Time to upgrade my bathroom!

 This came about rather unexpectedly. We had a leak in the second bathroom, and while we were awaiting the plumber's arrival, I did try to put epoxy around the leak in the hopes that it would stop it up so the water would stop leaking out. The only time the plumber could get here was the end of the week - which is tomorrow. Needless to say the epoxy was a bust. But at least the water leak wasn't so bad that it was flooding the whole bathroom and spilling into the neighboring space. What it did do was cause the necessity of changing out the cabinet and sink that originally came in the trailer - while it wasn't ruined entirely, it definitely has suffered some damage. And we really just needed an excuse.

And since we were getting one bathroom cabinet, why not get a second bathroom cabinet for my little bathroom? :D We ended up getting a 24" grey cabinet with a marble (man made marble, not high end expensive marble) sink/counter top. OMG, how exciting!

The sink, counter and cabinet that came built into the bathroom was....not ideal. A plastic round sink which does not work very well with my coffin shaped soap dish. The counter top was this ugly speckled brown, and it also leaned, so we had to keep a neatly folded up towel on the right hand side in the back in order to catch the water. The cabinet was a decent size, but it had a board about 4 or 5 inches from the back where the shelf ended and had another board stick up about 4 inches as a partial wall. Behind that, it was just the plumbing, which boasted a gaping several inch hole in the floor which had to be filled in last year as we had 2 mice get in the house. (Joy.) More about that hole and the foam which sealed it later on in this post....Oh, and the faucet was really not very nice. Let's be real here, I hated it. 

Step one of this project was pretty simply - disconnect the sink and take out the old faucet. We started in my bathroom. The trouble here is that I didn't have the right tool to loosen the bolts. It is a very tight space, and the only thing I had on hand that would work was a pair of pliers which I had to turn straight up and down and loosen it that way as I couldn't get the pliers to fit in the space to turn it right to left. It worked, sink was disconnected, faucet removed, simple.

Next came the fun part....Fun is being used sarcastically here. The cabinet was built onto a frame which was secured via long screws into the floor and walls. They did come out fairly easily, but this is where it got tricky. We basically had to break the countertop off, and then try to tear out the framing once the sides and front got hammered off. 

And it is at this point that tragedy struck. As I was busting the framing away from the wall, in my gusto, I managed to snag the hot water line and break it clean off where the 2 halves were joined together. It was the worst feeling in the world. Water sprayed, frantic voices shouted "turn the water off!" I was so horrified. 

After using the wet vac to clean up the water all over the floor, all we could do, was head to the Home Depot. Luckily it was a beautiful warm day and I didn't have to change out of my wet clothes before leaving. I brought the broken off piece with me, and a very helpful employee found the right Sharkbite coupling that I needed, and the tool that I needed if I didn't fit the pipe in correctly. I also grabbed other needed tools. I came home confident and happy to be able to fix the problem. I inhaled my Taco Bell soft tacos and got right back to work. 

Well, it didn't go as smoothly as I hoped. I didn't fit the pipes in tight enough, so my first try resulted in water spraying out at both ends. And that tool? Really not easy to use! After struggling - in tears, I'll admit it. The thought of having no running water for nearly 2 days wasn't an appealing thought - I was finally able to pop the pieces of pipe out of the coupling, with some much needed assistance to pull the pipe out while I used every ounce of strength on that tool. Happily, it came out and my next try was a winner. All I was out was 2 bloody knuckles.

We called it a day at that point. The next day we had another sink and cabinet to knock out, and also the base of the cabinet that was still left in my bathroom.

On the following day (today), I admit to really not being very excited to work on the bathroom project again. I took out the second sink and faucet and happily left the cabinet demo to someone else. (I already busted one pipe....) I decided the best use of my time was to clean up all the unneeded tools, etc in my bathroom and to start cutting down that mountain of foam that was essentially holding the cabinet base captive as it was all over the back side of the right hand 1x2 and very back 1X2 of the cabinet around the plumbing.

