Costumes for Kayli

Recently I spent a large portion of my life sewing these costumes for my sister Kayli's kids. It was so much fun. I loved it!!!! And partly for my records and partly for anyone looking to do something similar, this is what I used. Enjoy.

I'll start with Robin Hood, because he's Robin Hood.
I used this pattern for his hat. I was actually planning on using it for his shirt as well, however, I didn't realize when buying the pattern on Ebay, that it's meant for felt and most of it is glued together, or well at least not given accurate patterns for seam allowances and hemming, that sort of a thing, rendering it not very useful at all. However, the hat was perfect.
Then I used this pattern for his hood, which Kayli, is not meant to be pulled tight over his shoulders. I forgot too, until I saw this pattern again. (So take more pictures--with his belt too, just to humor me--please!) Anyway. I was planning on using costume B for his outfit altogether, but due to fabric issues (I had bought fabric when planning on using the Simplicity patten, hence it wouldn't have worked well to go to this) and the fact that I had accidently bought the man's version not the boy's, (I tried to exchange it, and even the girl at Joann's thought it should have the boys pattern in it too--so I'm not the only one--but they didn't have anymore) I didn't. While I was willing to try to scale down the hood, I wasn't as willing to try to scale down the whole thing. So I went back to my old standby shirt from making my Renaissance outfits. The tutorial is here.

The armbands were inspired by Russell Crowe. I've never seen this movie, is it any good? Anyone? I just estimated on the pattern and size for them, and punched in a few grommets. That's all.

Then of course you HAVE to have hosen. Which I used this tutorial to make--poorly. I've never mastered pants yet, or hosen. I bought a pair of wool pants at DI to make the hose (and hat) from because that is more authentic) and well, when I got them home and inspected them closer, I really think they're WWII era army pants. Why? They looked militaryish. They were from France and were stamped with the French place name and a serial number. They were the strongest constructed pants I have ever seen. Literally. I took them apart, trust me. They had double thickness throughout the thighs, the crotch was lined, there were spare buttons sewn on everywhere, and the actual button fly had buttons facing in and out (such a weird construction that I couldn't bear to throw it out, so I sewed half the fly into the hosen). Leo agreed with me too. So I really I don't know if they're actually WWII era, but that's all I could think of as to why they'd end up here in UT. Also, the guy must have been huge that owned them!! Seriously, the waistband came up to my bust when I held them up next to me. Crazy. I sewed the hosen terribly though. Kayli had to unpick parts to get them on Jethro. Oh, I also made the hole for the head on the shirt too small too. It was the last thing I sewed before mailing the package and I didn't bother to check it on Ana first. Oops. So that was Jethro's.

On to Friar Tuck's outfit.

Amazingly, I just used this pattern completely. Yes, it was meant for felt, but the pattern was so simple, that it didn't matter if I hemmed it all as it was.

No problems there except for making it black instead of brown the first time. Duh.Now for Alan a Dale. This was my most pieced together costume. I chose faux linen fabric because that looks like authentic linen but is much less expensive. :)
I used this pattern for the hat (McCalls M4805) however it is adult sized, and since Elena was asleep, I guesstimated the size to redraw it at. It was fairly close. Then I only had to unpick it four times, trying to get the lining right. Ruff.

Then I used this pattern for the pants/bloomers. Instead of adding lace I just added a contrasting color of fabric, and then added another strip of elastic. It didn't bunch together as tightly closed as I had hoped, I think because of how thick the fabric is.

Then I used this pattern for the sleeves (the kings)--but remember this was a man's pattern, so actually, I just saw how they did it and then redrew it down to Ethne's size. This is much easier than it seems, as I have Elena who is practically the same size. Still required being unpicked twice though. In fact, one sleeve took me four hours, and then the second sleeve took me 30 mins. Just goes to show what experience can do.

Then after finishing the sleeves, I kind of just made up the rest of the shirt and used the same hat edging pattern for the bottom of the shirt. I think one of the main reasons her costume turned out so well is that I had Elena to fit it to.

