I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday. We are in the throes of a fun-filled Christmas day. I crafted just a few gifts this year, and here’s a sneak peak. I don’t want to take the time to detail them all today, but will let you know about them all soon. Happy Holidays!

In the midst of our holiday preparations, please take a small trip back in time with me to last October. October was a time of costumes for us, and I was so busy that I forgot to share! So, for your entertainment, here is The Costume Post.

The Wizard of Oz

Our first ’school play’ was The Wizard of Oz, adapted and directed by a brave mom in our local homeschool group. My boys were Leafy the Tree, and Scarecrow #2.

Leafy’s costume was more time-consuming than Mr. Scarecrow’s. I made his hat from paper mache following the instructions in this video series, then hot-glued a bunch of leaves on it. Were I to do it again, I’d add extra space before making the hat, and then glue felt bands on the inside if necessary. Two of the three tree-hats I made were a little too small and had to be altered. Leafy’s trunk is made from felt, folded at the shoulder seam, sewn up one side and closed with velcro tabs on the other. I constructed leafy wristlets by covering some elastic with green fabric, and then sewing leaves on. Leafy and the other two trees in the play (Shady and Branchy, if memory serves) got to throw the apples I told you about in this post. The scarecrow costume was almost no work on my part. I did make elastic bands covered with fabric for his wrists and ankles. I left the fabric straight, and put in a gap so the elastic could stretch for pulling them on and off. I hot-glued some raffia on as straw and called it a night.

On to Halloween!

With two costumes done in October, I secretly hoped that I’d be taking a tree and scarecrow trick-or-treating. Naturally, the boys ended up wanting to be something else entirely. Leafy morphed into Wall-E, and the scarecrow became a black cat.

Wall-E’s costume is a big ol’ cardboard box; the goggles are made from pop-tart boxes cut and glued onto a cheap plastic mask from Michael’s. The pincers are sewn from a piece of felt each. If you decide to make pincers for your little robot, keep in mind that your fingers join higher on your hand than your thumb. I originally made them symmetrical, and it wasn’t until Wall-E tried them on that I realized that, uhm, human hands aren’t like robot hands. If anyone needs more exact pincer directions, I can post them later – just give me a yell in the comments.

Our resident black cat is sporting a knit hat; you can see the details, below. His gloves are $1 gloves from the Target bargain rack, with felt pads sewn on. We originally tried craft glue, but as this particular kitty likes to smack and rub his paws, they didn’t hold well. I ended up wearing the glove on one hand and sewing with the other so that it would be stretched out while I sewed. I only ended up bleeding a little. Kitty’s tail is a dollar-store scarf folded and half, rolled jelly-roll style, and then whip-stitched in place. The fringe on the scarf made a nice tail end.

Kitty Hat Pattern Details:

Started:	Oct 22, 2008
Finished:	Oct 24, 2008
Pattern:	Official Kittyville Hat by Kitty Schmidt
Yarn:	Black – Patons Shetland Chunky, Pink – Caron’s Simply Soft.
Needles:	US 9 / 5.5 mm
Notes:	I modified the pattern for a child’s head, and to used chunkier yarn. My kitty’s age is 8 years, and his head circumference is 19.75″ / 50 cm. Cast on 60 stitches instead of 84; place markers after every 10th stitch. After the decrease rows, there will be 6 stitches left on your needles. Earflaps and ties: count 5 stitches from beginning of round, and pick up 14 stitches from that point. My earflaps ended up in this position: [Center back] [5 stitches] [ flap of 14 stitches ] [11 stitches] [Center front]. Ears: I picked up 10 stitches instead of 12. Since my pink yarn was a slightly thinner gauge than my black, I ended up with a black rim showing on the outside of my ears. I’m okay with that. See this hat on ravelry.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled December.