I very carefully - with the help of a screw driver and hammer - pried the plywood off the frame, and then took each piece of 1X 2's off a piece at a time, leaving only that consarded back piece. I slowly worked on sawing down the Foam Mountain. My hope was to chisel out enough that I could simply pull that back piece out of the foam. It did eventually work, but it was a little challenging. There was a piece of linoleum that was folded up against the piece of wood that made it too tight to pull the board out. And I had sawed off all of the foam that I could get to around it. Finally, I bent the staples back flush against the wood, pushed the piece of wood as far back against the wall as I could, bent the linoleum piece forward and pulled and wiggled the board  until I was able to get it out! Woo hoo! Success!

After that, I sawed the Foam Mountain down until it is - I think - not going to be in the way of putting the cabinet in, Which we can't do until we get a jigsaw to cut out the floor of the cabinet to accommodate the plumbing. That foam is just an awful mess. I wasn't the one who put it in, but in their defense, it was a rogue can of foam and a tight space to even get back to begin with. Here's how it looks now. I regret not taking more pics along the way.

At this point, I'm putting more thought into the refacing of the whole bathroom beyond simply putting in the new cabinet. The walls are hideous, and full of dings and dents that need to be filled in. That giant mirror has to come down. The strips all need to be removed and taped and mudded. (You see how the corner has that horrible gap.) I'd really like to have the wall freshly painted before putting in the cabinet. It's a lot of work, and will take some time, but honestly, it's fine not having a sink in the bathroom. It's totally something we can live with so we can take the time to do the bathroom correctly. And man, I'd love to have that bathroom spruced up! 

Project memory Lane - the embroidered coat project

 Don't you hate it when you get those emails warning you how full your Gmail is? I've had that address since 2013 and I used to email a lot. I had pen pals, PMs on MBs, and of course, the random junk that one gets from just being online. I try to keep it cleaned out - ever so often I go in there and delete several hundred emails mostly from Promotions/social. I used to be better about cleaning out my Primary, but I don't do it as often as I need to. Where am I going with this?

Since my email has been around as long as it has, I figured I could just go in there and delete stuff from those early years. This took me down a path of nostalgia. I reread some of my old email chains from one of my pen pals - she was first a customer and we got to be good friends. At least good online friends. And then I also happened to stumble onto emails regarding a commission that I got via Den of Angels. Lucky for me, we had moved from the DoA PM system to emails to allow me an easier time of sending her WIP pics. 

I was thrilled, beyond thrilled to find these pics again. I think this project was likely 3 laptops ago, ha ha, and sadly, with the passing of each laptop, so too was the passing of many of my commission/project pictures. Just rewards I suppose of not bothering to update Flickr like I should have. I do feel the regret still. But any ways, I am so happy to have these pics. I've downloaded them and will mostly likely post them to IG and Flickr so I keep them while those platforms are still standing.

I got this project in the Spring of 2014. I honestly don't recall if she PM'd me after seeing my Open to Commissions thread (which I no longer have) or I responded to a Want to Commission thread. She was looking for a coat to fit her Luts CP Delf Type 1 doll, and it needed to be embroidered with a feather motif. Her idea was for the feathers to be similar in style to a parakeet. The coat was going to be in colors of burgundy and gold. Now, I have veeeeeeery basic embroidery skills, and because of that reason, I was a little hesitant to take it on. With that thought, she had to have PM'd me, as I don't know if I would have pursued an embroidery heavy project. I told her that I wasn't super skilled at embroidery and I wasn't sure if I could pull it off well enough. I remember that she really wanted me to make it for her and so I went ahead and took it.

This was tricky. She had drawn out on a computer program the idea of what she wanted for the motif idea and where these feathers needed to be on the coat. My job was then to take these general ideas and design a motif to fit into the spaces she wanted embroidered onto the coat, within the confines of my pattern. I had to redesign the basic idea for the front she was at first hoping for, as I couldn't get the various motifs - neck, front shoulders and across the back of the coat to seamlessly blend together. Let me also just say here, she was absolutely fantastic to work with, and was open to my suggestions as I really was committed to doing my best work for this project.  Here's my redesign of the front motif. I don't have the pics of her designs that she sent to me, unfortunately. 