And last of all, Maid Marian. Maid Marian's dress turned out lovely, but much too big. The culprit: seam allowances. I never really followed the size of the seam allowances. Mine were much smaller, hence the dress was much bigger. (It was already one size too big, although I sized it down a lot when cutting out the fabric.) This is actually the most complex thing I have ever sewn following a pattern, so I'm sorry Kayli that I had that learning curve.
I followed this pattern, McCalls 5207.
My inspiration came from this website, Armstreet. The most gorgeous medieval dresses out there on the web. Trust me, I looked. I would love to be able to sew like this someday. Really, I would.I mean, seriously, isn't this beautiful? Then I made her a hat using McCalls M4806. Again, this was an adult sized pattern, and so I had to size it down for Hazel. However, in the process of sewing it, I think the wires slid together more, so it ended up too small. That is so sad. And I had no idea how big to make the ear things, because I had no one to fit it to except our neighbor's kid, who is NOT the same size as Hazel. This is the part where I broke four needles on my sewing machine. It also required a lot of hand sewing, but it is Kayli's favorite part, so entirely worth it. And this is where I got inspiration from for her hat, Kat's Hats. I LOVE these hats. Hazel's hat is in fact a Tressour Crispinette circa 1350-1405. The things you learn, eh? You should definitely check out her Cross-tree Headdress, and the Flowerpot Hennins. I personally would love to have a Flemish Hood. I wonder what Leo would say to that. It's a little squashed from the trip.
I didn't go for an authentic material on her dress, just a beautiful one with the color Kayli requested. I thought all in all, it turned out beautiful. If you would like to see more pictures of their costumes, here's a link to my sister's blog. Maybe next week I'll get a different camera and post pictures of my kids' costumes--Isabel and Elena won best costume at our ward's trunk or treat. Sweet.

Sad.

Okay, so I know it's been a couple of days, but for anyone wondering, yes, we were robbed. And actually the cop who came and took the report asked us if we had any prescription drugs, (we did) and sure enough the whole bottle of percocet 7.5 (Why did the dumb dentist prescribe 7.5??? I've always wondered that, Leo was hallucinating after taking half a pill and wouldn't touch the stuff again. I mean, really, 7.5??? For having his wisdom teeth removed???) and the Lortab from my c-section were almost empty, when, like I said, Leo had only taken half a tab of Percocet, and I had taken maybe three Lortabs. (I'm an ibuprofen girl all the way. Nasty medicine--I HATE dilaudid--I felt worse with the Dilaudid PCA than anything else when I had my c-section--my head was all fuzzy, I kept thinking people were in my room all night, and I felt just weird. Ughh. And I took a grand total of 0.8 mg the entire night after the surgery. I know, I looked. It really makes me wonder about the patients I had who drained 10 mg+ in my shift alone.) Anyway, point being, controlled prescription substances will no longer be kept in our house. Ever. So sorry, there is no cute pictures of Sebastian in the tub, or of Elena's Rapunzel birthday cake, or her squealing delight at her new Tinkerbell pj's complete with wand and slippers, or our ghoulish jack-o-lanterns. But I will be getting Halloween pictures at our family's belated Halloween party in Nov. So stay tuned.

Weird.

I was going to post pictures of Elena's birthday. And Sebastian all cute and smiling in the tub. But I can't find the camera. I think I might be a bit absurd, but when we arrived home tonight from a friend's house where we ate dinner, our door was open inside the garage into the house, and the door to the outside was open too. Now, I was in a hurry and might have missed both of those (it's happened before) but then I can't find my camera, or Leo's cellphone, and a little leather horse that I had stuffed full of random coins ($20 bucks worth of Colombian pesos, a coin from New Zealand, one from Qatar, one from Cuba, a penny from 1943--that sort of thing) was open and all the money was gone. We drilled the kids, and came up with nothing. Yet a $50 gift card (one of those nice VISA ones) was sitting beside it and was untouched. Oh, and my purse was right there too. Everything's still there. And our video camera, it was out in the open too, not gone. We checked our citizenship records, all still there (those are $600 to replace each.) Am I paranoid? Maybe. Yet still, it's weird.

Maybe I'll find them tomorrow.

