Inspired by lilninjabear’s post on Craftster, I decided to make a pair of these for a woman my husband knows from work and her husband since they’re REALLY into World of Warcraft. I made the pattern up all by myself. It was easy, though, so that’s no great accomplishment. They’re made from suede and satin using a reverse applique technique to avoid the appearance of the swirl simply being an add-on rather than a carving. The problem was that the back of the suede and the front of the satin were very slippery. I ended up having to glue the fabrics together before sewing to prevent shifting and puckering because pinning just didn’t do it. They were also a huge pain to stuff and they wound up being fairly lumpy despite my best efforts. I think (hope) that the recipients don’t mind, though.

Again, due to the last minute finishing, I was unable to snap many good pictures so you only get to see one. The other looked nearly identical, so use your imagination.

These were a special order from a woman who found my deviantArt page through a Google search. Her 6 year old daughter had only asked for one thing this year, a rainbow unicorn, and she couldn’t find one anywhere. Then a week later, it turned into a rainbow unicorn and a matching horse. I sewed my buns off all week and managed to get it to her a week before Christmas and all was well. I didn’t have time to get any better pictures than this because I was hand stitching on the horn about half an hour before I had to get them to the post office for the pickup deadline. Still, I’m pretty proud of them and I look forward to hearing how the little girl liked them.

So I tackled my niece’s Halloween costume again this year, with the same naive sense of confidence as last time. This year Emery wanted to be a purple mermaid and while I wasn’t as enthused about her choice as she was, I wanted her to be thrilled with her costume so mermaid it is. The problem was that I had a specific vision for what I wanted the costume to look like and none of the patterns available to me fit the bill. I made the top work using Simplicity 2384 as a rough guide, but I had to change the shape, fit, and construction method. The skirt was entirely my creation and it’s also lined like the top. I used Simplicity 4043 for the bag pattern, changing nothing.

This was really hard for me and took way longer than I thought it would. The sheer iridescent fabric, while absolutely gorgeous, was difficult to sew. I never did figure out how to keep it from snagging but it didn’t look bad by the time I was done. Then the sequins. So many sequins, all hand stitched on. Yes, it’s the pre-strung sequin trim, but I still had to anchor it after each sequin on the strand. The iridescent bead trim on the bag was also entirely hand stitched. It was worth the effort, though, to see how it all glittered when she walked around trick-or-treating.

Putting this costume together has really boosted my confidence in drafting my own patterns so I’m glad it worked out the way it did. I’m really looking forward to knowing what she’ll want to be next year. Maybe I’ll even dress up with her.

My sister liked the polka dot unicorn that I made for my niece so much that she requested one to give to the niece’s best friend for her upcoming birthday. The little girl’s favorite color is purple (surprise surprise) but I didn’t have any predominantly purple fabric. I used my absolute favorite print instead since it would look good with purple accents.

This one came together much more easily than those previous and I even managed to get the eyes on straight! I’m definitely improving on my hand stitching, too, so the closure looks especially neat. Anyway, I hope the recipient loves it as much as I do. Yeah, I know, fat chance.

I finally finished a stuffed animal worthy of posting here. It’s not the first unicorn I’ve made, but it’s the first one that I wasn’t embarrassed to show. It was actually supposed to be a Christmas gift for my niece, but I fell down the stairs about a week before that and badly injured my tail bone. So I couldn’t really sit down comfortably to sew.

Anyway, I’m sort of healed now so I was able to finish it in time for her birthday. It’s far from perfect, but I’m still learning. This one is at least leaps and bounds better than the first one. Maybe I’ll post it up eventually once my skills are far enough advanced that I can look back and laugh rather than thinking that I haven’t come all that far since then. Oh, the pattern I used is Simplicity 2921 and it’s made with flannel, my stuffed animal fabric of choice.

Ever since my husband bought me a sewing machine, I’ve had this silly notion that I should just sew everything, even if I have no idea how. After convincing my sister that it was a good idea and picking out a pattern with her, I made my 3-year-old niece’s Halloween costume this year.

Even though it was a size too big because the kid wouldn’t let me measure her, and even though it took me something like 50-60 hours to make this (and remake it in some cases), and even though I have literally had nightmares about finishing this thing, I still enjoyed making it and will do it again next year. But no wings or anything like that because those things were a sad, crumpled mess less than an hour into the evening. But she loved it and that made it totally worth it.