My Little Pony Costumes

For some reason, I really wanted the girls to be characters from My Little Pony this year for Halloween. I was stuck, however, on the whole mane and crown thing. Do I get a wig and dye it? Do I buy a bunch of yarn?  I wanted something cute and easy but not insanely expensive. I was stuck.

I did some web searches and found lots of cool cosplay outfits. One, in particular, fit exactly what I wanted. It was a fleece hoody vest with fleece mane, wings, horn and crown. It's perfect for Colorado Halloweens, where it can be sunny or snowing. And the whole thing was pretty easy.

Supplies

• Hoodie sweatshirt with matching pants (I got mine at WalMart and Hanes.com)
• Fleece, 1/4 to 1/2 yard per color, depending how how many colors you need. Princess Celestia has 4 colors, Princess Luna has 2
• Regular felt for crown, necklace, horn and cutie mark
• Stiff felt for the wings
• Glitter paint for fabric
• Velcro
• Tracing paper
• Craft/fabric glue
• Needle, thread

The first step is to sketch the pattern for the mane and tail. I traced around the hood and then drew my pattern pieces on that.

  

I drew my pieces on tracing paper individually, then cut them out of the fleece.

Then, I pinned the pieces to the sweatshirt and sewed them. I decided the mane looked a little anemic with only one layer, so I cut and sewed a couple more layers.

For the wings, I drew patterns on tracing paper, then cut them out of extra-stiff felt.  The horn was cut out of a piece of regular felt and glued shut.  To give them a little more shine, I added some detail with glitter fabric paint.

The next step was to attach the wings and horn. Since this is a kid's costume, I want to be able to wash it. The extra-stiff felt isn't washable, I didn't want to permanently attach the wings. I decided to sew the hook side of a velcro strip to the back of the sweatshirt. The felt will stick easily to it, but if you wanted, you could glue the matching loop side to the back of the wings.  I hand-sewed the horn to the top of the mane, after sewing down the top of the mane so nothing would flop around.

Next, I cut out and glued the "cutie mark" to the bottom left of the hoodie.

I cut the crown and necklace out of regular felt and added a glitter fabric paint jewel.

I hand-stitched the crown to the hoodie, behind the horn. Since the hoodie's have a zip front, I sewed two pieces of velcro on the shoulder seams so the necklace can be taken on and off easily.

And that's it! I think they look so cute and unique. With coupons at JoAnns and getting the sweatsuits at a good price, I don't think cost more than a store-bought outfit. 

The Bean loves hers, just look at that face!

The Belly decided she didn't want to be Princess Luna but wanted to be a ladybug again. Since I still have her costume from last year, I didn't really mind. Here's what the Luna costume looks like, minus a model.

That's it! Happy Halloween!

Pull-Apart Cinnamon Apple Bread

Since the apple pie and cake were so successful, I wanted to find another way to use the apples from our tree.  Luckily, I get the email newsletters from King Arthur Flour and one had a link to a delicious-looking Pull-Apart Cinnamon Apple Bread.

This is an amazing recipe to make on a nice fall day.  The filling, with apples, cinnamon and brown sugar, fills the house with an amazing aroma.  It's a yeast bread, so there's a few hours where the dough has to rise, so plan accordingly.  And be ready to make a bit of a mess.  The filling is a little syrup-y and will ooze when you cut and stack the bread.  It might look like a hot mess and you'll doubt this will work, but never fear. After rising and then baking, it will all turn out okay.

It is definitely amazing warm with butter on it, but I'm wondering what other toppings would be delicious.

Spiderweb Skirt

Halloween is around the corner and it's time to start thinking about costumes. I usually don't both with anything, maybe an embelleshed shirt at most. But this year, I saw a really cute spiderweb skirt in a catalogue and thought, "I can make that!"

 

It was really easy. The original was an appliqué, but I didn't feel like all the cutting and sewing.  I didn't have enough heat transfer vinyl in white and also figured there would be too much matching and ironing (and cursing) if I went that route. Finally, I decided on white fabric paint.

