Sunday, January 5, 2014
Xanadu the Scuba Diver 2012
This was my husband's grand idea but again I was the one that had to think of available items in October in Missouri to make this costume...
Notice the flippers (foam sheets with cutouts)
See the tire pressure gauge hanging on her right shoulder- cute huh? Auto Parts...
With her mask on. Got the set on clearance but it was blue. Spray paint again saved the day but it kept smudging off since rubber doesn't absorb it :(
With the turtleneck and spandex pants originally for human children. All we did was cut out a tail hole. This is my fav pic.
Goof ball.
Notice the flippers (foam sheets with cutouts)
See the tire pressure gauge hanging on her right shoulder- cute huh? Auto Parts...
With the turtleneck and spandex pants originally for human children. All we did was cut out a tail hole. This is my fav pic.
Xanadu the Sushi artist 2013
My third dog Xanadu is a German Pinscher. Every year my husband wants to make her a beer girl or something out of Deutschland but I wanted to make her sushi. And I won. Her costume was an exercise in brainstorming all of the components. I am pretty pleased with the result.
This is a picture of the assembled costume in the parking lot as we were walking into the pet store.
The headband says "sushi" in Japanese- at least according to wikipedia or babelfish or something. I made it out of leftover red fabric from the pin cushion costume. The "rice" is a bathmat with arm and leg holes cutout. There is a black waffle fabric on top trying to be the seaweed wrap. My husband sewed the fish pillow out of salmon fabric and I painted the white lines on. The whole thing is tied underneath her so it isn't too uncomfortable.
.jpg)
Closeup view of the plate I glued on. Chopsticks and sauce packets like any good restaurant would have. I bought laffy taffy a month in advance and shaped it and let it harden for the wasabi. The ginger in the corner is wadded fabric almost like crinoline.
In motion but easy for her to wear.
This is a picture of the assembled costume in the parking lot as we were walking into the pet store.
The headband says "sushi" in Japanese- at least according to wikipedia or babelfish or something. I made it out of leftover red fabric from the pin cushion costume. The "rice" is a bathmat with arm and leg holes cutout. There is a black waffle fabric on top trying to be the seaweed wrap. My husband sewed the fish pillow out of salmon fabric and I painted the white lines on. The whole thing is tied underneath her so it isn't too uncomfortable.
.jpg)
Closeup view of the plate I glued on. Chopsticks and sauce packets like any good restaurant would have. I bought laffy taffy a month in advance and shaped it and let it harden for the wasabi. The ginger in the corner is wadded fabric almost like crinoline.
In motion but easy for her to wear.
Min Pin-cushion for Geddy Lee 2013
Again, I wanted a pun with "min pin" so I thought of a pin cushion...
So I would never recommend anyone replicate this costume. I would estimate about 40-50 man hours of work went into it and most people aren't that crazy. However, this is probably the crowning achievement of my life at this point.
The cushion is made of 6 ellipses sewn together and stuffed with poly-fill. There are two rectangular foam floral blocks shoved inside also to help anchor the "pins". Turns out making a sphere out of fabric is REALLY hard. My husband did it. I failed. We cut the shape of the green topper out of green felt and sewed the perimeter to hold it to the red cushion. The "pins" are bamboo skewers painted silver and the balls are Styrofoam and painted various colors. We just poked them through the green fabric and tried to aim for the floral blocks....
The red fabric remnants used for strawberry and white paint dotted across it. Also showed is first attempt at thimble hat. Bought $0.99 bucket at walmart and drilled into it. Don't do that it makes it super sharp. Bought another and just painted black dots on.
Added green yarn that was whip stitched onto the seams of the red fabric pieces. New better thimble in foreground and black pipecleaner to add the under-chin strap on my black and tan dog.
Husband with Geddy Lee at pet store. We sewed the red cushion onto a red vest shirt we copied from one of her store bought clothes. I added velcro closure so she could get it on and off quickly.
A little tilted but adorable nonetheless.
So I would never recommend anyone replicate this costume. I would estimate about 40-50 man hours of work went into it and most people aren't that crazy. However, this is probably the crowning achievement of my life at this point.
The cushion is made of 6 ellipses sewn together and stuffed with poly-fill. There are two rectangular foam floral blocks shoved inside also to help anchor the "pins". Turns out making a sphere out of fabric is REALLY hard. My husband did it. I failed. We cut the shape of the green topper out of green felt and sewed the perimeter to hold it to the red cushion. The "pins" are bamboo skewers painted silver and the balls are Styrofoam and painted various colors. We just poked them through the green fabric and tried to aim for the floral blocks....
Added green yarn that was whip stitched onto the seams of the red fabric pieces. New better thimble in foreground and black pipecleaner to add the under-chin strap on my black and tan dog.
