How to Wear it Wednesday 10.26.16

Five days until Halloween!! I have one more costume for you guys.  It is never too early to start planning for next year, and all of these items would work for everyday too.  This week is an Autumn Fairy....

Birch Leaf Earrings from Feath & Kee

From our shop, these earrings are made from reclaimed birch.  I burned the vein details, and finished with linseed oil.  They have stainless steel posts.

Atlas Moth Wings from Crafty Anne's Artistry

These gorgeous Atlas Moth Wings are made from printed cotton fabric.  Although it is too late to have these this Halloween, they would make a lovely decoration, or you could make your day a little more interesting and wear them.  Get them from Crafty Anne's Artistry.

Custom Woodland Elf Costume from Sweet Life Threads

This pretty dress from Sweet Life Threads is actually two different pieces.  The corset is made from faux leather.  The dress it self, is made from a green jacquard fabric.  There are several variations that you can request to make this custom costume truly your own.

Autumn Daisy Crown from Bunnies Made of Bread

Lovely silk flowers and grapevine make up this lovely crown from Bunnies Made of Bread.  It is ready to ship.

Women's Size 7 Boots from Fairysteps

These gorgeous leather boots from Fairysteps have a vibram sole and although ready to ship, are very limited edition.  This pair is a UK size 7, US size 9.

Custom Leaved Leggings from Ziggy Wear

These custom leaved leggings from Ziggy Wear are made from a cotton spandex blend.  They are designed to move with you and stay comfortable.

Autumn Leaf Goblet from On Gossamer Wings

Every fairy needs a special goblet to hold her drink of choice.  This Autumn leaf goblet from On Gossamer Wings, is just right.  It also comes with  a natural bamboo straw. 

That's it for this week!

-- Jessica

2015 Halloween Costumes

Happy Halloween!  I can't believe I am actually writing about this year's Halloween costumes on the day instead of days, weeks, or :/ months later.  This also is the first Halloween that Bryan was in charge of the most difficult parts. Needless to say, this has been the least stressful Halloween to date!

This year, Feather knew back in the Summer, that she wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  Keela said she wanted to be Elsa from Frozen.  That was easy, I had already made her an Elsa costume that still fits.

Of course, Kee changed her mind.  and wanted to be a Ninja Turtle too.  She and Feather found out that there was at one point a female TMNT named Venus. So here is how we put together Michelangelo and Venus

Venus and Michelangelo 

The shirts and pants were easy, I was able to find green sweatpants for next to nothing.  For Venus's shirt, I used green dye to dye a white t-shirt.  We had a green shirt for Michelangelo, so while everything might not be the same perfect shade, it works.

For for the masks, belts, and wrappings, I raided my fabric stash.    Bryan used made Venus's fan using scraps of wood and paper. Keela finished it off by decorating it with stickers.  For Michelangelo's nun-chucks he used an old necklace, water noodles, scrap wood, then painted them.

After molding, before paint

The most difficult part were the shells.  First he glued several layers of cardboard together, cut the shapes out, then molded the back shells so that they would curve.

Painting...

Then came the long process of painting the fronts and backs.  They wanted to wear their costumes to school, and it poured rain, so thankfully he finished them off with polyurethane to protect the paint.

Finished Shells

I hope that everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!


-- Jessica

Halloween 2014 Costume Re-Cap

Wow, things have been so busy!  It has been entirely too long since my last post.  I thought that I would show off the girl's Halloween costumes before the next one rolls around.  Also, I finally made Miss Kee's Elsa dress.


So to start, I mentioned in my goodbye to Summer post, that the girls wanted to be Micheal Jackson for Halloween.    I think that the end result turned out pretty well.

Feather helped me plan the actual costumes.  We decided to go with the Billie Jean look - black sequined blazer, white shirt, black pants and fedora.  The only things that I had to make for this were the blazers and hats.

For the blazers, I drafted patterns based off of jackets that they had, making adjustments with the muslin.  I used stretch sequin fabric, and I would recommend keeping rubbing alcohol handy to clean off your needle periodically, as the glue that keeps the sequins on tends to build up.
Aside from the glue build up, the blazer construction was pretty much a breeze.

Next up.... the fedora dadadum..  I had not sewn a fedora before, but I thought "how hard can it be?"  I took the measurements from a fedora that Feather already had that was denim, and set about drafting my pattern.  Everything looked lovely.  I even took a picture of all my tools laid out in the evening twilight.  That is were it ended.  There is no way I am showing the results! lol  Maybe at a later date I will be able to take the time to master the fedora.  Until then, Kee's dress up arsenal has gained a sparkly, misshapen, floppy hat.
Now in full panic mode, I covered the denim fedora with leftover fabric, and by pure luck found an old black one that we had for a long time.

Halloween was saved! lol  Never underestimate the power of fabric and glue!

The girls had a blast and were a hit trick or treating.  They had to moonwalk several times, and their mom learned how to sew sleeves.


-- Jess

Goodbye to Summer...

tomato plants!  

By the calender, it is officially Fall.  Weather wise, it still feels more like you would wish Summer to be.  The temperature has finally dropped enough to where you can really enjoy being outside.  We did attempt a garden this year.  Maybe a bit insane, considering that we are in the middle of a severe drought and do not have a well.  I did learn from this that if you have even a minimal water collection set up in place, it is possible to take care of your outside watering needs (especially if you are not in a drought stricken area) without having to rely on outside water.  

Baby Basil and Dill plants

We have 55 gallon barrels set out in places where the most water drains off of the roof.  On days that we were lucky enough to be at home when it did rain, every container that we could find was filled up.  Needless to say, my appreciation for water has greatly increased.  

I will not jump up on my environmental soap box and tap dance, but any precautions that can be taken to keep our fresh water supply uncontaminated and clean is of utmost importance.  

Roma Tomatos

So, although it was not a life changing success, and none of our pumpkins survived, I think we did enjoy this year's garden.  It was a 4' x 8' raised bed.  We built it from old bricks, and filled it with compost and saw dust.  The pest control employed, was a cinnamon/chili powder / water mixture that we sprayed on the leaves, and then picking the worst bugs off.  I also planted peppermint, and marigolds.

Early Days!  The area close to the shop had Zinnas, Marigolds, and Pumpkins

 The girls have decided that they both want to be Micheal Jackson for Halloween.  How to pull this off correctly?  Is it even possible?  We are going to attempt the Billie Jean look with the sequined jacket and fedora.  I have drafted the patterns for the jackets, and done the muslin for both that turned out well, especially since it was my first time to do sleeves and I was really intimidated.

Pumpkin and Squash plants

Of course it is possible that Kee will decide that she wants to be Elsa at the last minute. I do not have a pattern on paper yet, but it is in the works.








-- Jessica

Halloween is Here!

The costumes are finished and hung with care.... lol.  Well,  Yogi Bear and BooBoo are ready to be turned loose upon the town.

Here is the breakdown for the costumes:

What was purchased:
                                   1 brown jogging suit
                                   1 pair of jogging pants
                                   1 white shirt
                                   1 package of brown dye
                                   1 red checked fabric (because I just had to have that).
                                   1 cute bear hat.

Everything else, came from things that I either already had, or found.  My sewing machine behaved itself, so all in all, this was an enjoyable process.

I hope everyone has a great Halloween!