I don't post much on Craftster anymore, but I figured every costume posted helps inspire people for the next year, so here goes...

I had a plan to be the Hamburglar for Halloween for about 2 months prior to the holiday. However, when I went to buy b&w striped material, I found that the only (yes only) fabric store/chain around here was not going to be getting any in this year. Faced with making my own (just completed a striped dress like this in the summer and it was super tedious... the addition of school made this impossible) and I had to quickly rethink my choice. I remembered seeing this tutu on etsy this summer: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30984282&ref=sr_list_4&&ga_search_query=queen+hearts+tutu&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=date_desc&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title and tried to create something inspired by it in less than three days between classes and also making my boyfriend's costume. I spent all my time on the tutu, so the day of Halloween I quickly whipped up the belt/waistband thing (out of an old pair of pants and a cut up work shirt of the bf's... all the hearts are from that). The tiara is leftover from my 19th birthday party (4 years I've saved it.. I knew there was a reason!) and the socks are just American Apparel socks. I wanted to make a wand but ran out of time.

My bf on the other hand, was Mugatu. I think it's pretty straightforward from seeing the costume how we made it, but if you have any questions just let me know and I'll answer them. For the first Halloween ever in our 4 H'weens as a couple his costume won out for getting the most attention.. it was awesome! I was so proud to be out with him, hahaha. Here we go:


(was super excited to be drinking Queen of Hearts wine all night hahaha)



hahaha... once we were at the bar... i believe the theme of this picture was "be really really ridiculously good looking"

I didn't want to post a pic of my friend without her permission but this is the only pic I have of the night where you can see the spade panel of my tutu!

It was a really fun Halloween, I really loved my costume and the bf's. Thanks for looking

I've made two dresses out of some clearance jersey fabric I picked up. I think for all of both kinds of fabric I paid about $10 CDN and I still have lots of black and a little bit of the pink left over. Unfortunately I am impatient and haven't taken photos of one of them yet, so for now here is the second one I made, using this tutorial: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=196489.0. I just made the skirt a bit shorter and used ribbon to tie the straps instead of jersey. This dress is more comfortable than most of the pajamas I own:




C&C always welcome and appreciated

This is the first piece of clothing I've ever successfully made without the help of a tutorial or pattern, I was just seized by inspiration the other day and made it, and for once it actually turned out the way it looked in my head (more or less). I used a really nice houndstooth fabric I had gotten for $1/yard at a local fabric store last summer... I still have lots of it left so I think this shirt probably cost about $0.40.






I made it in a few hours in order to wear it out that night, but now that I've worn it I almost feel like it needs a little something more. I was thinking about adding a white ribbon under the bust, I have two different sizes:




Or I have this thin brown binding that I think might look good if I trimmed the detail with it, but I'm undecided if I should do any of these three things, and if so, which one to do. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated Here's as close as approximation as I could get of my binding idea:

It's pretty embarrassing posting on here when there are always such nice desserts and such posted, but I figure there might be a contingent of Craftsters out there who are drooling over the cupcakes but abstaining due to a diet/other dietary restrictions. I wanted to make cupcakes for DBF and his roommate over Christmas and I wanted to make these cupcakes:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=238766.0

But, I didn't want to have such cool and delicious looking temptations in DBF's apartment when I'm trying to lose these last 10 lbs (those first 65 were hard enough to lose!). So I set out to do the impossible.. delicious, awesome looking cupcakes. And yes, it was impossible, they aren't great looking, but the boys got what they were right away, And they didn't even notice that they were "light".

I made them with a box of devil's food mix, but replaced all the eggs, oil and water with a can of diet pepsi. The icing is 99% fat free cool whip mixed with dry sugar free vanilla pudding mix and red food coloring. The white spots are just a marshmallow cut into 4ths. For those of you following Weight Watchers, all of this sugary deliciousness adds up to a measly 3 points per cupcake. (Cupcake = 2, Icing + Marshmallows = 1). They didn't last too long, but you might need to keep them refrigerated in order to keep the icing intact. Also, I didn't have one this time, but usually when I make diet soda cupcakes I add an egg white to the mix too, it helps with the consistency.

Basically, I'm ashamed of how they look, but I thought someone with a little more talent could at least take the basic ideas and make something better, so I submit for my humiliation and your improvement:

I made these in a quick afternoon before Christmas to round off a gift package for a friend. We have a... strong affinity for playing the NES version of Dr. Mario when we're together, and so I made her a set of Dr. Mario magnets from my extensive Perler bead collection. Unfortunately, after making the good doctor I ran out of my black beads (had to happen eventually) so the rest were done without, but I think they still turned out pretty good. I only had time to make two of the pills but did manage to get all three of the virus colors and of course, Mario, M.D. I hot glued some cut out sheets of magnet to the back so she can play it on her fridge whenever the mood strikes her.

Just adding to the pile of the singlet-style shopping bags made from the now famous tutorial here on craftster. I've made a few of these but this is my favourite one to date as it's the first one not just made from random fabrics, I picked these out especially for a friend's Christmas present. The bag is lined with the same fabric that the outside pocket is made from.

I also made the coffee cuff using two layers of a kind of sweatshirt-y fabric from my stash as insulation and a printed cotton on the outside, with elastic thread to make it adjustable and some buttons from my enormous button hoarde. I really like how it turned out, I just made a pattern from a Starbucks cardboard version and it was such a quick and easy gift. I'm going to make one for myself next. Here are both items, folded and unfolded.. any C/C much appreciated!

