Creative Juices Halloween

 The main reason I enjoy Halloween is seeing everyone's costumes. A lot of people get creative around Halloween and that is the part I love. I also enjoy practicing my sewing skills by making at least one outfit for my kids. This year my two year old was Robin Hood and I thought he was stinking cute! This first one I put it just because you can see the feather in his hat. It is made from felt.

Most of the pictures I have of my kids are like this...they'll only look at me to get me to open candy for them. Other than that they don't like pictures...well this one doesn't.

This is the best picture I got this year. I'll be the first to admit I am not the best picture taker or getting. I even have a hard time remembering to take pictures. Ooops

Last year I made this knight costume.  I loved it except the pattern I used had me line the entire thing and that was NOT fun.  I made a ton of mistakes but it still ended up pretty cute.  It was definitely good practice.

The rest of the Creative Juices team almost participated in the creativity of Halloween.  Ritz and her hubby were a bee and a flower (you'll never guess who was what).  It surprised me too!

Here is Jules as a gold digger and KK as Minnie Mouse.

Happy Halloween.

Belt from Felt

I am still working/thinking about Halloween costumes...I am a last minute kind of gal when it comes to Halloween. If my kids aren't excited to be something particular for Halloween I can't really just pick something for them to be; for one thing if they don't like it they won't wear it. So far I have a few ideas: Robin Hood, Pirate, and a Jedi. I am not sure yet but they all have one thing in common: a belt. So today I made a belt out of felt. It was fun and pretty easy.

Just cut two strips out of brown felt and sew around it and then through the middle to keep it together. Sewing on felt looks so nice- you can really decorate it with your stitches. The belt needs to be long enough to wrap around the waist with some to spare. You can always cut it if it is too long but you can't make it longer so too long is better.

After I sewed the belt I made a buckle. I just cut a square that was about 1/2in taller on each side of the belt. I sewed around the perimeter a few times and then down the middle and then one each side of the line. I used the existing line as my guide meaning I lined my presser foot on the sewing machine with the line. After I sewed around and through the square I folded each half and cut out two squares for the belt to go through.

Then I pulled the belt through and wrapped it around the middle and sewed it down a few times. Then I cut another set of strips to make the belt loop- I sewed them together and then sewed it to the belt.


This is what it looked like when it was done. At this point the kids thought a pirate would be cool so I made this little dagger.

I am not sure what else I have lying around the house I can use for a pirate costume. I can't go to the store because I am currently a nurse to my hubby who is recovering from having his appendix out (yikes) and he can't get up or down yet. So I have to be really creative.

So I need something that will look great with these accessories, any ideas?