Happy Halloween!

Halloween was really fun for us this year.

Well besides the terrible two's part of it all.
All of the melt downs added that special touch to our memories! ;-)

Allie LOVED being "Blue" from Blue's Clue's! She continues to wear her costume daily. With her ears and mittens on. While she watches Blue's Clue's. What joy. ;-) HA!
Unfortunately, these are the only pictures (I'm serious, the ONLY)
she would let me take of her in it.

(On our way to the Trunk or Treat we do at our church every year)
(Front)
Tim thinks she just looked like a:
"Blue Woolie Polka- Dotted Sheep with bug antennas. lol
People got it though, and of course she loved being called "Blue"!(Back, I forgot to add the tail!) :(
Notice I had to put her on our table so I could get some decent pictures.
Oh, the toddler "Blurs" stage! ;-)

(Ears)
OH man, was I surprised she kept these on. I was originally going to order a Blue's Clue's costume but, knew she would not keep the hoodie part of it on. So long story short. The head band ears worked! :-)
(Feet "Paws")
Had to make her mittens with Blue's Paw print on them:

(These by the way, are now covered in Chocolate! lol)

And of course, we couldn't forget about her Handy Dandy Notebook! :-)
(Thanks Regan for your help!)

Tim had lots of fun handy out candy while Allie sat and ate her candy
And this picture pretty much sums up our Halloween! haha

(Enjoying the moment mom, Terrible Two's little girl, and a multi-tasking dad)

Happy Halloween!

Courtney

Halloween Bandanna Skirt Tutorial

So, a few weeks ago I came across these Halloween Bandanna's on an end-cap at Wal-Mart:

Cute Right?!!?
I'm not the Bandanna kinda girl but, I thought these were perfect to try and make a skirt for Allie. And for my first ever Bandanna skirt, I am one happy woman! Especially since it took me maybe a half hour to put it all together!

It's so easy! See:

Step One:
Fold in half and steam iron
Cut in half on the fold
I forgot a picture here but, Trim off and inch off of the sides. Your bandanna will have writing on the side and I didn't like it. So I cut mine off. Then fold the bottom hem under to the wrong side and iron in place. *You do not need to double fold because it's already hemmed at the bottom.

Step Two:*This step is optional. But, I thought it added a lot to the skirt. So, I made some ruffles to stick under the skirt. Pinned it in place on the wrong side.

Flipped it over and sewed a hem straight down...repeat with the other half of your bandanna
Here's what your skirt will look like on the right side:

Now, pin the two pieces together, wrong side out and sew straight down.
Back stitching at each end.
(Sorry the picture is sideways!)

Step Three:

This step happened on accident! ;-) I had realized that once I had sewn both ends together I had forgotten to make a spot for the elastic! Whoops! lol
(And I ended up thinking it turned out really cute anyways, so oh well! ;-) But, if you know what I mean with the elastic go ahead and do it the right way. If not, here's what I did:
Turn the top of your fabric over so the right side is now on top of your wrong side. You'll have to take some measurements with your elastic to make sure you have enough fabric turned over. Now, sew a stitch at the top. (In the picture above it's the only seam you see)

Then I made another seam to create a "pocket" for the elastic.

(Here's a bigger picture for ya...kinda confused? lol)
Making sure to leave an opening so I could run the elastic through...measure your little ones tummy around before you cut your piece of elastic. I cut mine to 19 and 1/2 then I trimmed off about two inches once it was in the "pocket" on the skirt.


And, of course I couldn't get to far with out my little helper to come and help me! :-)

Once your elastic is all the way through snip off a little extra like I mentioned above and sew the two ends together.
And here's what it looks like:

*love*
My "Oops" turned out to be great! ;-) lol

And because I know it's like next to impossible to capture a "still" picture of an almost 2 year old I grabbed one before I put it on her!
Umm? Adorable?
YES!Of course I couldn't stop there! I had to make her a bow! hehe ;-)

I was able to catch one good picture of her this morning...it wasn't easy but I got one! :-)

How much do you think it cost me to make? What? Only $2? I know, it's great! The Bandanna was a dollar. I might have used .25cents worth of my elastic and .75 cents for the 1/4th of a yard of tulle I got.

Enjoy your Thursday!!
Courtney