I drew all of these motifs onto copies of my pattern pieces to make sure that they fit. Now, the next thing to figure out was how to transfer this to my pieces. The fabric I was using was a darker burgundy twill. That's not the easiest color to draw on with a transfer pencil, and so the journey of trial and error began. To do the embroidery work, I sewed my coat pieces onto cotton, but left the back of the pieces exposed so as to not catch the cotton in the embroidery process. If there was an easier way, I don't know of one. I ended up getting transfer sheets, where you go over the transfer paper with a pencil to transfer the design. That wasn't quite good enough, and so I got a white pencil to go over the blue lines from the transfer paper. While it worked okay, if I hadn't had good lighting, it would have been a struggle. I would occasionally have to re-go over the lines. The original plan was to outline each feather with black embroidery floss and then fill in with the gold thread. That didn't end up working, as it was far too bulky for the delicate design, so I took that out and just went at it with the gold.

The trickiest thing at this stage of the work was getting those neck feathers to go seamlessly from the shoulder motif onto the neck. 

And sadly, this is where my pics come to an end. There was a talon motif somewhere on the coat - I think it was right above where the coat's tails begin. I remember clearly what they looked like, but I just don't have the pics. We must have switched back to DoA PMs at this point. After all the embroidery was done, I still had to line the coat and sew it all together. I ended up going with a thin shiny fabric that matched the embroidery thread. I think the point where I was the most nervous was the lining. I had to be really careful sewing the coat together. Imagine if I had somehow messed that part up and had to fix the embroidery? Thankfully, it all went smoothly.

The embroidery involved nearly 90 feathers. Each feather took an average of 2 hours - more for the biggest feathers, less for the smaller feathers.  It took a LOT of hours to finish. I could only work on it for about 3 hours at a time, and at that point, I was juggling several commissions, which is really how I prefer it. All in all, it took me a few months to finish the project. This is one of the projects that I am the most proud of. I do wish that she had sent me pics of it on her doll. I remember that her doll was in the process of being painted with a lot of tattoos, and so he probably wasn't finished when she got the coat, and well, life has a tendency to just move on. 

Awesome Market Finds - some of my BEST yet!

I started this post on April 7th, but I just got around to finishing it today. 

We ended up going to the Flea Market today as 2 of my party had a craving for DQ, and the only really good one (out of the 3 we have here) just happens to be by the Flea Market. And so 2 of us decided to take a quick walk around and see if anything jumped out at us. I keep hoping that the Dollhouse booth there will restock some more furniture kits, and before today, she hadn't.

I always like to approach the Flea Market the same way - start all the way to the right and make our way up and down each row. I know where the good spots are, but if you only go there, you might miss out on a randomly placed treasure. 

 I was surprised that we came across a dollhouse in the furthest side of the Market that was really cute. But with a price tag of $125, it just wasn't worth it to me. It wasn't in bad shape, but the inside had wallpaper, carpet, etc. etc. and would have all had to be redone any ways. I found a Moxy girl for a family member who has started collecting them (and her hair was an utter disaster! I'll post before and after pics of her hair repair later.) I was so excited to stumble across 2 of those big 24" craft cows made in the 90's by Wang International. I know, it's an odd thing to love so much, but I have dearly missed my beloved Sorcerer Moo since I regrettably sold him off many years ago. These cows were in dreadful shape. And I mean dreadful! Covered in layers of dirt and grime, with discoloring on the hooves and mildew stains all over the muslin body. The price was a little higher than it needed to be, but I wasn't leaving the Market without him. I picked out the one I deemed in better shape (which really wasn't by much, if any) and was feeling so pleased. I have great confidence in the possibility of cleaning anything up.

And finally, as we made a loop towards the end of the Market, there it was. I, of course initially missed it, as my focus was really on spotting Barbie dolls, so luckily my eagle eyed companion saw it. A dollhouse! This one had most certainly seen better days, and whoever put the house together didn't exactly do a stellar job. But for a price tag of $20? Oh yeah. It was coming home with me. I actually got so excited I just grabbed it and started to take off towards the check out before I even looked at the inside. 

