Sew Geeky - Alice in Wonderland

This year I had a hard time deciding between a Little Red Riding Hood or an Alice in Wonderland costume for Em's Halloween costume.  I ended up going with Little Red Riding Hood, so I was excited when Sew Geeky gave me an excuse to sew her an Alice in Wonderland dress!

Sew Geeky is a sewing series that happens once a month, hosted by Sew Chibi and Max California. Each month they pick a theme and invite others to sew along with the theme.  This month is Tim Burton month, so I sewed up a dress inspired by Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland!

My inspiration came from the dress that Alice wears in the beginning of the movie at the garden party, where she receives and unwanted marriage proposal and then follows the white rabbit into the woods....

 and then falls in the rabbit hole.  

I used  the Caroline Party Dress pattern by Mouse House Creations, mostly because I already had it printed in her size from her Christmas dress. I altered the bodice quite a bit to have a lower neckline and some puff sleeves.  Then I added lace trim to the neckline and wove a tiny grosgrain ribbon through it and I added a bit of lace down the front with little black buttons.

In the movie, Alice has a little black embroidery design along the bottom of her dress, I subbed some black lace there for a similar effect.

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure you check out all the awesome, geeky, things Sew Chibi and Max California have going on!

An Over the Top Holiday Dress

I finished Em's holiday dress!  They had a little competition over at Pattern Revolution, an Over the Top dress competition.  If you follow my blog, you have probably noticed my style is far from over the top!  At first I had decided not to join the OTT challenge, but then I got an itch to sew some sequins.

For this dress, I started with the Caroline Party Dress pattern by Mouse House Creations. I have sewn it before (here and here), it is one of my very favorites. 

I up the dress with some navy blue chiffon fabric from Joann’s and some navy lining fabric to go under it. I added a big keyhole to the back that ties with a satin ribbon.  Then I hand stitched on some sparkly gold sequins in a cascading design, with the sequins covering the shoulders, and then gradually spreading out towards the bottom of the bodice.

I love the dress without the pettiskirt (and she will probably wear it that way for Christmas).  But I decided it was not quite over the top enough for a competition, so I made a puffy tulle underskirt to go with it.  I used some off white tulle with gold glitter to make the skirt, and then added some of the same sequins I used on the dress to the bottom of the skirt. 

You can see all of the Over the Top contest entries over at Pattern Revolution and you can vote for your favorite.  I am not sure when voting closes but it is still up this morning.  There are some really fabulous dresses, go check them out!

Baby Sock Snowmen

Today I am guest posting over at Paisley Roots.  Karly has a really fun series going called A Giving Christmas.  It is all about teaching kids about giving and getting them in the giving spirit for the holidays.  I was so excited when I got the chance to join in the fun.  My little ones and I made some cute little snowmen out of their baby socks to share. 

All you need to make these ornaments are some old mismatched or outgrown socks and some craft supplies you may already have lying around!

 

Make sure you head over to Paisley Roots to read all about our snowmen and get the details on how to make them.  And then poke around a bit, there are some really fun ideas in the series and Karly's blog is full of great stuff!

 

Tutorial: Add Wire to an Elf on the Shelf

Do you have an Elf on the Shelf in your house?  We have had Larry visiting us for a few years now, the kids get a kick out of him and I have a lot of fun with him too!  When I first pulled him out of the box a few years ago, I was a bit disappointed to find he was a floppy elf that you couldn't bend and pose into all those cute ideas you see on Pinterest.  So this year, I did a little elf surgery to make Larry posable!

This elf upgrade is really easy, only costs a few bucks, and takes maybe 20 minutes.  It will have your floppy, unposable elf doing yoga in no time!

To upgrade your elf, all you need is some wire (I picked mine up in the craft section of Walmart), needle and thread, and a seam ripper...

Start by lifting one of the elf's arms and carefully removing the stitches in his armpit.

Cut 12" of wire and fold back the very ends of the wire on both sides as shown below.

Push one end of the wire into the elf's armpit.  You will feel the bottom of his head inside, push the wire behind his head and into the other arm.  Feed the wire all the way in so the wire ends at his opposite hand.

Bend the wire so you can feed the other end into his arm.  Feed the wire all the way to the end of his hand.  

With your red thread, stitch the hole in his armpit closed.  This will be covered by his collar, so don't worry if your stitches aren't perfect, but you want it to be secure.

Next carefully remove the seams at the elf's bottom.  I went ahead and took the tag out too, I figured at some point my kids would wonder why he had tags and think maybe he didn't really fly in from the North Pole.  

You will also have to rip a few stitches at the top of his legs where they are attached so you can get the wire down inside his legs.

And remove the stitches at his knees.

Cut 20" of wire.  Fold back the very ends of the wire, and then fold the wire in half as shown below.

Insert the fold of the wire into the elf's back.

Then bend the wire so you can push the ends into his legs.  Push the ends of the wire all the way to his feet.

With your red thread, stitch the elf's bottom back up.

Re-stitch the elf's knees (you could leave these unsewn if you want)

And your elf surgery is done!  No more floppy Elf!