This is another thrown-together number I made for Tom, getting its one and only outing at Enken's Fairy Tales party. Everything (except the pants) was made from scratch a few days before the event. The man loves cats, so Puss in Boots was the obvious choice (not sure he'd admit it, but he doesn't need much of an excuse to wear kitty ears!).
I started with the ears, using leftover fur from Enken’s
Mongol Slippers, with inspiration from
this tutorial on
costumewardrobe.com. The paws/gloves gave me a bit more trouble. I had JUST enough fur for the opposite sides of each glove, and promptly cut out three of one side and one of the other. This happens alarmingly often to me - wonder if I'll ever learn to check my orientation before I cut? *facepalm* Eventually I remade the inner section with black stretch fabric, handsewing felt circles to make the pads of the paw. Salvaged!
Next up came the Seinfeld-worthy puffy shirt. These are seriously easy to make! A member of the Costumers' Guild once told me it was just "made from squares and rectangles", so I played it by ear, using a very light cotton lawn. I cut two large rectangles for the body of the shirt, sewing up three sides and hemming the bottom. I then cut generous arm holes, and attached a 'tube' of fabric (just a long rectangle sewn down one side) to each, ruffling at the top. I finished each arm with some elastic about three inches from the hem. As it was a total rush job I just zipped a hem on the bottom of the shirt (it was being tucked in anyway) and cut and hemmed a round hole for the neck (as the tabard was going to cover it). And that's it!
The tabard was just red drill with gold ribbon trim, and the motifs were freehanded in gold fabric paint (sadly I have zero artistic talent, but I did what I could!). I attached a false collar on the outside - this is my least favourite part of the costume - it looks really rushed and crappy, and doesn't sit right, but we had ten minutes 'til the first guest arrived!
The boots were a great success - mostly inspired by
this costume boots tutorial and using a tape mould of Tom's legs. I cut on the basis of the mould, sewed the brown vinyl pieces together (adding a cuff on the top) and attached some elastic to hold the cover onto a pair of Tom's black dress shoes. Finally, we secured the edges by using a bit of double-sided tape (the costumers' best friend!).
To top it all off, we slung Chris' old belt around the middle and tucked in one of my fencing swords (a sabre, to be precise - inherited once upon a time from my ex-competitive fencing brother). The whole thing was finished with a jingling cat bell around the neck. Instant kitty! Kawaii!! =^_^=
Christmas present #553: Party dress for my ten-year-old niece, who loves pink and hearts and little skulls and all the things girls her age seem to dig right now. It's fully lined and (fairly clumsily) hand-ruffled (oh, how I revile the ruffle foot!). I drafted the pattern and designed it myself (not very original, but I thought she'd love it - and she did!). :)
I'm not proud. I shamelessly pinched the idea of a plush ninja from Shawnimals, a fantastic company who make very, very cute things (if I say enough good things, do you think they'll forgive me? Hope so!). This was a patternless job, using three pieces of felt (black and beige), two buttons for eyes and a piece of silver card for the mad shuriken (a last-minute addition but well worth it for the rad factor). I knocked him up by hand one afternoon for my friend Jack's birthday (you can see him stealthing his new owner in the bottom photo). I was ultimately inspired by my sis-in-law's astounding plush creations - when she has her own website I'll link you up. Gorgeously quirky, beautifully made stuff. *sigh* I'll get there one day, right?