The house was painted on the outside, and the color palette screams mid 90's. (I later found out it is the Brookefield made by Duracraft in 1992. I have no idea how long the kit was available.)  It smelled really musty, and it started to quite literally fall apart on its journey home. Not that anything was all that securely glued into place to begin with. Trim fell off. The inside wall divider fell out (and somehow ended up in a bag - I truly have no idea how!) And upon closer inspection I noticed that the outside wall is also coming apart. I think it was put together with hot glue. Never a good idea. Hot glue should only be used to hold pieces together while the wood glue dries when not even copious amounts of tape do the trick. (I had to do that with my Orchid. Just put a dab of low temp hot glue on a couple of places, and then peal off carefully when it's job is done.) 

I know they say that if a house has been put together like that, you need to take it apart and re-glue it together with wood glue. I am not doing that. I would most certainly destroy the dollhouse in the process. What I will do is go in there and carefully reinforce the pieces with wood glue. 

I'm now officially out of space for dollhouses, and getting this fella to fit is going to be interesting. But I am so thrilled to have it. I didn't have a house for the 2 little resin dragons that I got specifically for my Orchid - which didn't work out. Dollhouses have a mind of their own, after all. So this one is absolutely perfect for the Dragon lair. The dragons are the perfect scale and the plans I have are going to be epic! Now, if I could just feel like working on any of my many, many plans, I'll be a pleased panda. 

The twins are here! My AG order arrived

 Wow, that was some fast shipping, Fedex! I didn't expect them today. They got here all the way from Wisconsin in 2 days. I waited until after I ate supper and loaded the dishwasher before I opened them. I also had some Wang dolls come in the mail as well, so it was quite an exciting mail day!

The twins are even better in person than they are in pictures. I will say they are pretty photogenic because they don't look better in person - which I know is a complete contradiction of what I just said. I think what I am basically saying is that they look so good in photos that its not a let down to see them in person and then also they look so amazing in person that they look even better than they do in pictures. That still doesn't make sense, ha ha, so I am moving on.

It's been a long time since I got a brand new AG doll. When did I actually last order one straight from the company? Could it have been the Caroline that I no longer have that I got in 2015 after I heard that they were retiring her? I think so, They have definitely changed the packaging. Instead of rubber bands around the ankles, they have these sort of stretchy bands that you have to cut. And they now have a plastic piece around the neck instead of what I remember being a rubber band or elastic. The hair nets were also on there super tight. I was worried I would pull some hair out, but it worked out okay.

Now, the dolls. Their faces are so very different than each other! Amber (Isabel) has a much rounder face with fuller cheeks. She is utterly adorable. Her hair is definitely not straight across the bottom. She would have been a doll a pickier collector would have sent straight back, as the right side of her hair is about an 1 and 1/2" longer. I am not a picky collector, so I can live with it. I couldn't bear to send her back! Beyond the length issue on her wig, I see no other problems. She has the most gorgeous wig. I adore the 2 toned blonde. Her bright green eyes give her such a unique look. I love it.

Sydney is technically prettier than Amber, but Amber is cuter. (I hate to do that to my dolls, but I can't deny that that's the thoughts that ran through my head.) Her face is more petite. Her hair, OMG. I love the shade of brown with those chunky highlights. Her wig has no issues. Both dolls have thick lovely hair. Sydney's eyes are the most gorgeous shade of blue. 

I am surprised to say that I actually do not mind the "angry" eye brows and I actually like the painted on eye lashes. I wouldn't want them on any other doll. I think the fact that the only 2 I have with them are my latest in date dolls - 1990's - it really sets them apart as my only "modern" dolls. 

The outfits they come in are super cute. I adore Amber's pink platform shoes. I really hope they make another pair of those type of shoes for her in a black. I doubt they will, but I can dream! My favorite thing about Sydney's meet outfit is the shirt that is tied around her waist. It is so very much the era. Her shoes are also adorable. I do plan to get at least her meet accessories as I want her meet hat. I'd just buy the hat if I could as they rest of their accessories I can live without,

I wasn't expecting Amber to come out of her box with an entirely different personality than I had planned out for her. I had written out a quick description of her and Sydney on My AG Dolls page here on the blog. And after I opened her, she did not fit my previous description at all! So gone is the quieter Amber who follows her sister's lead and here is the actually Miss Perfection, compete until conquering Amber. Sydney is also a little different, but not a whole lot. She was always easy going, so I think for her to follow her driven twin's lead is ideal for her.

