Swell Goods: Vintage Modern Craft Supplies & DIY tricks

Yes, yes, it is only September. But when it comes to making costumes by hand, you definitely want to start early to avoid a total swearing meltdown brought on by lack of inspiration and CRAZY lines at the craft store. If you visit Joann during the month of October, you can pretty much guarantee that 30 people will be in line at the cutting counter with a minimum of 5 bolts of tulle each.

I’ve narrowed down our costume selection for myself and the baby, and both are super easy to make with minimal sewing skills. The baby’s costume can all be hand-sewn, so no machine is required.

I will be using this Simplicity pattern as a visual reference for an adult-sized garden gnome costume. I have my eye on some polka-dot fabric to make a circle skirt, and will be repurposing a petticoat that I already own. If you don’t have one, may I suggest it as an investment? No wardrobe is complete without a good petticoat. You can also make a petticoat out of elastic and a boatload of tulle. Green felt will be used for a no-sew cape, and red felt for a dunce hat (1 seam, so easy!). I’ll finish it off with a white long-sleeved tee, tights, and some brown boots.

The baby’s costume is a no-brainer, thanks Martha for the instructions. 2 bodysuits we already own, 2 boas, yellow leggings (already owned), red felt, and a white bonnet. I don’t know how the pinning of the boas is going to work with a baby that is about as stationary as a greased piglet, so I will probably tape them in place and then take the whole puffball off to baste it. We will also probably forgo the chicken feet and just color some white sneakers yellow with a marker for safety sake.

We pinned a couple other contenders on Pinterest that didn’t make the cut, but are still super awesome:

Ladybug Costume
Peacock Costume
Owl Costume
Octopus Costume

What are your Halloween costume plans?

The baby has recently discovered a love of coloring, which means that she has been going through paper faster than diapers. I tried to remedy this by using one of the long rolls of drawing paper, but she just preferred to tear these to pieces. Instead, I printed out one sheet with some open coloring space and her name, and then covered this with some clear Contac paper.The Contac paper can be wiped clean of crayon marks and reused again and again.

After looking at a lot of options for the next quilt top, I settled on a chevron design. Instead of doing a traditional square (which would involve triangles pieced together to create the chevron, like this), I decided to hack it a bit and piece together full panels of the quilt. It uses more fabric that a triangle cut, but fabric is something that we have to spare around here.

I set up the quilt top in Photoshop to get an idea of the row repeats as well as how many pieces I would need of each colorway. This is going to be a duvet cover for a crib comforter, so the top needs to measure 43″ x 49″. I usually just create a document that is 10x scale in pixels in Photoshop (in this case 430 x 490 pixels) so that every 10 pixels is equal to 1 inch. This makes getting the measurements of all the pieces really easy and accurate.

Pretend I ironed. I cut this while the baby was sleeping, and of course the iron was in the closet in her room. A more prepared crafter would have washed and ironed her fabrics before cutting. I started with 1/2 yard of my blue and yellow fabric, 1/4 yard of brown fabric, and 1 yard of muslin. Everything was cut in to 4.5″ strips, which were then cut in to 3″ diagonals. I opted for 3″ as it is the same width as my ruler, making lining things up to cut much easier and less full of swearing.

All the pieces are ready to roll!

The amount of scrap fabric we have accumulated should be criminal, so we are always looking for ways to use it up. These blocks can be whipped up in about a half an hour for the set of 3 and make great presents for the kiddos in your life. They are such a hit with the toddler set that we had a hard time getting this photograph – the baby kept coming over and snatching them off the table.

Materials
Scrap Fabric, cut in to six 2 inch squares
4 inches of ribbon (medium thickness)
thread & sewing needle
sewing machine
rice or other filler (beans, polybeads, etc)

You can scale the size of these blocks as needed, though we wouldn’t recommend anything bigger than 4 inches as the filler can start to get heavy and turn these into more of a weapon than a fun toy. You should also use a sturdy stitch on these, like a zigzag or very tight single stitch, to ensure that all of the filler stays inside. If you are worried about the filler being a choking hazard in case it escapes, you can also fill these with batting for a soft block.

1. With wrong sides together, sew the first 4 pieces together to form a long strip.
2. Sew 2 remaining squares to the left and right side of the second square in the already sewn strip. Make sure to tuck the ribbon into one of the seams here, with the ribbon pointing in to the right side of the fabric.
3. Sew the all of the block seams together to form the cube, and leave a small hole on the final seam – about half the width of the block.
4. Flip the block inside out, so that the right sides are facing out.
5. Using a funnel, fill the block in the seam opening with your filler of choice.
6. Thread your needle with matching thread, and whip stitch the seam opening to close. New to the whip stitch? Check out these helpful videos.