Fluffy Ruffle Skirts

I have been a bit of a busy bee, although you wouldn't guess that if you looked at my blog lately! I had a brief obsession with Friday Night Lights, which I have now finished so back to blogging! (BTW if you haven't ever watched FNL, I HIGHLY recommend it! Its on Netflix!)

The girls festive Halloween outfits from the last 2 years bit the dust, so it was time for some new ones! I have been wanting to make some fluffy ruffle skirts and could just imagine how cute they would be in Orange and Black!

I found a great PDF pattern on Etsy that you can use to make your own skirt, by

Little Lizard King the best part is that it has a wide range of sizes. 6 months to 8 years!

I have tried making ruffle skirts before and they were kind of a pain. Trying to line up and make sure they were all straight... I knew there had to be a better way! I was going to share a tutorial on how I did it this time around but Christine at from and igloo fun things to make and do already did! Her skirt only has 2 ruffles, I just reconfigured the measurements for 5 ruffles!

Making the skirt this way, I could hide all the raw edges, and it helped me keep the ruffles in line!

I have been dying to break out my Silhouette SD, and these shirts were the perfect first project! And confession... I didn't use their fabric interfacing. I just had some heat N bond in my craft closet so I used that! So even though they would like you to purchase their fabric interfacing... you don't HAVE to! I downloaded the witch from their store for $.99. For the scalloped circle I found an image online, uploaded it to the silhouette software and used their trace tool to make the cut out!

These two crack me up... they did this pose all on their own. They love taking pictures!

Happy Halloween!!!!

A Dress for the 4th

My mom tie dyed a few patriotic shirts for us at the family reunion, and I decided to make little dresses out of my girls tanks. My dad calls it the art of expansion. I used Ashley's tutorial from Lil Blue Boo!

The dress was perfect for parade watching with cousins,

And Busting a move or two!

Luck O the Irish!

I know, its hard to believe but I have been sewing, I just have been REALLY bad at taking pictures and getting them on here! There are more dresses, leggings, and bedding I will be sharing. Also lots of bows for baby sister.

These were the girls 'leprechaun' outfits... which is what they like to call them. A little bit of a twist on lil blue boo's Sienna Dress. See more Sienna Dresses HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE.

These leggings are my new favorite, they have a knit waistband instead of an elastic one. I am working on a tutorial for the waistband, because it is my new favorite thing. Also, the ruffle makes my girls want to dance. They LOVE them.

(Don't mind my kid's one eye squint... They get it from there Dad, and it just can't be helped!)

Gumball Necklaces

I am dying over these adorable necklaces, made out of gumballs! I found these over at One Charming Party. What a cute party favor, or Valentine gift! Go HERE for a How To!

A little late...

I had to share a few more halloween 'witchy pooh' outfits I made for my friend for them to wear at Disneyland. They were going to be there for Halloween and wanted to look festive.

Cute Girls with Mary and Birt. Love it.

A Brief Costume How To!

I had fun making our Halloween costumes this year, I don't know if I will ever be able to top these. I will start with the Mad hatter (who is checking college football scores on his phone)

I got most of his costume from Savers, a local thrift store. His Hat was my first purchase. It was intended for a leprechaun, so I had to unpick a four-leaf clover and add a tag. (which if you are wondering what it means it is the price of the Hat! Ten Shillings and a sixpence.) I just got a piece of card-stock, wrote on it with a marker and used a straight pin to attach it. It worked out great.

I made the bowtie out of some old fabric I had, and the green shirt was also a savers purchase. .99 cents thank you.

Now getting the jacket right was as key as getting a good hat. But, I did NOT want to sew a jacket for an adult man. it just didn't sound fun. So I got this one at savers for .99 cents and SPRAY PAINTED IT!

I went with orange, because I thought it would go better with the Hat and shirt combo I had purchased. I also didn't spray it evenly. I meant to do that. Seriously. I wanted it to be a bit messy, more like the Jonny Depp style Mad Hatter.

I also discovered the best low budget painting tool you could ever purchase. A spray painting gun. You attach it to any bottle of spray paint and shoot it like a gun instead of cramping up your pointer finger. It also helps you to get the paint on evenly. The best part... it cost me $2.89 And it is reusable. I got this one at Lowes.

What kind of spray paint did I use? the kind you get at walmart? I wasn't too picky, but I will say DON'T get the cheap 99 cent spray paint, it does not work as well. Promise. I tried and failed. Although I didn't use special spray paint, I did discover they make FABRIC spray paint. I would like to try it sometime. If you have tried it, let me know what you think.

