DIY Catwoman Mask

Happy late Halloween!

I love sharing my random Halloween creations with you, even though it's usually after Halloween.

This year for the first time ever, my kids ended up with totally storebought costumes, which I had mixed feelings about. I prefer DIYing at least part of their costumes (cheaper, more sentimental, can use it more than once, no one else will have it, etc), but at least Halloween costumes today are cooler than the plastic tunic-and-mask combos from when I was a kid.

My three-year-old orchestrated everyone's costumes this year. He chose Spider-man for himself, Incredible Hulk for his baby bro, Catwoman for me, and Ironman for my husband. (Shhh, I won't tell him Catwoman is the wrong "franchise" if you won't. Yes, are people in my FB feed who care about this kind of thing.)

It was the first time in years that I got to dress up, and even though I didn't get to make my kid's costumes, I did do somewhat of a DIY Catwoman costume for myself.

Catwoman is a very easy Halloween costume, and there is a lot of inspiration to choose from-- 60s TV show Catwoman, 90s Tim Burton Catwoman, comic book Catwoman, Halle Berry or Anne Hathaway Catwomen. I was leaning toward the 60s one but really, I just threw a bunch of stuff together.

I'd planned on making black leggings but ended up wearing black skinny jeans, black boots, a black long-sleeved tee, and a storebought cat-eye shaped mask that I found at Spirit. The DIY Catwoman Ears were the only thing I ended up making...

• I used black felt from Jo-Ann and bought enough I could experiment with it.
• This is my inspiration and this is the tutorial I vaguely followed for the hat part, minus all the steaming and felting.
• I cut three pieces for the hat part; a long strip and two vaguely half-circle shaped pieces, which I cut freehand.
• Stitch together using this tutorial.
• To get that widow's peak look, I just put my hat on and drew the outline I wanted, or the shape of the hat I wanted, with fabric pencil.
• I trimmed along the outline (while the hat was folded in half so that it ended up symmetrical).
• Since I had just cut away some of the stitching, I sewed a seam around the hat, about 1/8" of an inch from the edge, to keep it from coming apart.
• For the ears, which did end up looking more Batman than Catwoman, I cut out four triangles, sewed them right-sides together down the top two sides, and turned them.
• I stitched the ears to the hat along the third side of the triangle that previously had no stitching, but I did have to do a small bar tack at the base of each ear on the opposite side of the sewing to get them to stand up.

There you have it! A vaguely DIY Catwoman hat which actually looks more Batgirl because of the ears, but I think it gets the point across! Now we're in full-on holiday mode around here.

City Gym Shorts + mending boys pants

 
I've completed the other two pairs of City Gym Shorts I cut out. Remember when you're looking at these pictures, they're pajama shorts (a.k.a. stash fabric-eaters) and I don't intend to wear these jazzy little numbers outside.

The fabric, thread, and bias tape came from the stash. I did purchase some elastic, though.

I'll be writing up and vlogging a proper review of Purl Bee's City Gym Shorts pattern sometime this week.

I also got some mending done! My mending pile is out of control at this point, and the only reason I tackled the kid's stuff first (as opposed to the numerous pairs of my own jeans) is because I didn't want them to outgrow these clothes before I fixed them!

Is that not the wonkiest truck that ever wonked? Better than that hole it's covering though. For these two applique patches I just freehand cut the shapes out of a t-shirt then used a basting glue stick (didn't want to waste any precious Steam-a-Seam for a proper applique, ha!) to stick the patches on. Then I zig-zagged around the edges with my ballpoint needle. (A pair of my husband's jeans also got patched this week, not pictured.)

DIY French Memo Board tutorial

For some reason I felt especially accomplished with this post. I think it's because I wasn't just stashbusting and using up spare craft supplies, I was also fulfilling a need we had.

For as long as we've lived here, I was planning on putting a bulletin board over the bookshelf in our boys bedroom to hold mementos like postcards, ticket stubs, and birthday cards. After consulting with Google on searches like "boys bulletin board", I figured one of those ribbon bulletin boards, or "French Memo Boards" as I learned they're called, was just the ticket.

