Guest Post at Young and Crafty!

Today I am so happy to be guest posting at Young and Crafty. It is the hair bow tutorial for the Little Ladybug Costume. Check it out!

Aren't those the cutest little ladybug antennae you have ever seen?

Homemade Ruffle Skirt for Halloween

It all started with a pair of leggings.

I bought them at Swiss Days in September. They needed something really cute to go with them. So to my Pinterest board I went for inspiration. 

I found two that I really liked. One here and another here.

I combined tecniques from both to create this adorable skirt for my 22 month-old daughter. I didn't take pictures of each step, but you can read the other tutorials (both are excellent) to help you figure out how to make this. 

I used an old t-shirt from my 4 year old son that was green to go underneath. This was the perfect size for the underskirt. I liked using a t-shirt because that means no hemming the bottom and no sewing and underskirt.

Rather than hem my ruffle layers, I folded them in half. I hate to hem. My hems never come out even and I always burn my fingers with the iron. So, I'd rather get a tad extra fabric to avoid hemming altogether. 

Once you finish sewing all your ruffles to the underskirt. You need to make a casing and add the elastic. This is a heavy skirt, so I made the elastic a bit snugger than usual to hold it up.

I found the matching shirt at Walmart. It had all the colors I wanted.

Then I made this funky Halloween bow to match.

 

There was just enough fabric left over to make a baby skirt. So I decided to whip one up for my brand new niece. I attached it to a onesie and made another smaller bow using the same ribbons.

This would be fun to do for any holiday. I'm thinking of making something similar for Christmas. I hope you've been inspired!

Halloween Costume Inspiration: Little Ladybug Skirt

So far I've shown you how to make the Little Ladybug wings and bag. Now it's time for the skirt.

Every little ladybug needs a skirt to twirl! Here is mine. Really it is so very simple. I already had this skirt. It was purchased at Old Navy. I have seen red pettiskirts all over the place. Right now they are at my local Costco. I saw one at Gymboree the other day. You can also find them at various sites online. 

I used sequins for the spots. Originally, I was going to cut them out of felt, which would totally work. But my 7 year-old convinced me to buy the sequins at the craft store. I am so glad he did. They are already cut out and ready to go. They only cost $1. Plus they add some shine to the costume, which is fun. They have little holes on top, so when I first started, I began sewing them on by hand. I quickly realized that sewing was going to take FOREVER. It's a Halloween costume after all, so gluing rather than sewing is just fine!

Here is how you make it into a ladybug skirt:

Supplies:

Red tutu or pettiskirt

Sequins

Hot Glue gun--lo temp!

1. Attach sequins to skirt using a hot glue gun, in a pleasing pattern. Make sure the glue gun is low temp because you are gluing it so such thin fabric (otherwise, your fingers will be blistered!). I only glued the sequins to the top layer.

That's it. Easy right? It does take a bit of time. I got out the extension cord. made myself comfortable and glued these on while sitting on the couch watching a favorite TV show after my kids were all in bed.

Halloween Costume Inspiration: Little Ladybug Trick-or-Treat bag

This bag came out so much cuter than I could have predicted. My 22 month-old daughter loves it and calls it a purse. I made it using the leftover fabric from the wings. I am keeping it nice until Halloween, but after that I plan to let her use it whenever she wants.

I don't have pictures of each step, but I do have a detailed tutorial on how to make a trick-or-treat bag.  If you are confused about the steps refer to that tutorial. One main difference is that working with felt is so much easier. You don't have to press or hem anything.

Supplies:

Red Felt

Black Felt (we used sparkly)

Black Ric Rac

Hot glue gun and sewing machine, black or red thread.

1. Cut out two pieces of red felt. I cut my 10"x10" which is a perfect size for a toddler.

2. Cut out a strap. I cut mine 2"x19" I wanted it to fit over her shoulder, like a purse. And I only did one strap on this bag. You could do two straps and make them shorter to be hand held instead.

3. Hot glue ric-rac along the top edge of each fabric piece allowing a bit to hang over the edge on each side.

4. Place two felt pieces together with the ric-rac to the inside. Sew along 3 sides. Trim ric-rac

5. **optional. Pinch corners into a triangle and sew a straight line to make the bag more of a rectangular box shape (please see my trick-or-treat bag tutorial. **Refer to the optional steps)

6. Leaving bag wrong side out, pin the strap to sides of bag about an inch from the top. Sew a rectangle to hold it in place.

7. Trace several circles in the black felt. My bag has 12 spots. I traced a lid for my pattern and used a white crayon to trace on the wrong side. Arrange the spots in a pleasing pattern (the felt sticks to each other)

8. Hot glue the spots in place. And now you are done!!

And here is the only picture I got of my busy toddler holding the bag, looking at the camera, AND smiling. Of course, I had the setting on manual focus and was NOT quick enough to change the settings and capture the moment. Try as I might, I did not get a second chance at this shot. Oh well. You can kind of tell how cute she is ;)

Stay tuned for the tutorials on the bows. Here are instructions for the wings and skirt!

