Pinterest Challenge and Tutorial

Did you take the Pinterest Challenge? I first read about in Bower Power's blog, a new one to me. She has a lot of great tutorial and beautiful home makeovers. But she was included in this challenge with other bloggers such as Ana White!

The challenge was to actually make something you pinned. My sister challenges herself with this all the time. She only pins things she can realistically complete in the recent future. I have a lot of pins, many for inspiration that I can use and re-purpose for other projects. But realistically, I don't have time for them all. But these following pins certainly helped with our Halloween this year. Remember, musical costumes?

The first is the Mummy. I drew this inspiration from this pin, on babble.com by Jordan Ferney. This design is from her sister's blog, Design Mom.

I used her same techniques. Sewing and a little hot glue.

First, I started with a pair of ruined (with gum) short-water pants. They were already in the giveaway box so they were the perfect fit. And a ratty old long sleeved shirt.

Then I took some muslin and ripped, ripped and ripped into long strips. So much faster and easier than cutting because it didn't matter if it was frayed. It's perfect for a mummy.

 Then I took one strip (they were the width of the fabric, so 44" or so) and started at the bottom of the pant leg. I wrapped around and continued to sew, forcing it above the next layer, in layers, sewing it with about an inch overlap. I would have to roll the pant leg to fit it over the arm of the machine, as pictured. And worked my way up the leg.

 
I did the same with the shirt. The arms of the shirt were too skinny to place over the arm of the machine so I had to sort of sew them where I could and then hot glue the rest on. It held up great for school parades, trick-or-treating and partying. We'll see how that holds up in the washing machine.

Next, was the Dorothy inspiration. Don't you love that smirk?

I used this pin from this etsy shop for inspiration for the tutu/apron combo and then found the following three for additional inspiration. 

1. Daydream Believers 

2. goody goody tutus on Etsy

3. Kirra's Boutique on Etsy

  

 I used this board technique found on Pinterest, from the blog Treasures for Tots. Soooo easy and quick! You simply wrap the spool of 6" tulle over and over a 13-15" long piece of cardboard, depending on how long you want the tutu. For my tall 4 year old, I used a 13" board, and only cut on end, making a 26" piece, which doubled over to be 13" long in total. In her tutorial, she cut on both ends, which made 15" long pieces, to create an approximate 7" (after knotting) long tutu for her toddler. And then you wrap with rubber bands to hold in place, and cut the ends!

Then I found an easy way to tie the tulle onto the elastic. This pin was found via the blog Little Birdie Secrets.  After sewing (which, by the way, you cut the elastic about 1" smaller than the child's waist. Unlike other sewing projcets, like skirts or PJ bottoms, where you need to cut elastic 1" longer than measurement of waist) the elastic, stick it on your leg, like a garter, and it stays in place. So much easier to tie on ! And in both cases, they each found that double knotting the tulle instead of using a slip knot, not only kept the knot in place just as well, but it was much quicker and easier.

Once the tutu was completed it needed an apron. I received this ugly skirt as a hand-me-down and I knew almost immediately that it would be a perfect fit for Dorothy. Initially I was going to have Jocelyn wear the tutu underneath this skirt and make a separate apron....but it looked ridiculous so I just turned it into an apron instead.

I took this once ugly skirt and cut it. I folded it in half and sewed the inside seam and turned back out for the bottom half. Next I took the remaining half and flipped it up, sewing it onto the top. Added some bias tape for straps, and existing blue buttons to complete the Dorothy look. Done!

Thanks again Katie of Bower Power for the challenge! It was fun!