Elsa and Belle Revisited

I recently found out that two more of my lovely grand daughters were desirous to have some more play dresses like the ones that I made for Lexi.  When I asked which princess they wanted to be, Lucy immediately said that she wanted an Elsa dress.  Dot said she would like Sleeping Beauty.  I asked her what color I needed for Sleeping Beauty and she said it was pink.  Since I knew that I needed to use old sheets for the dresses like I did for Lexi's Belle dress, I told her that I didn't have any pink sheets.  She said that is okay, I could just be Belle.  That solved the problem.  I had enough of the sheet left over from Lexi's Belle costume and with a little extra from three other colors of yellow from my remnant stash, I was able to come up with enough yellow to make another Belle dress.  I had plenty of left over material from Lexi's birthday Elsa dress and a blue sheet to complete a dress for Lucy. I set out on Thursday afternoon at about 2:00 to gather all the materials and get the dresses cut out.  I finished the second dress at 11:30 that night.  Marty took them home to give to the girls when they woke up the next morning.  However, the dress for Belle was designed to have sleeves that go down over the shoulders and was kind of low cut in the front.  Dot had told me when she tried it on that it was inappropriate.  I agreed, and so Marty and Kim decided to wait until I returned from my trip to Maine this weekend to show the dresses to the girls.  When they did give them to the girls to try on, Dot's did hang down too low on her shoulders and around the neck line.  They brought the dress back and asked if I could alter it in a way to make it higher.  I was able to just add yet another, slightly differently colored yellow to raise the neck line. It is finally finished and fits her nicely.  Lucy's dress fit wonderfully, but, because the sleeves were made from the sheer material, it tore immediately around the sleeve insert.  They brought it back while I was altering Dot's dress and asked if I could do something about that.  I was able to reinforce the sleeve so it should not tear now.  If it does, then I will have to redo the sleeves with a different material all together, but I don't think it will be necessary.  Here are my two beautiful girls in their new dresses.

Lucy makes a lovely Elsa.

Dot shines in her yellow Belle dress.

Robin and Belle

Joey and Lexi are going to kill me with all their requests for more costumes.  Which ever super hero is on Joey's favorite list needs a costume and every princess that is on Lexi's favorite list needs a dress.  Sunday, Joey told me that he just had to have a Robin costume because they don't have them in the store and he simply needed to have one...like yesterday.  He hounded me all Sunday at church and in the evening when they were here for a visit.  As soon as Lexi heard Joey ask for the Robin costume, she said she wanted a Belle dress.  I guess she is into Beauty and the Beast right now.  Well, I went on line to see what the costumes needed to look like.  I checked out my stash of material and could find nothing much that would be enough to do the costumes, so I did a little creativity.  I had just seen The Sound of Music last Saturday and Maria used old curtains to make play clothes for the kids, so I thought, "Hey, I have some old green and yellow sheets and a sheer yellow curtain."  There was plenty of material to make the costumes.  I was even able to use some more of the left over remnants of the red from the graduation gowns that I converted into boxing robes to use for the red on Robin's costume.  Another problem was coming up with a pattern that would do.  I used the standard body suit for the Robin costume, but I wanted to add muscles like the picture showed.  For some unknown reason, the torso part of the costume was way too long, and since I had bulked up the front to look like muscles, when Joey tried it on, the belt came down below his rear end.  I had to drastically change the length of the torso.  I also took out a little bit of the bulk from the top, and now it looks a little better.  I had to use a couple of different patterns for the Belle dress to get the look I wanted, and even then, I had to alter some parts of those patterns.  All in all, it went together pretty smoothly and fit her on the first try.

Surprise.  For some reason, Lexi doesn't want to look at the camera.  Just before this shot, she showed me only hair because her head was bent forward.  When we told her to look up and smile, this is what I got.  This dress is made from a sheet for the skirt and the lining of the bodice.  The top layer of the skirt is the sheer curtain on top and the sheet underneath.  The only part of the dress that used regular material was the bodice and the capped sleeves.  I have had this material for a long time and I knew that some day I would have something to use it for.  It is hard to see in the picture, but it is a pretty eyelet lace and the brighter yellow helped to make the dress look a little more colorful.

This is actually a shot from before I altered the torso of the costume.  It looks pretty good in this picture because of the way Joey was standing, however, the belt doesn't even show because it is below the muscles that are hanging way to low.  The green part of this costume is made from an old sheet.  The cape is made from the sheer curtain, lined with the sheet material.  The black is regular cotton material from my stash.

This is the altered version, along with the mask which he said he had to have.  I hadn't planned on making a mask, but he said Robin needs to have a mask.

Joey loves to pose in his costumes.  This gives a nice view of the cape.

Back to the pillows.  I have half of the back finished on my next cover.  So much more to do to complete this huge project.  Christmas will be here before we know it.

Another Family's Pillows and Tops

I have finally finished with another family's Christmas pillows and knitted covers to go with them. I now have finished ten of the twenty-one pillows and covers.

These are the fronts of the covers for Tom, Mindy, Zoe, and Jackson.

This shows the covers from the back.

This is a close up of the backs of Tom's with basket weave and Mindy's with the berry border and cabled center.

Fronts of the pillows for Tom, Mindy, Zoe, and Jackson.

Backs of the pillows.

I have sewn five more pillows and completed Tony's pillow and cover.  I don't believe I have shown it yet, but I will at a later date.