Dorothy Junior

 {The Wizard of Oz}

I'd been wanting to sew my daughter a Dorothy costume for awhile. Having her big brother perform in the Wizard of Oz musical was the final push that forced a deadline.... I finished sewing the dress an hour & a half before we were off to see The Wizard of Oz musical. While we were there my daughter got lots of attention... people weren't expecting a little Dorothy to come see the show. Now she has a fun costume, so she can play Dorothy whenever she wants.

 I used the Simplicity 4139 pattern. If you're interested in sewing a simple Dorothy costume, try this one. I also think the All-Ages Classic Jumper (which goes up to size 5T) from One Yard Wonders book could be easily made into a Dorothy-like costume.

And here's Dorothy dressed up as the lion !

I will share that this dress wasn't the most money saving project with $16 for the materials + $6 for the pattern = $22 total... although there's some fabric scraps left, a lot of blue rick rack left, & I can reuse the sewing pattern again. The zipper was from my stash. I found it kind of ironic that it cost that much for such a simple looking dress.

3 Lullaby League Skirts

 {The Wizard of Oz}

Next up for the Wizard of Oz costumes were 3 lullaby league skirts... the choreographer wanted 3 flower skirts meaning circle skirts with a scalloped hem, this was for 3 different sized teenage girls which was a new experience for me since I usually only sew for my 4 year old daughter. The choreographer wanted red, orange & blue (primary color) skirts and all the materials had to be as inexpensive as possible due to the tight budget since there were 100s of costumes just for this one production.

The 3 lullaby league girls wore bright green leggings (so their legs were the stem of the flower) & bright yellow t-shirt (pollen of the flower). I decided to dye the wide elastic yellow (following this how to), giving the option of tucking in the yellow t-shirt which turned out to be a good idea because they did end up tucking in the shirt.

 For the circle skirt I followed this tutorial, but here are some other things I found helpful.

 This isn't an exhaustive tutorial, there are many great scalloped hem tutorials out there, I used this one. So I won't go into too much detail & let the photos show how I did it, but I'll just mention a couple things. The most time consuming part was the scalloped hem, especially all the clipping around the curves before turning them right side out. One thing I did was add a little piece of Peel 'n Stick (I love that stuff, it's my new best friend) to every other scallop to secure it & looking back I wish I would have added one to every scallop. Every other scallop drooped down, I'm sure no one else noticed, but I did.

It was fun to sit in the audience & watch 'my' flower skirts performing on stage, even if they were only on stage for for the Munchkinland part of The Wizard of Oz musical :)

See you tomorrow for one last Wizard of Oz costume...

Mayor of Munchkinland

 {The Wizard of Oz}

Or maybe the title of this blog post should be 'how not to change the color of a brown top hat'... last month my oldest son performed in The Wizard of Oz musical. He was the mayor of Munchkinland as well as a couple of other characters. I had the opportunity to help out with costumes (sew & go shopping) which was a fun experience for me...

So he was in need of a large blue bow tie (what he's wearing in the above photo ~ I followed this tutorial) and a blue top hat... did you know that the Munchkin's favorite color is blue? I didn't.

 I bought this brown top hat & some blue fabric spray paint, thinking it would be a really quick & easy project to change the color of the hat from brown to blue, BUT the hat is a dark color (brown) & made of polyester & you're suppose to use the fabric spray paint on light colored cotton. With the results not being good, I had to come up with Plan B which was to cover it in the same blue fabric as the bow tie. I cut out some simple shapes & started sewing the fabric together while it was still on the hat !   It's like a slipcover for a hat, but not removable.
(sorry for the bad quality photos ~ I was working on this at night & had to use flash)

In the end it worked out, a nice bright blue hat that showed up well on stage, I think the Munchkins were happy with their mayor :)

See you tomorrow for more Wizard of Oz costumes...

Junebug Dress Pattern Remix

 UPDATED TO ADD: Jingle Bell Dress Tutorial is here
*****
 Project Run & Play Season 3 is going on right now & this season there is a sew along!
The first week's challenge is the "I wish it was June, Bug" Dress or the Junebug Dress pattern remix... use this free pattern & make it your own...
Since it's January maybe I should rename this dress the "I wish it was January, Bug" Dress?
Anyway, the dress pattern was in size 2/3 & I needed size 4/5, so this was my first time drafting a pattern (I enjoyed the challenge & the experience).

Features (or how I made it my own):
:: repurposed a long (42 inch) silver dupioni silk skirt (label read 100% acetate, but I think that's just the lining) for the fabric
:: fully lined
:: kept the original invisible zipper from the back of the skirt for the back of the bodice, so I didn't need the button closures in the front
:: sewed on by hand 30 tiny silver jingle bells along the left & right edges of the front bodice flap detail
:: inverted pleats in the front, gathered in the back
:: dropped the waist down a bit
:: added a silver sequin removable cumber bund and made a matching silver sequin headband
:: sleeveless bodice (where I made my own bias tape from the leftover fabric)

 Oh, to have that skinny waist !

Tutorial on how to make this dress (with cumber bund & headband) coming soon :)

 Check out all the Junebug Dress sew along contest entries in the Project Run&Play flickr group.

The second week's challenge: Boys' Week

4 seasons sign

{4 seasons photography challenge}

This series was my favorite of the 3 (if you missed the other ones, they were rock/lake & birch trees)... as you can see in the progression of the photos, something happened to the front of the sign later in the year... hmmmm....

PS I will be participating in the at home sew along contest for Project Run & Play Season 3, will you be, too ?

4 season birch trees

{4 seasons photography challenge}

These are the birch trees, budding in spring,
nestlings of robins and promise they bring.

From "This is the Feast" by Diane Z. Shore

For all my friends who love birch trees, this one's for you :)

See you tomorrow for the last 4 seasons photography challenge.