BATMAN & FLAPPER COSTUMES 2008

Well, it's a busy week here for many reasons and these costumes are only one of them. The flapper dress took pretty much no time compared to the batman costume that's mostly complete. With batman, I didn't fuss with hemmng sleeves or pant bottom and I fudged the top a little cuz I didn't have the right size zipper and so I added the bias tape to the neckline for ties. The belt has some parts that you glue and I don't have a buckle so I might hit the goodwill store to see if I can find one there?? That's pretty much what I think is left on this. I could tweek the face hood a little to snug it up but Matty didn't seem to care so . . . The flapper dress is a neat hairy-like fabric and I just made a straight tank-style dress and added the trim at the bottom. The fabric is very sheer so I actually made a slip out of some black swimsuit fabric that I had so if my niece wanted to wear that underneath. I just hope it fits?! I didn't have all her measurements, just the waist so I really did wing it a bit. She's very petite so I think it will be fine.

HALLOWEEN COSTUME BEGINS - BATMAN FROM THE 80's??

Halloween is just around the corner and no, I haven't completely procrastinated. My daughter said she wanted to wear the same costume as last year - a gorilla costume that I bought off the clearance rack for Matty many moons ago, but he never wore it and now she wants to wear it twice? Now there's a girl who wants to get the most out of an already bargain. I wonder if that's an inherited trait? I won't complain and while we've shopped for Matty's costume I've simply told her to keep her eyes peeled for something for next year. Matty decided that he wanted to be batman so my first stop was ebay, first for costumes and then for patterns. It seems there are several versions/color schemes and he strangely enough chose this blue/gray version. I looked and looked and . . . . finally decided to just buy a pattern that I saw in ebay where they had "make an offer" which I did and they accepted - yeah me! I saved a whole dollar! I guess I should back up and say that I wanted to simply buy a gray sweatsuit and make a face mask and the cape and outer undear wear and put the batman logo thingy on the front and Matthew just wasn't buying the whole idea of wearing a sweatsuit because he insisted that a sweatsuit isn't a costume. I think that he needs to get a job. Then there was finding the fabric. Lucky for me it was ALL on sale - 60% for some and 50% for the felt - so that was awesome and I already had the blue swimsuit fabric that seems to be a close enough match so that was great too. Sew . . . the pattern pieces are prepped, I've cut a few things out of felt. I'm going to maybe hit goodwill to scrounge a belt buckle instead of buying one new. I'm hoping it goes together easily but the silvery bodice fabic I got is really quite slippery so by the end of the week I may want to hurt myself?? I also volunteered to make a little flapper skirt for my niece but after googling that, I kinda want to make her just a short dress with the cool black fuzzy, shimmery fabric I got for that. She's going to look adorable, I just know it! Of course I'm also going to TRY to do halloween shirts with the kids tomorrow night and I've got to find the time to do halloween pretzel rods for Matty's class for Friday - oh joy! Plan B - call my friend Jen from work and ask to borrow her son's batman costume from last year - tee hee hee!

JAY LENO INTERVIEWS KEVIN SMITH

Honestly, I don't even know who this guy is but when I came home from work on Friday night and started watching Jay with this guy, my poor husband who was sound asleep must have thought I'd lost my mind. I was cracking up laughing. Here's the Youtube clip and it's about 10 minutes long but it is absolutely hysterical. http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?swf=http%3A//s.ytimg.com/yt/swf/cps-vfl59689.swf&video_id=SbCFSJiftH0&rel=1&hqt=1 The famous line that keeps getting noted is "dropping the kids off at the pool" and if you can't guess what he's talking about, well then maybe you should watch the clip! For those that don't know me well, you might seriously start to question my character considering the types of things that I find entertaining. This is really funny shit! (no pun intended) Enjoy!

CUSHION COVER COMPLETE

Just a quick post to show I haven't been completely idle. I had a nagging project. Now, mind you . . . the project recipient wasn't nagging but rather patient if I dare say. I felt that since she did bring it up recently it was about time that I tackled the cushion cover which was something I'd never ever done before so I admit that I was a little nervous to cut this curtain up knowing that there was only one curtain and if I screwed this up I'd feel horrible! Well, I'm going to say that I think I did just fine. Thank you Jodi at http://happyhousequilts.com/ for suggesting that I wrap the pad in plastic wrap so it slides easily into the cover. I had no idea, although my back flap opening was full access with a velcro closure so it might have worked o.k., but still smoother I think with the plastic wrap. Rather than do the seams with my serger, I opted to serger the seams (fabric definitely wanted to fray alot!) and then sew them together to maintain a seam allowance in the event it needed repair. I think that I could have had a slightly snugger fit but the cushion wasn't completely even either so I simply did the best I could. The recipient was thrilled as was I just for trying something new. Yeah me for coloring outside the lines! And do I dare say GO RED SOX! (this is totally the time that it sucks to only be using a rotor antenna on roof - can't watch the game?!)