A spooky little witch

This year, Bug wanted a spooky costume for the school Halloween parade. That was a change from princess the previous 2 hers so I went along.

I found the flocked satin at JoAnn's in the remnant bin, made a skirt adding a satin border and waistband then added some glittery spiders that were sold a table decorations.

Hot glued purple feathers to a regular witch had and added some more glitter spiders.

The top is a regular black long sleeve t-shirt to which I added a tulle ruffle and feather around the collar.

The final touch is a lace wrap with a purple border

 Abracadabra!! This whole getup cost me less than $15 :)

What I've been up to - Week 42

What a week ! What a week! If I had to summarize it all in one line it would be: "the good, the bad and the ugly".

First the good. After months and months of uncertainty and 8 weeks of delays, my departmental transfer has finally been approved and I will be starting in my new position on the 31st! I'm ecstatic. Going to a different department means adjustments but also means new challenges and occasions to learn. I've very much been looking forward to that.

Also in the good, the hubby and I went in a long overdue date at a local cajun restaurant and had a delicious and spicy meal, followed by a decadent dessert: Godiva chocolate cheesecake. Not as good as poor Manny's (you have to be from the Utica, NY to know about Manny's) but yum! 

Yesterday we took bug to Larriland farm to find pumpkins. Bug had fun running around looking for the perfect little pumpkin. We will be carving those on Saturday because the weather has not been very favorable and we were worried that the pumpkins might rot very quickly.

Then the bad. Both the hubs and I caught a cold and we had a few lousy nights fighting fever and cough. Not much crafting got done. I was way too tired. And then our washing machine decided to quit on us and cough up a bunch of water in the basement. No damage done thankfully but we had to spend part of the weekend looking for a new washer which will be delivered next weekend. We got somewhat lucky though: the model we were after was on sale!

And the ugly. Well the ugly is that Bug is now sick too. Sick enough I had to call my boss and request to work from home. Lots of unpleasant washing and cleaning for mom and dad. Enough said. 

Creepy crawlies wreath

Bug has started talking about Hallowen. A LOT. Everyday, she has been telling me it's tomorrow. And everyday I have to explain again that there is still a while to go. But hey, we can start decorating right ?

I pulled out  last year's felt pumpkin and will be making a couple more 

 I already had that foam pipe insulation Amie and I bought at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago. Another stash dive yielded perfect colors for Halloween out of my pile of Kona Solids and a baggie of plastice spiders that I bought last year on clearance. And that's how this Halloween wreath came together...

So after braiding another wreath, my glue gun got some action gluing all the creepy crawlies.

A lot of them ...

And for once I was not worried at all about the hot glue "strings".. they add to the result in this case.

Scarf , banner and a ribbon

It will be chillier here tomorrow 58F  (14C) vs 77 F (14C) today. Not coat weather but a sweater and a scarf would be a good choice. I could not find something to fit my mood in my closet. Not to worry... I can make one right? So I did.

I got this long strip of Japanese Koi print in a scrap bin at a quilt show last year : it was a shopping bag full for $1 and I fished this one along with a bunch of I-Spy prints that day. 

I married the fabric with a long piece of black microfiber suede and added a lilac ruffle matching the color for the lilies on each end. 

That project came together so quickly I even had time to put together a sign to set above our front door for Sunday : 

My little bug is so excited about Halloween. She gets to dress up at school tomorrow. I wish I could go see her in the parade! The curse of being a working mom. On the plus side, we had a  great time decorating the front porch together with skeletons, bats, spiders and of course or pumpkin friends Chuck and Happy. Speaking of those two, my photo won the third place at last week's Shoot'N Tell challenge.  I believe the cuteness of my little bug has to do with it. 

Tutorial - Off to the pumpkin patch

Still stashbusting: One more project from materials in my fabric bins.

Now that fall has finally caught up with me, I'm ready to prepare for Halloween! This year my mom is taking care of my little bug's costume so I have time to make other decorations. With a bit of orange fleece and some scraps of green crushed velvet, I sewed my first pumpkin.

For this project you will need

- 1/4 yard of orange fleece or felt

- Stuffing material

- Thread and needle 

- A sewing machine that doesn't cringe about thick fabric (my old Singer would have been a bad candidate but my faithful Pfaff just went along with it.

• Cut 6 ( roughly 7 inch long by 2 wide) wedges of the orange fleece/felt
• Fold in half lengthwise and stitch a 2 inch pintuck on both ends 

 

• This will define the shape of the pumpkin i.e  flatten the top and bottom
• This is how it look from the wrong side (Left) and the right side

 

• Sew 2 wedges together wrong side togethers (i.e. pinktucks outside) 

 

• Add a third wedge - You have now a half pumpkin

• Sew the second half pumpkin then attach the two halves on one edge
• Cut a piece 2x 4 inch piece of green fleece/felt (I'm  still stashbusting so since I didn't have any and couldn't acquire some I went with what I had at hand...)
• Fold in half and attach to the top of your pumkin

  

• Stitch the last seams with the pumpkin inside out leaving a 2 inch opening
• Turn the pumpkin right side out and stuff it
• Stitch the opening
• Stitch some ridges to the stem 

• Optional : add a leaf to your stem

Et voila !

Update

 Stephanie Lynn @ under the Table and Dreaming 

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