This was truly some of the best money that I have spent. I adore these 2 and am so happy to have them in my collection. They look great sitting next to my other dolls. I am so exciting to start writing stories with them! Though, now I have to rewrite in my head the first photo story that I planned out with them! I'll go ahead and add my photos, though I will be the first to say that they are not the best. I didn't take the time to set up any better lighting. I need to really figure out how to use my digital camera. At this point, I do a better job with my phone camera.....*grumbles*

America Girl Doll Nicki and Isabel are coming home!

 

I've been excited about the new 90's twins ever since I heard the rumor, how ever long ago it was at this point. I had thought - like many of the other AG collectors that they would have been the early 90's. That was such an exciting thought! And when I found out they were 1999/Y2K dolls, I was briefly disappointed. But, it was only for a brief moment. I honestly think it was a better call to go for the end of the decade than any earlier. The dolls themselves I thought were cute, but I was offput in the beginning by the so called "angry eyebrows" and those dreadful painted on eye lashes AG is now doing on all of the newly released dolls. Eventually though, the dolls, "angry brows" and all, grew on me. Like, really, really grew on me! I spent some nights looking at reviews of people who got the dolls. The painted on eyebrows didn't actually look that bad on them!

I've been doing yet another massive collection overhaul these last few weeks. Maybe its only been 2 weeks. I have no idea. But when I say massive collection overhaul, I really mean massive collection overhaul. I won't go into it all in detail right now, but suffice it to say that I now have quite a bit less of my overall possessions. It feels good. 

With my AG dolls, I had had it whittled down to 18 dolls for a little while, so AG wise, my collection didn't change all that much. I did bump off 4 dolls, intending to keep my number at 14. I was very pleased with the extra room on my AG shelf, where I could space my dolls further apart and I still had some room leftover over. That just wasn't meant to be. 

Friday night, around 11:30 or, I placed my order for both of the twins. :D It wasn't an impulse buy. I thought long and hard on it. And I figured, why not? I have the space. The money from things I will be selling will more than pay myself back. The dolls just came so vividly to life that not having them would have been sad. I have them renamed and their personalities, styles, etc. are all mapped out. I cannot wait for them to get here!

Hopefully AG will get my order out tomorrow. I might not have them for a week plus since I didn't want to pay $20 more dollars to speed up the shipping. I can be patient and wait for them though. They will be so very worth the wait!

And while I am waiting, I can plan more. I've already spent time looking at late 90's fashions. I'll be setting up a pinterest board for inspo pics for each dolls. Sydney (formerly known as Nicki) and Amber (formerly known as Isabel) will have styles like their cannon dolls. Alt/skater for Sydney and preppy for Amber. Already I know I have to make cargo pants and those wide leg skater pants for Sydney. Amber is a little less developed fashion wise, but I will have a lot of fun planning out extra clothing for her too. 

While I normally would have been worried that a later historical (1999 is historical, lol) period wouldn't quite stick with me, I have no worries with these. I thought I would have jumped at the 80's collection and gave it the best effort I could, but it just didn't stick. I had a doll put into that period a few weeks ago, and I just could not attach to it. The latest I have (or had, hee hee) is the 50's. But these dolls hold so much nostalgia for me that I know I will absolutely love them. And will have a hell of a lot of fun with them! 

Now, I am off to pinterest!

NFL Week 2 thoughts and musings

 I used to blog after every football weekend  - so either on Monday or on Tuesday depending on what games I wanted to watch. It was just a fun thing I enjoyed doing that I could look back on. I miss my old blog and so I decided to bring back that tradition. 

