I will taking next week off to spend at home with my family. If I’m feeling inspired and have something to share, I’ll post a video. Otherwise, I’ll “see you” again on December 29!
I’m down to my FOUR copies of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Vol 12 in my Etsy shop! Get one now before they’re gone!
Coming in January 2016!
Crack open the WAY BACK MACHINE for today’s 31 Days of Halloween!
Today we have a fast, easy costuming option for the Harry Potter fans out there.
Originally created in 2006 for a Craftster Swap, I’m breaking this tutorial out today for anyone that might not have a costume in mind, or, like me, might need something a wee bit cooler to wear come Halloween!
The best part about this project is that you can sew it by hand if you don’t have a machine or use a serger to finish it even faster!
You’ll need:
Instructions
Sleeve Reconstruction
Shirt Body Reconstruction
Stenciling the front (Hogwarts Crest)
Stenciling the back (Potter & Star)
*I recommend testing your paint on dark fabric before you start. Some paints will need multiple layers. If the paint doesn’t cover, you can start with a white base coat.
Need more information on stenciling? Check out my post from last week!
Are you making projects from 31 Days of Halloween? Share your photos with my flickr group! There will be a fun surprise after Halloween for one lucky winner!
This video comes to you from the past while I’m out of town enjoying the company of a very dear friend! More on that next week. 😉
In this video:
Share your Paper Piecing Vintage photos with the Sewhooked flickr group for a chance to win fun prizes all year long. The June prize is a free PDF copy of my original pattern, Poppies from the Past! Winner to be announced the first week of July.
Need some help with paper piecing? Check out my FREE full-length workshop.
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I’ve been talking a lot about Halloween lately. I hope you all don’t mind, that’s where my head is at the moment!
First off, let me tell you this: I do not have an embroidery machine. I’ve thought about it, toyed with it, and in the end decided that I really don’t need one. I don’t, really. It would be fun, but, firmly, no.
Enter the need for Union Jack patches for Gareth’s Halloween costume.
Hum. I checked around online and two things were obvious to me. 1) they’re kind of pricey on top of the cost of the rest of the items for his costume and 2)I could make that. 2) Happens to me all the time.
Just about now, an embroidery machine would be handy. Still, no. Don’t even think about it…
Onward, then! I love making ATCs and my thinking was that the patches are the same basic size and shape.
So I pulled out the stiff, fusible interfacing that I keep for ATCs and…
The Stuff: Blue fabric, stiff/fusible interfacing, white and red threads and a picture for my guide. Not shown, blue thread, scissors, an iron and an hour and a half of time.
First, I cut the blue fabric to size (in this case 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″), then marked the center of each on the horizontal with a ceramic pencil.
Next, I ironed the blue fabric to the fusible interfacing. The muslin is to keep the other side from sticking to my ironing board. As long as I don’t apply heat to that side, it won’t fuse, but it will get a little warm. Better safe than sticky.
Then, I started stitching! The entire project is done with a zig-zag stitch on my regular home sewing machine. This is a 6 width on my machine and the shortest I could make it.
It wasn’t quite wide enough, so I stitched again on either side of the center line, overlapping each. This was a “figure it out as you go” project.
Much better!
Repeat for the vertical line.
I switched to white thread and started shadowing the red cross. If I had been very, very clever, I think I would have done all the red stitching first. My tension was a little weird with all the thickness, so I ended up stitching the white lines twice. 
White shadowing done! Diagonal lines drawn for the next step.
Not bad, not bad!
The patches were slightly stretched and lumpy from all the thread when I was done, so I pressed them flat, adding muslin to the back while I was at it.
They look much better all trimmed up!
I wanted to give them a finished edge and catch in all the threads that I trimmed, so I used a shiny blue rayon.
All done! Are they perfect? No way! Does my son think they’re awesome? Why yes, yes he does! Am I happy? Yeah, pretty much. It was a fun experiment, but I will say this: about half-way through I realized it would have been much faster to just stencil them. Oops.
Speaking of stencils…
This scary looking critter is the balaclava for one Simon “Ghost” Riley, which you may remember from the very end of this post as part of the Halloween costume for my darling 13-year-old son.
He really is darling, despite his XBox tendencies. He says please, and thank you, and has repeatedly given me hugs for creating this scary persona for him.
While researching this costume, I looked everywhere for a stencil. There was none to be found, so I made my own. Shown above is the 1.0 version, which is the one I used for the balaclava shown. I’ve cleaned it up considerably so I can share it with anyone else looking to make the same thing.
This stencil was specifically sized to echo the size of my son’s face, so if you use it for yourself, you might need to scale it up or down a bit.
Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!
And now, on to more quilty endeavors!
In which I wear pink and chat about Halloween costumes, swaps and birthdays!
Shae’s Etsy
Laci’s Etsy (which she does with her mom!)
Breast Cancer Awareness:
Crafts, Etc. (I Love This Yarn)
If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.
Sewhooked 