I especially loved that I got to use a super-fun comic book themed Star Wars fabric-- getting it out of the stash, and on display on the wall. I also harvested a stretched canvas from an unused flannel board (pro-tip: just ignore those little tutorials out there that tell you to use flannel as the base for your felt-boards. USE FELT.)

I did have to buy a couple of things: ribbon and buttons. Both were on sale but unfortunately now I have to use up the rest of those. Everything else came from the stash.

Yay to getting projects ticked off the list! Yay to using up stuff that's otherwise just sitting in a drawer! (See what I mean about this week's sense of accomplishment?)

Have you made one of these ribbon bulletin boards before? They're actually super easy and can be done in an afternoon-- which, of course, added to the I'm gettin' stuff DONE feeling. I made a How to Make a French Memo Board tutorial video if you'd like to try one:

Basic sewing machine maintenance

When's the last time you cleaned and oiled your machine? Or took it in to have serviced?

If the answer is "never", then now's the time to do it! I made a sewing tutorial video if you've never done it before... and if you have done it before, hopefully this post will serve as a little reminder to do it right now!

City Gym Shorts muslin

The have: old lady Mary Engelbreit (-ish?) fabric (sorry, Engelbreit fans), and a new FREE pattern I'm itching to try. The need: new pajama shorts for summer.

The end result:

I decided to do a little stash busting while fulfilling a need. I inherited this not-quite-my-jam Mary Engelbreit quilting fabric from my beloved Grandma. I briefly considered donating it to the thrift store before deciding that it's cute enough that I can live with it, and that I could use it for a lining or muslin or something. When this free pattern was released, I knew it was destined to become something that wouldn't be worn out of the house: PJ shorts.


This is Purl Bee's City Gym Shorts pattern. I don't have a whole lot to say about the pattern, especially considering that it's a free pattern that Purl Bee generously provided to the sewing blogosphere. I have a couple of other pairs I cut out at the same time, which aren't yet finished, and I'll type up a full pattern review when I post those.


I really tend to overdo it on the free patterns, don't I? Especially considering I spend so much money on NOT free patterns!

DIY Superhero Cape from an Upcycled T-shirt

In this week's YouTube video, I show you how to make a superhero cape out of an old T-shirt. This is a super easy and fast project with satisfying results. All you really need is an adult-sized t-shirt and some scissors-- everything else is optional!

Two weeks in a row with projects for son. I'm about to lose my "Selfish Seamstress" cred!

Vintage sheet quilt

I finally finished a vintage sheet quilt I've been working on for ages!

Not a whole lot to say about it. It was my first *major* machine quilting project and likely my last until/unless I get a different a different machine. I've been quilting a long time, but up until now, I've mostly been hand-tying. There's some puckers and some other problems, but it's not a gift, so I'm cool with it.

Now, my base model Singer did pretty well the quilting on this Queen-sized quilt, but I just kind of feel like I was *abusing* her with this job. Plus, I like hand-tying just fine. (Speaking of abusing my machine, I need to do some maintenance on her.)

So, I like it, but I'm done with sewing vintage sheets for a while. I like 100% cotton for quilts.

Did you notice the YouTube video at the top of this post? My last post had one too. Clearly, I have a problem blogging often, and I thank you for following me despite that. Videos, on the other hand...I used to be a TV reporter. I'm used to tight deadlines, and can turn around several videos in a single day, if I want to.

The name of my channel is Spool School, and I'll be posting sewing and quilting videos, craft tutorials, quality DIYs (as in, making stuff that has a purpose, not useless crap), some home DIYs and maybe even furniture makeovers and home improvement projects. I'm looking for some other YouTube crafters to follow, so let me know if you're on there too! And I mean real crafters. All I'm seeing so far are young girls making junk just to make "DIY videos", which seems to be one of the more popular genres, just behind make-up and beauty. We're talking bedazzled flip-flops here, folks. Yikes.