Let's start with the Bucs/Saints game. I unfortunately missed the first few minutes of the first quarter, though honestly, I didn't miss anything. I knew it was going to be a tough game. It's always rough when they go down to NOLA and Brady hadn't beaten the Saints since joining the Bucs. All of that being said, I was not prepared for it to be THAT ugly. OMG. 3-3 through what, nearly the entire 3rd quarter? (I meant to blog sooner when the games were fresher in my mind, but just didn't have the right moment to do so.) The Buccaneers offense looked pretty poor (I'm not concerned) and I was surprised and delighted when they finally scored a touchdown. And then won. The Saints offense, fortunately, was even poorer with 3 interceptions and a couple of fumbles. Both defenses had a sound game. And when both defenses are shutting down both offenses, it's just never as pretty of a game to watch. For me, the best part of the game was the fight! (it hasn't gotten old yet, ha ha.) Here's a link to watch it.  I'm not happy the NFL suspended Evans for 1 game. I suppose it was because he turned around and came back, as only he got suspended. (And seriously, the NFL is investigating Arian's involvement? Sheesh. The stupidity never ends with their moral sense of inconsistent justice.) That's really going to really hurt the Bucs when they play GB next week, which is probably something Evans should have thought about before throwing haymakers.  

And speaking of GB....

I was nervous going into this game after the Packers got walloped by an unexpectedly good Vikings team. I didn't panic (R-E-L-A-X. Who remembers that Rodgers press conference? :P) but I was still a little nervous. The Bears came out of the gate looking pretty darn good. The Packers though were even better and they soundly beat Chicago. There's just nothing like watching the Packers play at Lambeau Field. Being able to watch the game on the TV in my own living room was magical. I feel like this Packers team might really go far in the play offs this year. I know its a long season and a great deal can happen - like losing half your offense to injuries at the end of the regular season. I'm still very excited!

And now to the Monday Night game that I was looking forward to. The Bills and the Titans. Ever since the Brady/Belichik divorce, I have been a Bills fan. Even if I never got to watch any of their games, I was strongly rooting for them. This year, I intend to watch as many as I can. They are GOOD on pretty much all levels. Their defense completely shut down TN's force of nature Derrick Henry (I love watching him play, even if I am not much of a Titans fan. I've also got a soft spot for Coach Vrabel.) Josh Allen has turned out to be a really good QB.  And, you know, I think Buffalo deserves some football enjoyment after spending so many seasons as the perennial cellar dwellers. One of these days, I know I will be able to move on and go back to being a Patriots fan, but these things take time. And in the mean time, it's Buffalo all the way!

That's pretty much it for my Week 2 review. I'm excited for next week - the Packers and the Bucs will stand to be an interesting game. My prediction? Packers victory. I hope the Bucs can get some offensive rhythm as I would dearly love to see Tom Brady get one more Super Bowl victory as his career will most likely end after this year. Haters can just keep hating, but he is the GOAT and nothing can take that away from him. 

The Making of Trick R Treat Sam for Calico Critter

 I'm happy to finally be getting back to sewing work just this week. The sewing/doll room is still a WIP as is the rest of the house, but things are slowly and surely getting more and more organized. I am very much looking forward to when things are under control enough where we can start painting.

Any return to normalcy is nice, and where sewing is concerned, I've really missed it! Not to mention having a back stock of orders is always a stress in the back of your mind, even if all your customers are very nice and patient with the delays.  (Commissions are also a bit behind, but progress will be happening soon.) I have mailed my final late orders out today. Whew! What a relief! I finished the rest of the sewing on those yesterday. And since those were all finally done, I figured it was completely justifiable to start working on some new Critter items. Me being me, that just so happened to be something Halloween!