Isabel and insects

The other day, my neighbor asked me to kill a spider for her. I walked into the room and Isabel ran ahead of me, squealed "Spider!!!" in a very happy voice and picked it up. It was a huge, hairy thing. Needless to say, I screamed at her to drop it, probably effectively terrorizing her for life, which she did, and I stomped on it.

A few days after that, Leo was dusting our computer desk and found a dead moth. He was going to take it to the trash, but finished cleaning the desk first. When he looked back for the moth, it was gone--Isabel was spitting it out of her mouth and saying, "Yucky!"

That girl has no natural fear.

Sebastian the Grouch

Sebastian isn't usually so grouchy, but lately that's changed.

But only because his two bottom teeth are finally coming in.

Random Chemistry Craziness

I was going to upload some pictures from my wedding, because Kayli declared it "Post a Wedding Picture Day." So I dragged out a box which I thought held pictures from my wedding that hadn't been scrapbooked. I didn't find them, although I did manage to wake my sleeping child. Ruff. I did find these. I laughed just remembering them. Plus, it was my ten year high school reunion this year, so it's kind of an appropriate memorial. (I didn't go--who goes to North Dakota?!?!?) So I thought I'd share.This was one of my best friends, Jennie, and I, with our favorite teacher, Mrs. Strube. She gave us detention once and made us wash beakers. She deserves accolades for putting up with our class (umm, us, I mean). Seriously. But then, we did distill alcohol in her class.....
This is Jennie and I in the chemistry lab chemical storage room. Why would anyone let us in there?!??!?! Oh wait, I don't think anyone was around when we went in......
Hence this picture.
This was our chemistry class. One time I stole Kayli's shoe at lunch and hung it off the periodic table. (She had a different chemistry class with Mrs. Strube-dog.) Another time, Jennie and I hung up a picture of Kelly Slater, (looking darn good I might add), that said "I don't smoke pot," from one of those 5 page science magazines that you get in school. We were, uh, promoting not smoking pot (drooling over his gorgeousness). Thomas N. (a really good friend of ours, standing to the left of Zn) got sick of it after a week and tore it up. Luckily we had saved several of the ads from the whole stack of magazines. I still have one somewhere. :) Hee. Hee. Also standing by me in this picture is Johannes, the foreign exchange student from Germany. We were supposed to read the school announcements in this class and we always badgered Johannes to read them in German. He protested loudly, because then we wouldn't understand them. Really, they were much more interesting in German. Oh, and yeah, if you think it's weird that I have a picture with my chemistry class, I also have one with my calculus class. We were tight. Mrs. Strube gave us a bunch of old, old, old chemistry books, one of which was "My Friend, The Atom." We crossed out "Atom" everywhere it appeared on the cover and title pages and wrote in "Derivative" and then we all signed it and gave it to our calculus teacher, Mr. Gessner. Jennie was in that class with me too, but it was after lunch so mostly I just slept. That bad habit stuck too, as I fell asleep during the AP Calculus exam. But hey, I still received my college credit and I never had to take a math class again, so whatever.

**Side rambling: About that same time, Kayli and I had put up a picture of Kelly Slater as the desktop picture on our home computer. He was in swim trunks (he's a pro surfer) and it was a shot only of his top half. Megan came in and saw it and ran out and yelled out to Dad and Mom, "Kami and Kayli are putting por----------y on the computer!!!!!!!!" We all were laughing so hard. Megan has a twisted sense of humor.
This is Kayli, Jennie, and Jen. (Random things with Jen's--My best friends throughout the last 15 yrs were Jen, Jenae, Jennie, and Jenny.) Jennie's a ski bum in NM now, (actually a math teacher--she was always better at calc than me) and Jen's a teacher, married to a minister, with one daughter in Virginia. And well, Kayli, the less said there the better, if you know what I mean. Wink. Wink.
This is where Jennie was banished to from our chemistry class. I can't imagine why--maybe our incessant commentary??? We were lab partners, and we were eventually banned from using Bunson Burners. That was just plain cruel. I love Bunson Burners. Lots of times when we finished a test or experiment (we had a two hour block for that class since it was the AP class and we rarely used all that time) Mrs. Strube would kick us out to the Math Resource area, but we were eventually banned from there too. And the library. Thankfully not permanently at the library because that's where we lived during off hours and lunch and where I slept after early morning seminary every day.
And this is a two-headed cow. Found this picture too. My Uncle Mark gave it to me. He was pretty mad about the whole thing because his cow died (the mother).