For the Cat, I used a roll of masking tape to create the stripes. Put the tape on, Spray painted, and when it dried, I removed the tape. It worked REALLY well.

Maybe if I get some of that fabric spray paint I will make a striped shirt this way. Since I LOVE stripes. I think I got away with having the most comfy costume. I made my tail out of an old T-Shirt, and attached some little cat ears to a headband. My girls were concerned that I had no purple stripes, well kids, I couldn't find purple sweats ANYWHERE (or pink ones that I could spray paint purple) So, this cat was pink and white instead!

They dried really fast, or at least faster than I expected. I did these the day of our trunk or treat. I was lucky it was a warm day, which sped up the drying. I hope my neighbors didn't mind my costumes hanging everywhere!

I was SO glad and THANKFUL to my little Liza for wanting to be Alice, since I had already slaved over a costume for her once this year. This picture is from her birthday, but for Halloween she had tights, and I put a pettiskirt underneath to make it nice and puffy. This is a pretty basic dress, with a double layered gathered skirt, and a collar. I love it. So it made me so happy to see her wear it again.

Oh now Addie's Costume.... This one was so much fun to make! I decided to use a pattern, one i already had, and just add a few details to make it my own.

I used this pattern size 3 (which was a bit big and had to be taken in for my small framed girl), I did pattern B, the pink on at the bottom. I decided to do the bodice out of a stretchy fabric so i wouldn't have to put in a zipper. I added the collar and several embellishments and trims to make it queen worthy.

I got in a fight with the collar trying to get it to stand up like the Queen's does, in the end the collar won, and I know how I would fix it if I were to do it again. But I was not about to do it again! The crown and the Wand were GREAT finishing touches. I also had a few trial and errors with the crown, I ended up finding an 8 x 10 sheet of sparkly craft foam which I basically stapled together and slid it onto a headband. It was so easy, I was mad for trying the vinyl and the spray paint, and the cardstock. Duh. Why do I make things so difficult? The wand is similar to THESE but with a heart on top instead.

YES! Your MAJESTY!

(I am hoping to add more detailed pictures soon. we will see if it happens!)

My Family in Wonderland...

More details to come on each costume, but here we are at the Trunk or Treat. I just love Halloween. We won the costume contest for best Family Costume! Woot!

Decorating Pumpinks...

Sorry for the image quality, its a phone photo... but this year we decided to 'decorate' our pumpkins instead of carve them. The lace was a 2.00 tablecloth from the thrift store! Cut a hole for the stem, and hot glued to the bottom! Pretty, but still spooky. I like it!

Halloween for Cousins!

Since my girls Halloween outfits from last year still fit,
(Last year... they are so tiny!)
This year...
I was itching to make some festive outfits for someone... So I got to work on these for my little nieces.

Little Witchy Poo...
And Pumpkin Patch...

I love Halloween!

Family Themed Halloween Costumes

I thought I would gather a few family themed Halloween costume ideas, in case some of you were wondering what you could all be for Halloween this year! Some are from the web, and some are my creative family and friends.


Superheroes
(use popular ones, or make up your own)

Star Wars

3 little pigs and the Big Bad Wolf


BLT

The 4 Seasons
Candy Bars
The Flinstones, or the Rubbles

Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Toad
Road Signs (Traffic Light, Stop Sign, Dangerous Curves Ahead, etc.)

The SWAT team

Board Games (Twister, Candy Land, Memory)

Vegetables
(click on the picture for source, unless it is family, I didn't link to their private blogs.)

Halloween Flashback

To get you thinking about what YOU could be this year!

I thought I would share a few pictures from Past Halloween's in the Lewis family...

Little Bo Peep and her Sheep

Little Red Riding Hood, and the Wolf in Grandma's Clothing.

I had to share this one of my Brother in Law. He was "the money you could save with Geico"

Classic Halloween, A witch who wouldn't wear her hat, and a Pumpkin. This year my husband and I were Sarah Palin and John McCain, but I couldn't find a picture!

A little Bumble Bee

(My husband might kill me for sharing this one)
Sharpay and Ryan Evans from High School Musical

This was our First Halloween together, and I was pregnant with Addie. We were Zach Morris and Kelly Kapowski.

Also, I have been gathering ideas for Family Theme Halloween Costumes, which is usually what I try and do, but I might give my husband a break this year... we will see though!