DIY

Finally I finished with the Elsa costume for Piper. She asked me to make her one several months ago and after a shopping trip with Addy and Kendall (my Tampa experts on all things Frozen) for fabric and advice then another few trips with Piper, we finally had all the necessary fabric.  

And here is Piper’s “Elsa” costume.

We had planned on putting snowflakes in her braided hair just like Elsa had the day that we visited her in the mall.  

And found these snowflake buttons that we attached to elastic thread to put in Piper’s braid.

But while Piper gets up almost every morning pretending to be Elsa, the day I planned her “photo shoot” she decided that she was Belle.  

And Belle has long flowing brown hair with NO snowflakes.  So this is the closest I could get with the snowflake button.

She also wanted to wear her Barbie heels.  Hey, she’s three.  Compromises must be made. 

And here’s the pattern I used…

There are several patterns for Frozen costumes now plus princess fabric displays at Jo-annes and Hancock Fabrics.  Fabric.com also has posted their version of the Frozen costumes–including Olaf.   In addition there are hundreds of ideas on Pinterest and if you don’t want to make your own costume, you can check out Etsy.

Addy, Kendall and I bought most of the fabric at Jo-annes.  Piper and I picked up the cape material on clearance at Hancock Fabric.  I think the buttons were from Jo-annes, too.  Then I decided the fabric that we picked for the sleeves and yoke was too itchy and replaced it with some cotton fabric with snowflakes at Hancock Fabrics.  Fortunately the Christmas fabric was already out and on sale.

One last look at the back, the cape goes all the way around.  Just like Elsa!

Just one more Elsa and an Anna costume to do before Halloween!  

I finally got a chance to finish Tyson’s quilt–and he’s not even walking yet!  Just kidding.  Tyson Hugo Green was born in May and I didn’t decide to make him a quilt until right after his birth.  I had several projects to complete before I could get to putting those little nautical pieces together. Plus I knew that he was coming to visit in November so I could possibly give the quilt to him then. But I’m really happy that it’s finished and it’s on it’s way to Tyson!

I decided to make a quilt for Tyson after I saw this adorable pirate fabric online and thought nothing could be better for a newborn swashbuckler living in Seattle.  And his parents just happen to have been married at the Seattle Aquarium.  (Not only did we get the full run of the aquarium, they had an ice cream bar rather than a wedding cake–yum! Riley said “best wedding ever”)

I ordered the material from fabric.com and it’s all from Michael Miller “Out to Sea” line.  I started out loving the pirate fabric. 

The map was supposed to just be for the quilt backing but when it arrived it was my favorite. 

I wanted to make it in the same style as I did for the Quilt for Willow that I featured back in May.  It requires some “fussy cutting” so I had to change around all my calculations just to put a piece of the map on the front of the quilt.  So worth it.  I should have ordered more of the map fabric but how did I know that I was going to like it so much?  I had to shrink the size of the quilt a bit so it’s 39″ x 43″, which is still an okay size for a baby quilt. 

So here’s the finished project:

The map fabric has longitudinal and latitudinal lines.  I’m a beginner quilter so this was a challenge to get the backing on straight.  All the quilting advice I read is to use a busy pattern on the back with NO OBVIOUS PATTERN so it won’t show any stitching mistakes.  While it’s not perfect, it’s not too bad.  Perfectly imperfect.

I put the quilt on the floor to get one more pic and Maggie decided that she needed in on the action.

One final picture…

The quilt is on it’s merry way to Seattle.