I got some black bottom-weight fabric 1.5 the width of my hips. I used my tailor's chalk and a yardstick to draw the web. I drew the longer strands out from the center and randomly drew connecting segments. I painted over the chalk with my fabric paint.

For the spiders, I downloaded a spider design from Silhouette, cut it out of card stock, and used it as a stencil. 

Then, I hemmed the bottom, sewed up the side, and made an casing for an elastic waist.  It was really easy and quick. It took longer for the paint to dry than any of the other steps.

I'm going to wear it with a black shirt, black-and-white striped stockings, black shoes and a witch hat. Not a costumey costume, but enough to get me in the, erm, "spirit".

Homemade Barbie Mermaid Tail

The Bean and The Belly have been on a bit of a mermaid kick lately.  After playing at a friend's house, The 

Bean had to have a Mermaid Barbie just like her friend.  In an effort to please, we now have 6 Barbies in our house (4 mermaids and 2 ballerinas).

The mermaids don't bother me too much as they don't seem to have a massive amount of accessories.  And The Belly has a kind of cool one with a tail that turns into a surfboard.  Of course, The Bean wanted a mermaid with a removeable tail, and, importantly, it has to be able to go into the water. I knew I could sew a tail no problem, but I didn't feel like packing us all up to go the fabric store. 

Inspiration struck! I found a bathing suit the girls don't wear anymore somewhere in their closet. A few snips here, some sewing there, an elastic waist, and violá: free, removable mermaid tail.

The bathing suit was a 2-piece tankini with boy shorts.  I wanted to add a bit of style, so I made the waist and fins frommthe polka-dot shorts and the main tail from the plain pink top.  I put the doll down on the fabric, drew a rough pattern, cut and sewed.

She loves it.  I definitely got some major mom points for that crafty sleight of hand.

Green Apple Pie and Cake

One of the many things I love about my new(ish) house is the apple tree in our backyard.  We weren't sure for a while what kind of apples were on it, but one day, we took the plunge and bit into one.  It's kind of a cross between a Granny Smith and a Golden Delicious--crisp, but not too sweet or tart.  Just very apple-y.

From Minus Minions

It's fun to go up to the tree and pick some fruit for munching, but I knew I had to find recipes quick.  Apple pie, naturally, and some kind of apple cake.

The Green Apple Pie was pretty easy to make.  I made the crust in my food processor, since I was in a bit of a hurry.  The only difficult thing was peeling and slicing the apples.  They're a bit smaller than the store-bought kind, so I had to use 12 to get the amount I needed.

From Minus Minions

It was a hit.  The crust was nice and flaky and it the filling wasn't overly sweet.  I may add a touch more spice next time, but it was a great first attempt.

The Green Apple Cake is soft, spicy with nice chunks of apple spread through it.  The topping is a caramel-coconut mixture that's browned a bit with the broiler.  The Boy really liked it. And he said it tasted even better because the apples came from our own tree.

From Minus Minions

Vogue 1050 Pants

I saw the pattern for these pants on a banner ad on a website and was intrigued. Could I make them? Could I actually get away with wearing them? Will they be flattering?  A massive sale at JoAnn's let me buy the fabric cheap enough so I wouldn't minds to much if the answers to those questions was "No".  I got peachskin in black and cream and found some cream frog closures at MJTrim.com.

I was worried the peachskin would be a pain to work with, but, honestly, it wasn't too bad. I don't have a serger, so I just did a zig-zag stitch over the edge to keep the fraying to a minimum.

Back zippers don't really work for me, so I altered the pattern a bit.  I made the waistband all elastic and cut the back waistband piece to match the front.  To make sure I would have enough room to get them over my hips, I cut the waist one size larger than the hips.  The frog closures I got were a little larger than the ones in the pattern, and as I'm a little shorter than the model, I only used two.

I think these would look so cute with black Converse and a t-shirt. Might just be my new uniform for the fall.

More Fabric-Button Rings

I love my two fabric button rings so much, I had to make more.  I got some larger ring blanks and button-covering kits and went through my fabric stash.  Three rings, under $10 and in 30 minutes can't be beat.

From Minus Minions