Halloween Costume Inspiration: Little Ladybug Wings

My daughter's Halloween costume turned out so cute, that I thought I would share some tips on how I made it all. First off, I will tell you how I made the wings, or as my 22 month-old called them her "backpack." Check back for instructions on the skirt and ladybug trick-or-treat bag! The hair bow instructions will be posted toward the end of the month.

I wanted the wings, or shell, to be realistic. So that meant no fairy or butterfly type wings that I saw on some store bought versions.

 I found inspiration at the Family Fun website here and here.

I didn't follow their steps exactly. I apologize for not taking pictures along the way. But it's not too hard to figure out. Here is what I did.

Supplies:

Red felt (I bought a yard and it was way too much. I used the extra to make a matching trick-or-treat bag. Maybe 1/2 or 3/8ths would be better.)

Black Felt (Hobby Lobby has sparkly felt in sheets. I bought 3 sheets of black sparkly and one sheet plain)

Cardboard from cereal box

Polyester Stuffing

1 yard 3/4" elastic

Scissors, hot glue gun, sewing machine, needle and thread (in red)

1. Find a large platter or bowl in a circle or oval shape for your pattern. Trace on felt 2 red circles (I used a black pen to trace). The size of platter you use will depend on how big your trick-or-treater is. My circle was approximately 16"

2. Cut out 2 large red circles Cut one of the red circles in half (to make the open wing look)

3. Disassemble cereal box so that it's flat. Using your pattern cut a circle out of cardboard then trim about 1" off the entire circumference.

4. Find a cup or smaller round object for your pattern for the black dots. Cut out 6 black dots out of the black sparkly felt.

5. Lay out your red circle that is not cut in half. 

6. Lay out your two circle halves on top until you like the look of the "wings" and so it lines up with the red circle.

7. Tuck plain black felt behind the circle halves. Trim bottom to make it rounded.

8. Using hot glue gun, glue together circle halves, plain black felt piece, and attach sparkly circles in a pleasing pattern

9. Turn the wings so that it is right sides together with the other circle. Sew all around the circle leaving a 3-4" opening in the bottom

10. Turn it right sides out. 

11. Using the opening in the bottom roll up cereal box and place it inside the wings.

12. Making sure the cardboard is on the bottom of the wings (plain red side) add stuffing until the wings are nice and rounded.

13. Hand sew opening closed.

For the Arm straps:

1. Measure your trick-or-treater's arms to know how big to make straps Add 1 inch for comfort and cut 2 lengths of elastic.

2. Make 2 casings for the elastic out of red felt that is a few inches longer than your elastic.

3. Sew casings. Turn casings right side out. See my Trick-or-Treat bag tutorial for detailed instructions on casings (the step where you make the strap).

Here are the steps:

4. Thread the elastic through the casing. And zig-zag stitch the elastic to each end of the casing. The red felt should be gathered.

5. Hot glue the arm straps to the back of the wings/shell.  I added a strip of red felt where the straps connected with itself for extra security, you can see it in the photo. I found that the hot glue holds up great with felt. If you don't want to glue the straps on, you could sew them on instead.

And you're done! Hopefully, between my directions, and the other tutorials on Family Fun, I'm sure you can figure it out. Like I said, stay tuned for instructions on the hair bows, skirt, and ladybug bag!

Freebie! Halloween Treat Bag Topper Printable

I found these fun Halloween treat bags at the grocery store and thought it would be fun to create a treat bag topper to match. I loved the shape of the bag. See my previous post about treat bag toppers to know how to use them.

I am happy to share this topper with you. There is a 5x7 size for the 5" bags and a 4x6 size for the 4" bags.

Just click on the captions below the picture to download the full resolution toppers.

Enjoy!
Note: These are for personal use only. Thanks.

4x6 Topper

5x7 Topper

Credits:

Fonts: LD Spray Stencil, LD Red Hatters Hand, LD Twylight

Elements: Hallowscream Things

Easy Halloween Trick-or-Treat Bag Tutorial

Here is my son from a couple years ago with his trick-or-treat bag.

Every year I make trick-or-treat bags for my kids. I like to choose fabrics that will match their costumes or just something fun. This year my 4-year old is going as a spider. We went to the fabric store to choose something for his bag and he chose this fabric. It comes in some other colors too. 

For this project I purchased 1/4 yard of fabric. It made a pretty small bag about 10x10". This size is fine (or maybe even a little small--he was concerned about the quantity of candy that it could hold ;) for my 4-year old son, but you will most likely want a larger one for an older child. In that case, get 1/2 a yard or 3/8th of a yard. If you want a GIANT bag, get a whole yard (it would be roughly the size of a pillowcase).

Cut Fabric. The depth will be however deep you want it to be (I did 10" because that is how much fabric I had). If you get 1/2 a yard you could do up to 18" deep. The depth of the bag really is what determines how much fabric to purchase. 

