my ideas on customizing backpacks. I first blogged about this idea last year when my three year old needed a full sized backpack for preschool. I was worried that she wouldn't know which one was hers..... And I didn't want to spend a HUGE amount of money. Here is the link to the original project shown below.

When my husband and I went on the school themed premiere episode of TLCs Craft Wars, I customized a few "monster backpacks" to decorate the inside of our playhouse. For my DIY on the FLY project for WBIR, Margot and I had some fun showing more on how it's done. If you missed the segment, here is a link to the video.

I started with a cheap plain backpack. Stores have them on clearance right now and the plainer they are the cheaper they are! I actually found this one at a thrift store. The beauty of this project is the monster details can hide any marks from previous use!

This backpack had some marker on the front, so I hid it with a giant cyclops eye. I just cut a circle out of white fun foam. I also cut some triangles for teeth.

Two more circles for the middle of the eye out of glittered fun foam.

To attach the features, I ran them through my sewing machine. If you don't see or you are adding features to areas that are difficult to feed through a sewing machine, you could hand sew it or use a good fabric glue to attach pieces to the backpack.

Because it is a monster, nothing has to match, be symmetrical, or straight! Enjoy all the fun possibilities while crafting something truly unique!