Kids, grrrrrrrrrrr!

One of the perils of being a Mum of school aged children is having to (usually, at very short notice) come up with various costumes for events on at school.  This week's is Superhero Day.  Lucy's class have had lots of fun this term doing projects involving Superheros, and today the whole year group (plus teachers) have gone in costumes.  Now, as always in our house, the children decide what they want to go as, and I try and come up with the goods, although I have to admit defeat on a couple of occasions when we've just gone out and bought something instead.  The biggest problem I have is with them constantly changing their minds.

Last week, Lucy was going as Wonder Girl.  She drew a design,

we went out shopping for a red t-shirt and green skirt, she decided Wonder Girl needed a logo, so I stitched a 'W' onto the top, and also made some green wrist bands too.  

There we go, sorted.  Until...,

this week, we met Cheetah Girl.  I would normally stand my ground on this and say no, already having made one costume, but she won me over after drawing a whole cartoon strip for the new character.

So, this was me last night,

Luckily, we already had a yellow t-shirt, which is now covered in Cheetah spots, oh and also a logo, because all Superheros need a logo, right?!

So, here she is, Cheetah Girl (although she is wearing Wonder Girls wristbands as a compromise).  The next costume I make is for me.  Supermum.

ps, it's July.  Countdown to turning 40 begins here!

Confession time...!

I sew and craft a lot, but one thing I've never done, is make either of my children any clothes!  I've made umpteen costumes for plays and parties, but no clothes.  Anyway, the other evening, for some unknown reason, I just had to make Lucy a dress.  The latest issue of Sew Hip magazine was sat on my desk, and in it, there is an 'oliver + s' popover sundress pattern.  I found some pink patterned fabric, (it's actually a bed sheet which came from a charity shop), and cut out the dress shape.  But when it came to the yoke, I spotted, out of the corner of my eye, a childs size top, which has been amongst my fabric stash for a while.  I bought it, again from a charity shop one day when I was caught short and needed some white broderie anglaise.  There was a square missing from the back, but the top part was still intact.

So, making life easy for myself, I simply stitched the dress straight to the top!  Easy peasy!, after adding two patch pockets in a different fabric, we have one pretty little dress, for a pretty little 7 year old.

Problem is now, I've caught the bug.  Adding a skirt to an existing top just makes this dressmaking lark so easy.  Rummaging through Lucy's cupboards, we then moved on to a red vest top.  Now, Lucy normally steers away from red, her school uniform is red so it's a colour she has to wear a lot, but, matched with this turquoise based print, it was a go-er!

Lucy cut out a little fabric heart which we attached with 'heatnbond', then added a blanket stitch edge and a button.

As the dress shape (I used the largest pattern size, which is for an 8 year old) was a little wider than the top, I've added two darts, and then shortened the length to compromise for the added top part.

Wonder which one she'll wear tomorrow!