More Muu'muu

These two loved their white Muu'muu so much that they came back for more. 

Enjoyed working with these beauties!

Costumes: Laie Elementary Fall Play 2013 "Once Upon a Crime"

 The past couple years I have been heading up the costume crew for the Laie Elementary School Fall Play. This play is put together in the course of ONE week with close to one hundred elementary school students. My job is to get each of those kids in a costume for no more than $100. That's total! So for less than $1 per costume we do a lot of pulling from kids closets, borrowing from the community, reusing from years past and frantically building only what we absolutely must. Here is a small sampling of some of the costumes from this year's play.

The woodsmen. Their costumes were pulled completely from their own closets and then they built their props out of cardboard.

Our 1980's era Material Girls/Dancing Princesses used flower tutu's from last year's production, and bright clothes from home. We had to make a few new skirts and headpieces/wristbands.

Red Riding Hoods Cape, Snow White's outfit, and Hansel's costume were all made brand new for this production. Was so glad we found a large muu'muu for the Big Bad Wolf.

Our detectives were so excited to get these fancy felt moustaches to go with their all black from home outfits.

How do you turn a kid into a pig for cheap? Dress him in Khaki and pink and give him some ears and a snout. So grateful to the moms who put this gear together.

More princesses. This time with their favorite fancy dress from home and a few beautiful flowers on their heads.

My costume crew had a fun time putting together these fun masks for our wolves. I found the templates online and they whipped them up in no time.

The Fall Play is so much fun for the kids and parents and community to participate in every year. It is always a whirlwind in a week to get it together but so worth the efforts. I am so grateful for all the volunteers who come in and help with the production, coordination, and organization of this project.

Freshening Up Old Jeans

Kids grow so fast and clothes are so expensive. That's why I try to make things last as long as possible. I repair. I rework. I resize. Today I was doing a little of each with some old pairs of jeans.

These jeans still fit around the waist but had become too short. She wanted to turn them into capris. To give the new hem a little pizzaz I triple stitched the hem with three different colors of thread giving it an ombre effect.

Another set of new shorts made from last year's holey school jeans. The back pair are double stitched with two colors of thread to match the topstitching around her pockets. The front pair have a fun cross-stitch look to them.

These jeans had a small stain on the backside. For fun we decided to applique this heart over the top. Looks so much better.

Another appliqued heart on a different pair of jeans this time covering up a tear over the pocket.

Out of the Studio This Week

This week I am roughing it on the shores of Maleakahana with 25 Young Women. For this week only I am trading in my scissors and needles for pocket knives and dutch ovens. Rest assured I will be back next week.

Before heading to girls camp check out these cute T-shirts I had the girls stencil paint:

Our stencils were contact paper from which our logo had been reverse-cut out of. The girls had to carefully peel away the paper and place their contact paper stencil on their shirt and then paint over the top of it.

Several coats of paint had to be put on. Between layers they used the blow dryer to speed up the drying process.

When the paint was completely dry we carefully peeled away the contact paper to reveal our finished product! Simple and fun; the girls loved them.

Handmade Gifts: More Love Monsters

Sometimes it is fun to do something a little different. Most of my sewing work is on clothing. Sometimes I do Home Dec work and occasionally I do sports equipment (hammocks, stuff sacks, etc.). Every once in a while I have the opportunity to make something totally different like these Love Monsters. 

My daughters got me on a Love Monster kick a few years ago when we started making them as gifts for friends. These little monsters were also made as gifts and were inspired by a similar monster my husband saw on a business trip in Korea.

These guys  sit up at a mere 6 inches tall and are made of polar fleece. There were a lot of little parts and details like the embroidery, stitching around the eyes and the tiny ears but they did go together relatively quickly. The most detailed and time consuming part was stitching and turning the teeny tiny arms and legs. The best part of these little guys though was the happy reception they received when gifted. They are dearly loved in their new homes.

Check out the first Love Monsters we made