Good times.

The Best Commercial EVER!!

My sister introduced me to this commercial a couple of months ago. We laughed hysterically. (I'm a little behind in such things because we don't have tv, I just watch The Office and The Simpsons on Hulu. Yes, everyone, I think the Simpsons are hysterical. Stone me, if you must.)
Anyway, my sister told me the back story of the commercial--it's actually from this original concept that won a big national collegiate award. And you guessed it--it was BYU students that came up with it.BYU rocks, what can I say? (Just not their football team this year, but that's okay since Leo and I don't really care about football.)

But I have to say if you watch one thing on my blog ever, you should watch this. I loved it. So funny. But don't take my word for it. :)

Hallelujah!!!!!

I am FINISHED!!!!! With that very, very long, but very awesome project. I have to say I loved designing it and picking out the fabrics, however the actual sewing by the end was a bit too much. If I would have had more time to work on it, it would have been fine though. I guess that technically I'm not done, because I remaking one shirt tonight, but that's easy-peasy and will only take an hour. The HARD one is finished--the one that I broke five needles sewing--the one that my finger is somewhat bloody from hand sewing after breaking so many needles. It is so worth it!!!! Too bad you all have to wait till it reaches it's destination to see. It's the most amazing thing I have ever made. Except maybe my Quetzal or Cowboy's Behind. Definitely the coolest thing I have ever sewn though. Good thing it's done--my husband was complaining, saying he wanted his wife back. So sad for him that next week I'm sewing my own daughters' costumes. ANd then I have a Christmas stocking to make for Sebastian, and then a dress for Danica, and then.............

This is so awesome it deserves it's own post.

Waiting for Elmo.

Salsa for Lynn

Better late than never, right?

Here's my mom's salsa recipe. I sort of used it and sort of made up my own, because that's what I always do.

1 Big onion

4 Serrano peppers

4 Jalepeno peppers

4 Banana peppers

2 Anaheim peppers

2 Bell peppers

2 limes

1 clove garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

8-10 tomatoes (with green in them is good!)

Lots of cilantro

I personally added a lot less tomatoes and a lot more of the hotter peppers and garlic, since I wasn't eating the salsa, and made it more to my husband's liking.

Delicious!

I'm ALIVE!

I had a call today by a a concerned brother wondering if he needed to send out the search and rescue because I hadn't posted in so long. Nope, I'm alive and well. Sorry to cause worry. Here's a little bit of what's been going on to keep me so preoccupied.I'll let you guess the rest, but until these items are received by one red-headed sister of mine, and she posts some photos, (which I will then post as well) no further details will be given.

Also, Sebastian and Isabel and I have been sick. Diarrhea and vomitting. Not a fun combination. I might add that I've been washing a ton of laundry, and giving baths to above named children several times a day.

This is Sebastian before he became sick. That plant has since been moved. What a rugrat. He stands up holding on to things all the time too. If he wasn't so darn cute I'd be really annoyed.

Also, we went up the canyon on Friday with a bunch of friends from church and had a potluck and smores. Very fun. I love campfires.

On Saturday between conferences we went to Ikea. I love that store. And FINALLY we bought the rest of the chairs to match our table. Those ugly metal ones are gone forever!!!!!!!!!!!!! (If you don't remember about my beautiful table you can read about it here.) It's been almost two years since I bought that table, and remember how I was buying one chair here and another chair here (whenever I saw floor models at Ikea and whenever I had money from sorting those awful car parts)? I had bought three and then one was broken in the move, so we were down to two, and anyway, we bought four more. Also we bought new, lovely dinnerware. Our current ones had been given to us secondhand and had serious chips in a lot of them. Kayli gets all the fame and glory in this blog post because she guessed exactly what they looked like: plain beige. That's it. I LOVE them. Thank you, thank you NASA Research Grant. I love NASA now and internal gravity waves.

Mostly though, my every waking and sleeping moment (at least when I should be sleeping) is spent on that first project picture I posted. So now I am off to do dishes and finish at least one more part of that project.