The width of the bag is also just whatever you decide. Take that measurement, double it, and then cut. My measurement was 20" to yield a 10" wide bag.

Fold fabric in half width-wise, right-sides-together. Pin along the side and the bottom. Sew along those two sides. The top, you obviously leave open and the other side is the fold.

optional step

**these next 2 steps are optional**  Pull out one corner from the bottom of the bag. Center the corner. Using a ruler, mark a line one inch from corner and draw a line with a pencil. Repeat for other corner. This doesn't have to be perfect, it's a trick-or-treat bag after all and not a couture purse :)

optional step

Sew along your pencil mark. Repeat on the other corner. This gives the bag a rectangular box shape. You could skip this step altogether. Sometimes I do.

On the top of the bag, fold down fabric about 1/2 an inch and press. If you want a nice hem you can fold it over one more time and press, but I will show you a way to skip making a hem.

Cut out two rectangles for straps . I made mine 4" wide by 18" long. The finished strap will be half the width that you cut it.

 Fold strap in half length-wise, right-sides-together and sew along the long side. Leave the two ends open.

Pull the tube right side out. This is a handy trick that you can use for all sorts of projects. Here are the steps:

1. Attach a safety pin to one side of the strap

2. Flip the safety pin so it is going into the inside of the tube.

3. Feed the safety pin through the tube

4. Keep feeding the safety pin through until it comes out the other side.

5. Pull the safety pin all the way out bringing you fabric right side out.

Press strap flat. Pulling the fabric tube right side out gets it quite wrinkled. Before I pressed, I put the seam in the center of the tube, but you could leave it on the side.

Pin the straps to the inside of the top of each side of the bag. Line up the edge of the strap to the edge of the fold line that we pressed down earlier. I attached the straps approximately an 1.5" from the sides (see the ruler on my cutting mat) Make sure the strap is not twisted. You leave the strap openings raw. Originally I was going to do one wide strap on the two sides, but decided it would be more fun to have straps on either side of the bag so my son could hold the bag open while the kind neighbors deposit candy into it.

Before sewing straps down, have your little trick-or-treater try the bag on for size. Adjust the length or position of the strap if necessary. I did this and decided to cut my straps about 2" shorter.

Sew a zig-zag stictch along the raw edge. The zig-zag will keep the raw edge from fraying and is a fun decorative touch for a Halloween bag. I did a wide zig-zag (width 4) and my stitches close together (length 1). You can adjust the width and length of your stitch to your tastes. Test on a scrap fabric. If you didn't want to zig-zag, you could fold the top over one more time to make a hem.

Turn bag right-side-out and top stitch 1/4" from the top. This helps to secure the straps a little better and also adds a decorative touch. I did a straight stitch, but you could do another zig-zag if you wanted.

Turn right side out. Trim threads and admire your custom trick-or-treat bag!

Halloween Treat Bag Toppers Tutorial

I love making these little treat bag toppers. They are great for all sorts of occasions. I've used them for thank you gifts, Christmas neighbor gifts, various holiday treats, and teacher gifts. You can put anything you can imagine in the bags themselves from homemade cookies or popcorn to candy. I used a clear bag for these toppers. However, you can easily find bags with fun designs of them. If buy the bags first, you can match your design of the topper to the colors/design of the bag, which is really fun.  

The first time I saw a bag topper was on Shabby Princess. Since that time, I have designed many of my own. Here is how I do it.

I use Adobe Photoshop 7.0 to do these. The process is similar in any version of Photoshop or Elements. If you don't have Photoshop I have a freebie download here for a Halloween themed bag topper.

Open a New Document that is 5x7". You can find treat bags at the craft store and sometimes the grocery store. The craft store ones are clear (usually) and you can find the printed ones at the grocery store in the holiday aisle. They are generally 5x11" big, which is why a 5x7" topper will fit. I have found smaller bags at the craft store that are 4x9" and you can make 4x6" bag toppers for those, which is cheaper because 4x6 prints are so much less than 5x7. But those only come in clear.

Create a New Guide at 3.5" horizontal. Or at 3" if you are making a 4x6" topper.

 Working on only the bottom half, add a background paper. This will be 3.5 x 5"

Add elements to the background. The black border is from Leora Sanford at Little Dreamer. The BOO! title is from Lettering Delights. The font for the wording is Century Gothic. You will need to know how to work in layers. There are lots of tutorials online about that.

Rotate Canvas 180 degrees. This is because when the topper is folded in half you want both sides to be right side up. Make sense?

Add page elements for other half. You can also add a "to and from" like I did. Or you can leave it blank and hand write it in after it's printed. Again the frame is from Leora Sanford and the Happy Halloween and Pumpkin are from Lettering Delights.

Save.  I like to save one copy in layers so I can go back and edit it, and another as a flattened jpeg.

Print. Fill bags with treats. Fold topper in half. Staple it on each side to secure. Deliver to lucky recipient! I usually print them at Costco on matte photo paper so that fingerprints don't show.

Here are a few different ones I have designed.