princess & the frog...and jessie too!

i can sew.  well kind of...

i can make pillow case dresses out of bandanas

(half the seams are done for you!)

and i can make leg warmers out of knee socks.

so i thought... hey i could make a "real" costume this year.

like use a pattern and everything!

stay tuned to see how that turned out...

but first, here are the finished products:

of course she wanted to be jessie

(see why here)

and after a year free of princess costumes,

she begged me for this one

it's so pretty how can you say no?

(& he got stuck as her side kick)

princess & the frog

princess tiana

i felt bad that i was spending so much time on the

other costumes and all she got was a dress

but then i found this hat here on etsy.

i think it's hilarious!  and she loves it!

the jessie costume:

i made a braid out of red yarn and hot glued it to the hat.

she is very detail oriented and also requested

a "pull string".  of course! (she's just like me)

i used a strofoam ring i found in the floral department at joanns

and wrapped it with ribbon.

then i hot glued the end of the ribbon to the shirt.

for the shirt, i bought a white dress shirt.

i made a template out of paper then traced it out onto the yellow fabric.

i cut it out, used that liquid seam stuff and then

stuck it on with iron on transfer or whatever you call it.

(can you tell i'm an expert yet?)

the i looped some ric ric and hot glued it on.

for the sleeves, i ironed on the the fabric again.

i just sliced the fabric with a craft knife so the button can get through.

i added the ric rac and little yellow loops of ribbon to match jessie's.

heaven forbid, my daughter would have to wear pants,

PANTS!?

so i said i would make a skirt.  we had this jean skirt

that was a little too "western" for every day so it was perfect!

the cowprint is a bandana (remember what i said about the seams).

i did have to cut and sew 2 pieces together.

but i decided to leave the top "rough"

you know that deconstructed look is really trendy right now!

i learned how to make a ruffle from My Backyard Eden

then i hot glued it onto the skirt.

finally, the belt is just made out of felt.

they had this nice felt with a design on it too.

the belt is hot glued together,

but i added velcro circles  to "buckle"it.

frog:

here is where the story of the pattern comes in.

i looked everywhere for something I could use

for his costume.  ( i knew i wanted to use this hat)

but finally i broke down and bought the $10 pattern 

(which by the way was 99 cents 2 weeks later...

after my receipt was long gone!)

 it was actually for a duck...but i could work with that.

anyway, after pinning/cutting out 8 pieces

and reading that i would have to pin/cut about 12 more,

i decide to veer off the pattern.

i had the shell done,

so i just cut out a piece of fleece and hot glued it to the inside of the shell.

then i stuffed it with polyfill and hot glued the last side shut.

i did the same thing on the back side.

the bottom was supposed to be elastic, but that involved

a lot more sewing and stringing through the elastic...

plus i thought it kind of looked like a dress.

so i decided to make it more like a onesie.

i trimmed it down on the sides

and cut the shape for the leg holes.

then i hot glued the flaps together.

by this time, i have no idea what i was supposed to

do according to the pattern.

i put velcro circles on the the shoulder straps

(reinforced with hot glue).

and here is the finished product!

onto the feet.

i cut out this shape two times for each foot.

i also cut it out of cardstock.

then i glued them all together (cardstock

in the middle for structure)

i added a ring of elastic to go around his leg

and the velcro on his shoe goes through 

the ribbon to keep the foot in place.

i'm so excited with how it all turned out!

i think i learned that i'm not a "pattern" person.

i just don't like all the rules!

i would like to point out that i don't expect that this costume will

last and be passed down to his children like the rainbow bright

costume my mom must have spent

thousands of hours sewing.

but i'm okay with that.

i hope that this inspires other people who don't necessarily have

sewing "skills" to go ahead and try to create

something.  sewing machines are great,

but so are glue guns!!