Husband with Geddy Lee at pet store. We sewed the red cushion onto a red vest shirt we copied from one of her store bought clothes. I added velcro closure so she could get it on and off quickly.
Guest Room Night Stand
So my husband and I found a nightstand on the curb for trash pick-up the next morning. It was a little unstable, but nothing my hubs couldn't fix. We hauled it into the SUV and decided to make it another furniture project.
Forgot to take a before picture again! <groan> Imagine a dark cherry hotel-esque nightstand with silver pulls. Nothing redeeming about hotel furniture.
Here are the finished product photos. The hubby did no sanding and relied on Zinser Oil Primer with a couple light coats to cover the ugly old wood. He added a couple light finishing coats with some leftover white latex paint from a previous project (wine bar in Dining room).
A link on Pinterest showed me these gold dipped legs and I had to replicate them! We just used a small $0.99 acrylic paint Classic Gold for the legs and the small pull knob. I bought the lotus drawer pull on Etsy (2 for $4.99). I'm saving the other for another project someday.
.jpg)
Gorgeous smooth finish and gold accents all for under $10!
Forgot to take a before picture again! <groan> Imagine a dark cherry hotel-esque nightstand with silver pulls. Nothing redeeming about hotel furniture.
Here are the finished product photos. The hubby did no sanding and relied on Zinser Oil Primer with a couple light coats to cover the ugly old wood. He added a couple light finishing coats with some leftover white latex paint from a previous project (wine bar in Dining room).
A link on Pinterest showed me these gold dipped legs and I had to replicate them! We just used a small $0.99 acrylic paint Classic Gold for the legs and the small pull knob. I bought the lotus drawer pull on Etsy (2 for $4.99). I'm saving the other for another project someday.
.jpg)
Gorgeous smooth finish and gold accents all for under $10!
Weeping Angel Tree-topper
I'm a huge Doctor Who fan and some of my favorite episodes include "Weeping Angels". Weeping angels are statues with their hands covering their eyes when you look at them but can move and have fangs when you blink for even one fraction of a second. They try to touch you to steal your time and you will be transported to a point in the distant past. Just don't blink. Also watch Doctor Who.
We wanted to make a weeping angel tree topper and we were lucky to find a gold Christmas angel at a nearby thrift shop for $4.00.
So I forgot to take a picture before we cut off one arm, but just imagine what we started with- a gold angel.
Arms reattached with actual duct tape (that's why it's shiny) to form the elbows.
Spray painted with stone gray spray paint from Michaels ~$7.99 with multiple coats. Finished product on the top of the tree.
We wanted to make a weeping angel tree topper and we were lucky to find a gold Christmas angel at a nearby thrift shop for $4.00.
So I forgot to take a picture before we cut off one arm, but just imagine what we started with- a gold angel.
Arms cut off at the shoulder with an X-acto knife.
The severed arms
Arms reattached with actual duct tape (that's why it's shiny) to form the elbows.
Spray painted with stone gray spray paint from Michaels ~$7.99 with multiple coats. Finished product on the top of the tree.
MINion Pin costume for Peart the Miniature Pinscher 2013
So I love puns. With two min pins now, the time was right for costumes to be punny. My husband and I loved Despicable Me 1 & 2, but I hate store bought costumes. Here is my design for a Min-ion Pin costume...
Started with 2 liter soda bottle with the label removed. Cut off the spout end. There will be a hole there. Spray painted two coats of yellow paint. I cut out a square on the backside so the dog head could fit through and lined the sharp bottle edges with yellow felt.
In the mean time, cut the bottoms off two styrofoam cups and painted them silver/gray. Need to match the diameter of the cups with the diameter of the Minion printable eyes.
I added like 15 black pipecleaners through the hole on top left by the removal of the spout. I tied a big knot inside the bottle and crimped the tops of the pipecleaners to keep them anchored on the bottle.
Finished project! Minion Pin!
You can see her head peeking out from the bottle on one picture. She didn't mind it too much :)
Started with 2 liter soda bottle with the label removed. Cut off the spout end. There will be a hole there. Spray painted two coats of yellow paint. I cut out a square on the backside so the dog head could fit through and lined the sharp bottle edges with yellow felt.
In the mean time, cut the bottoms off two styrofoam cups and painted them silver/gray. Need to match the diameter of the cups with the diameter of the Minion printable eyes.
Printed off eyes and mouth from Despicable me website for FREE. You may need to resize these to your liking. I painted the eyes and mouth to look more realistic than just the printer ink. I glued the styrofoam cups around the eyes for 3D goggles.
Couldn't find a 12 month yellow turtleneck in any store so I bough a 12 month white Grranimal turtleneck on Walmart.com and also a yellow fabric dye RIT. Two dye sessions in the garage and the turtleneck matches the bottle head! The overalls are 16 month clearance boys from Old Navy.
Finished project! Minion Pin!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)