The Sort-of-Dress-Up Costumes

So while there was a certain appeal to leaving the kids like this for their cousin's 5th 'Come as your favourite jungle animal' birthday party ....


... I decided to make them something a little more practical and a little less material-thrown-over-children's-heads. I had romanic notions of creating my own super awesome costume but got tired of that idea pretty quickly after a few awful, awful attempts. Mr was getting ready to duck, still traumatised after the alleged house-throwing incident.

A late night panic session resulted in a less romantic but practical idea. My thinking was that a costume that went over clothes was likely to:
a) get in the way of serious playing (the party was at a park)
b) be hot (given that the forecast was for 28+ degrees)
c) be rejected with irrational crying

So I decided to play it safe, save my time and sanity, and followed a pattern. Thanks to Simplicity 5982, here is my little leopard and the cow she chased into the jungle.


The pattern didn't have tails so I just made a waistband, and used boning in the leopard tail to make it stick out and some fur on the bottom of the cow tail.

I will admit to googling "leopard tail" and "cow tail" to make sure they looked right. Attention to detail or ridiculous need for things to be right...?? You can decide!

My Creative Space - Assessed with Dogs

My space this week has gone to the dogs! My niece is obsessed - or if you ask her "assessed" - with dogs so for her 5th birthday, she has a new bag to carry her every growing collection of dogs.... and other special treasures.

I wanted a basic lined bag with a zipper closure, easy for 5 year old fingers to open and close, and secure enough so as not to lose anything while out and about. I have made and love the shape of Nicole Mallalieu's Make Up Purse so I enlarged the pattern and added handles.


There is fusible wadding on the outer fabric so it feels soft but also gives it structure, and I followed this tutorial to add a base using template plastic. I used two pieces of plastic for extra strength.

And because I had some little bits of fabric left over, there is a matching snap purse.


Thankyou to the lovely Miss Marzie for coming to my rescue with some perfect fabric for my dog-assessed niece.

My niece's party is this Saturday and the invitation says to "Come as your favourite jungle animal". Seriously??!! What was my sister thinking!
This is what I have so far.....

While I am confident I can talk my way around a leopard being in the jungle, has anyone ever seen a jungle cow?

Not sure what I am going to do next but if I run out of time, I could always cut out eye holes and the kids could go as jungle ghosts. Is it a spooky coincidence that Saturday is Halloween??? Oooooooooohhh.....

For more creative spaces, head over to visit Kirsty who just can't get red out of her space!

A Crown of Golden Trim

One of the many things I love about blogging is being challenged to do things I wouldn't have done otherwise. This is a perfect example. Gemma from Loz & Dinny set a great challenge with some unloved gold trim she was given. She wanted it to be loved!

So with a little bit of fabric stiffener and a little bit of love, my kids now have some new dress ups...


The crowns were made by stiffening the trim using Fabric Stiffener (thanks to Cam for her advice with getting this right). I used two rows of boning in the headbands and then covered them in the same fabric I used for the cape. To allow the crowns to fit on growing heads and make them easier to put on and off, there is a piece of elastic sewn into the back. I figured if you're going to wear a crown then you need a cape so I got an idea on how to make the cape from here. The outer fabric is upholstery fabric and the lining is satin. The cape does up with a snap so I can add another as the kids grow, and it will come apart easily and not choke them should an accident occur while playing. Which is important I think!