Cinderella Dress

We are in the beginning of our ABC countdown to summer for my big girls, and Tuesday (F) is "Favorite Character Day". It says to come dressed as your favorite book character. 

KK has decided she wants to be Princess Leia, and really just wants the hair. 

KL, after changing her mind a million and half times, decided on Cinderella. We may have gone with the typical Disney design but the story line came from a book originally, right? Plus, after a movie gets famous Disney makes a few dozen story books using the characters anyway. 

So here's what we came up with :

I used the same concept as the tutu I made for KO a few weeks ago. 

I know Cinderella's dress is all blue but Hobby Lobby only had white, black, and hot pink options for the bandeau (and I didn't have time to order one online), so we went with the white. 

To give the tufts I added 3 strands of tulle in middle and tied them to the back. To hide the knot I just tucked them under the other rows of tulle. 

Also different is the straps. I knew she wouldn't be able to wear it to school without some sort of straps. (Although, I already told her she will wear shorts and a shirt underneath in case she gets hot, or itchy, or tired of wearing a big puffy dress.) So we too a left over length (same as the skirt of the dress) and looped them the same way at her shoulders, and in the back they go through a hole and then I tied them together, so the shoulders could be adjusted, if desired or needed depending on how long it lasts. 

My biggest fear was that people would assume Elsa, and according to a Facebook poll, that's the first assumption everyone is making. But I've decided once we get a black choker on her it will be easier to tell. 

Here's the only in progress shot I took, it's poorly lit and wasn't planned on being added here, but KM was just too cute in it, and got very mad when daddy took it off for supper. 

But this photo shows why I decided on two layers instead of just one. The single layer was pretty see through and left a gap near the top of the skirt/bottom of the bandeau that the second layer (along with a little help from a small white strip that I weaved through the middle) took care of.

That's all for now, 

Jo!

Tutu

I've seen the pictures and tutorials on how to make tutu using a crocheted/woven headband and tulle a million times over and always think "my girls would love one- or twenty" but I've never made one... until now.

I was looking for the elastic for KL's squared circle skirt and found a headband on sale on JoAnn's site while I was there. I also used the left over tulle from the circle skirt and the teal glitter tulle from my niece's bow.

Here's how it looks:

 It's pretty much a big poof ball.

Look at that^, that's 8 full inches of flare, but it's oh so adorable.

The headband I found, is perfect for about size 6-9 months, so I won't be able to try it out for a while. (I will say is stretches far enough that my K twins were each able to try it on while making it because they were just drawn to it.)

This was actually so simple that I was done in 2 hours (counting cutting time).
I started by finding an infant skirt pattern online to see what the length should be (about 5-6 inches depending on the pattern- I chose 6 just to be safe). Then I cut up all the remaining tulle on my spools, in twice the desired length because they'll be folded in half (but only used about half of what I cut because it got so full so fast, I honestly expected to need another layer that I definitely did not need). And I used my latch hook tool to attach them, and from there it was like magic.

Here's how they're attached- just folded in half and loop them through the holes- it's so simple!!

Here it is before I attached the teal. I finished the row of pink alternating dark and light (although I did all the dark first and then all the light) and then just a few rows up I added the teal about every forth loop to spread it out because it was already full, and because I didn't have as much.

 Can you imagine the big poof on a baby learning to crawl? The thought just makes me smile!!

That's all for now,
Jo!

Bow and Skirt

My niece is getting ready to turn 5 this month.
She is quite the girly girl, so I thought I'd make her a cute circle skirt (actually a circle instead of square this time) and a bow to match it.

Here's what I have so far.

I looked around at a few shops and liked this fabric the best (I chose a jersey knit so I wouldn't even have to hem it!!). This fabric is called Spring Dots and I got from Hobby Lobby; while I was there I looked at their sale section and the thick blue, purple, and green polka dotted ribbon was marked down so I went ahead and grabbed it, along with the teal glitter tulle for below the bow. I looked through my ribbon stash but was missing a pink that matched, so I headed to Walmart and found the thin pink and brown that topped it off. (The pink elastic is left over from the last skirt, luckily both the girls I'm using it for are pretty thin so there's plenty left.)
It looks like I need to fluff my pink and brown a little more (on the left side of the above picture) but I think I managed to incorporate most the colors pretty well and it turned out not too bad.

That's all for now,
Jo!