Since cutting down my Calico Critter families to a much more sensible number of 12, I really want to work on developing each Critter. Most of them have no clothes, so my original plan was to start making them outfits, simply doing one a day. But as I was sewing an order of Halloween clothes, I got to thinking - just how much fun would it be to actually have each Critter have their own Halloween costume this year? And to set up a Halloween party scene? I love seeing other collectors Halloween posts, and I have never been to where I could do it myself, or even enjoy trying to. This year will be different. :D 

I immediately started thinking about my Garden Bed family. They were my first (those ubiquitous Hopscotches) and also some of my very top favorites. I cut down their multitude to simply 4 adults (my child sized figures are just adults who are smaller in stature) and then a reasonable 6 babies. That was initially hard for me as I just adore the baby Hopscotch so much. I just needed to do it for my own sake. I want each baby to have a personality and a name and the only way to accomplish that was to simply cut down my 18 plus to something much, much smaller. I'm so glad that I did it. Here are the Garden Beds:

Twin boys named Lettuce and Spinach (larger adult size)

Middle sister Asparagus (big sister)

Youngest brother Brussel Sprout (child size body)

The babies are as follows, in 3 sets of twins, each a girl and boy:

Turnip and Potato

Parsnip and Carrot

Radish and Green Bean

As I was sewing that Halloween dress for an Etsy order, visions of making a Freddy Krueger costume for Brussel Sprout flashed through my mind. I had briefly thought about that earlier this year, but pretty much forgot about it in the ongoing mayhem. I could make the twins Jason and Michael Myers. But after thinking about Michael Myers, I got a little hung up in how to accomplish making that mask for a Critter. That's when I thought about Sam from Trick R Treat! (Terrible movie, BTW. Great concept, really poor execution. Sam though, Sam is forever.) How perfect would Sam be on a smaller Critter? I got so excited, and therefore, I had to start with that one.

After eating supper and reading my Latin chapter (that summer goal is going well! I have about 7 chapters left and will have reached that goal. Yay!) I got any remaining Etsy sewing done, and then, it was time to sew a Sam outfit!

With freshly washed orange cotton fabric in hand, I reworked my blouse and pant pattern into Sam's cute little jumpsuit. It took a couple of tries until I was satisfied with it. I found some light orange on yellow tonal print (it's hard to describe) that was perfect for the patches. I fray checked around the edges of the tiny squares instead of trying to hem them before sewing them on. The first square I pretty much drowned in fray check, so I had to recut it. (My fray check is especially temperamental this time around. The slightest pressure sends a geyser!) Those little patches I sewed on by hand with black thread. I wasn't sure if the black was too much of a contrast, and while I like it, I might try a darker brown. Or maybe I am nitpicking. I always have to nitpick. Once I got the suit done, I was really happy. Sam was coming together!

The hood was the part that I was the most uncertain of how to make it. I had to make it to go around Brussel Sprout's ears and that's always a little nerve wracking. I drafted the hood pattern into 4 pieces after measuring Brussel's head both across and from ear to down where I wanted the hood to end, keeping in mind that it needed to bush out a little. From there, I drew what I felt was the right proportioning for each ear hole. I didn't bother with fray checking the first hood as I was expecting to need to redo it. I hemmed first around each part of the ear hole - each piece had a notch to hem. Then, I sewed both the front and the back of the hood together. On Sam's hood you see some stitch detailing down the middle of each half, as well as a stitched mouth in the front and 2 button eyes. I decided in the end to simply zig zag this detailing. I started out with a wider stitch then I wanted, so I took that out, and readjusted my stitch width and then re-stitched my seams. It turned out even better than expected. I did the mouth in the same manner. Once the mouth was done, I sewed the hood sides and top together. After that was done, I slipped it onto Brussel's head, and viola! It fit perfectly!!! I figured out the placement for the eyes and marked that spot with a pin. I luckily had tiny little 2 mm buttons in brown, which I stitched onto the hood with black thread. The sewing was now done! All that was left was to figure out how I wanted to tie it on.

My original plan was to tie it on using embroidery floss. Unfortunately, I have no idea where on earth that ended up, so I had to go to plan B. At this point it was nearing 10 o clock, so I wanted to get the outfit wrapped up so I could quit for the night. The quickest thing that I thought of and also actually found was some golden brown thin yarn. Yay for it being in some unexpected place right in front of me! I got the hood tied on, and Brussel Sprout is now ready to go trick or Treating. 

I think after I am done with this post, I'll get to work on the big 10 tee shirt order that came in  the other day on Etsy and just maybe I will start on a second Halloween costume! :)