I made this for a friend for Xmas, she's moving into her first apartment this month and I wanted to give her something to put on her walls. It's just made with some fabric scraps I had lying around, 2 fabric yoyos, some embroidery for the stems, and my favourite part, the mushrooms and the owl are buttons I found in a huge stash I got at a flea market. They were all white, so I got out my huge set of Sharpies and colored the mushroom caps. She really liked it and I had fun making it, it was my first real attempt at patchwork. I just used a scrap of polyester batting on the inside and it's only quilted via the embroidery and sewing on the buttons and yoyos.

I didn't include a way for her to hang it, I wasn't sure what the best way was -- any suggestions?

All the costumes look great, as always... here is my humble contribution:





The dress was some gray sweatpant-ish fabric I got on sale, and some fabric remnants, cut up t-shirts, Sharpies, yarn-embroidery, and iron-ons (unfortunately it's hard to see the Nintendo logo, Start, Select, and A and B buttons in these pictures) and the necklace was a Perler creation made by me and just put on a chain. I enjoyed every minute of working on and wearing this costume!!!

I finally got my camera back and I'm finally posting pictures of my amazing amazing AMAZING angel package from ckchan!! I love everything, I can honestly say I love every single thing that was in this package! Haha okay, onto the pictures:

First, my absolute favourite of my favourite things, a crocheted cactus/pincushion from my wists.. except this one is way more adorable, and we're going to be really good friends.. I'm not sure if I can stick pins in her yet, but either way it's completely amazing and I LOVE it:

Second, a tiny cupcake! Also a pincushion I think (based on something else off my wists!) and it's SO mini and adorable and wonderful! I should have gotten an action shot with the "sprinkles" but rest assured, it's wicked:

Annnd a back massager! It's so weird, my bf and I are big on the upper back massages as we both sit in awful desk chairs all day at work, and I actually had a smaller version of this that I broke 2 legs off because of overuse.. I had been meaning to fix it but this works out wayyy better! Plus, look at that adorable face..

A little flip out mirror thing, which is awesome to put in my work bag for makeup/hair touchups, especially after the gym:


The bag of leftover yarn from the awesome crafted items:

My other other other favourite a bag of sewing supplies, which I badly need, including bias tape etc.. I always want/need stuff like this and never manage to pick any up unless it's for a specific project, so this was awesome, PLUS she included elastic which is something I always need more of:

A calorimetry! I love the fun ocean colors (thats what it makes me think of anyways) and I've wanted one of these forever! No action shot as I looked like crap when these pics were being taken, haha:

And finally, more supplies, some really cool, just my style, scrapbooking paper that I can assure you will be put to good use, more than likely involving mod podge.


I'm posting this from work and left the price list at home (durr) so I'll be sure to post that when I can, sometime tonight, unless ckchan wants to in the meantime.

CKChan, thanks again soo much! I hate being all gushy but dammit, it was worth gushing over, I loved everything, even my bf (who was there when I received) said he wished he could come up with presents that made me react like these ones did. You were an AMAZING angel and thanks again craftydeb for a great swap

Well, I've officially given up on my partner sending her package/posting pics So here are the ones I did manage to find of what I sent to her.. sorry the picture quality is awful and also sorry there are so many pictures! I really must combine items into photos for future swaps.

It was a $5 package:


A bundle of different fabrics, 2 pcs white, 1 pc purple, 1 large pc blue

A little robot pin (wanted to keep this soo bad!)

A scarf, I thought it could be used as a nice purse lining or something similar, it was super soft.

I noticed on my partner's wists that she had very native seeming art pieces etc, and so I found this box at a Yard Sale and fixed it up, painted it black (it was just wood before and kind of old looking), etc.

Some coasters, covered in scrapbook paper/mod podge/gloss, loosely based on ones from her wists.

As my partner's Other partner said, my partner was collecting 1000 paper cranes for a family member ill with cancer. I didn't know how to do origami but the story touched me and I recruited some friends who also didn't know origami and we spent a few nights teaching ourselves and making failed crane after failed crane, these were the ones that turned out well enough to send.

A mug pinafore/pin-cushion for sewing supplies.. there are two rows of pockets (one in back, against the mug, and the plastic one in front) as well as the pincushion.. the pinafore is also removable and the straps can be used to attach it to anything.

Action shot of the mug pinafore/pincushion
Finally, my personal favourite (it's hard to send something you love and want for yourself away, only to be flaked on! grr) was:

A sewing machine caddy featuring the "Crafty" Teen Girl Squad. Based on the internet cartoons found here: www.homestarrunner. com/tgsmenu.html which I noticed my partner liked... they're off-center on purpose to stay true to the hand-drawn quality of the cartoon.. also I changed their names to suit the crafty theme
(actual names: Cheerleader, So-and-So, Whats-Her-Face and The Ugly One).
Action shots (it's not crooked! I promise, I just had placed it crookedly under my machine in my hurry to take pictures):


It's also quilted out of blue corduroy and white mystery fabric.

And for my price list (I think I can remember it):

Huge bundle of Fabric (the fabric pieces/sewing machine caddy): $0.50 (flea market!)
2 scarves (mug pinafore/brown scarf): $0.25 (flea market)
Robot Pin = $0.50 (kijiji)
Native Art Box = $0.25 (yard sale)
Coasters = $1 (Value Village)
Mug = $0.50 (Value Village)
Scrapbooking Paper = 0.45x4 = $1.80 (Michael's)
Embroidery Floss = $0.25 (Fabricville)
Paper for cranes = FREE (stolen from printer at work)

TOTAL = $5.05

Well.. I hope she liked it