Handmade Halloween Baby Pumpkin King Outfit

How adorable is this little pumpkin king! Honestly I don't know what more I can say about this other than that I am so so proud of this little tiny Jack Skellington costume.

Master Fox hosted his very own Halloween party this year for all his little buddies that he met and local playgroups. Of course it was really just an excuse to get them all dressed up in daft outfits for our own amusement. A lot of costumes for baby boys though are all either Skelleton or pumpkin onesies. Cute yes, but very samey so I wanted him to have something unique which is when I came up with the idea to dress him as the pumpkin king.

I ordered some fabric from eBay which was black with a white stripe. Sadly it turned up and was a bit thin for suiting and very shiny but we worked around this with some interfacing and lining fabrics to make it more stable, comfortable and warmer. 

The jacket is taken from this free pattern which I found on the Internet. The pattern was really simple to follow and did make up a great little jacket. Master Fox is however a little on the small side and whilst I wasn't stingy on the seams it did come up a little tight in the tummy for him at 11 months so do bear that in mind. I obviously added the tails which I made freehand and I think these worked really well. 

The trousers are a pattern from my other favourite new kiddie pattern place which is Ottobre magazine, a quarterly from Finland which that you can get easily shipped to the UK. This one is from 3/2015 and has a lovely little dart in the pants seat. This pattern is also really nice and easy on the overlocker and is aimed at jersey fabrics. If you are interested in sewing clothes for children 0- teen then you really should take a look. Browsing the PDFs of all their back issues is so difficult I can never decide which one I would want to get next!

So I hope you agree that this little outfit (and of course Master Fox) is super cute! Obviously this isn't a licensed product and I will not be reproducing this item for sale but it is a great example that if you have something in mind there is a way to achieve it, you just have to put your mind to it. Making this outfit really did give me a sense of accomplishment in my sewing skills and has given me more confidence to try and make some other new things for him, and hopefully myself again in the not too distant future. 

Pinata!

Hello! Welcome back... with a bang (or a pop, or in this case just a collapse!)

I needed to play a bit of toddler pinata the other day, for those that don't know toddler pinata is where you have a trap door in the bottom, and use ribbon to release the door. Only one ribbon has a knot in, so the others simply just pull out rather than bashing the crap out of the cardboard figure.

I tried to figure out how to adapt a store bought pinata, but couldn't for the life of me work it out, though it turns out I could have just used a craft knife on the bottom and it would have been an simple as that. But anyway, that's no fun, and not the DIY Fox way right, so I set about making my own. It also turned out to actually be a lot cheaper to make my own, I got to pick the colours and even have tissue paper to spare.

I started out with some cardboard from the recycling bin and was just going to make a box shape. I figured whilst taping it though that it would be a lot simpler to just make a cone with an old cereal box and tape a circular base onto the bottom with a trap door cut in it. I then set about covering it is roughly chopped tissue paper strips in 3 different colours and just attached with pva glue.

The final stage was to cut out a ton of little tiny slits and place the strips of ribbon through each one, tying a knot in the end of one of the strings. Then loosely tape the hole up and cover the tape with another piece of tissue paper and voila!

It didn't go 100% to plan as the knot came through the hole, so I had to tie up another one mid game, and the string I had to hold it didn't hole out with the weight so we had just stand their holding the top of it. But it served its purpose and there was a sweetie fallout!

DIY Panda Balloon Tutorial

Happy Monday to you all, I have a lovely post weekend treat for you today:

We went out for a good friends birthday this weekend and I was tasked by her other half to think about decorations for venue. Its a big birthday, but I didn't want to rub it in, because although she is a wonderfully social person, she doesn't like to be made a fuss of. So I got to thinking about what she loves, and she LOVES Panda's (who doesn't love a cute fluffy panda?).

So I got ebaying and googling to find some panda balloons to buy for the occasion. Much to my surprise there is a distinct lack of (cute) panda balloons out there. So I then thought to myself, ok, you must be able to DIY a panda balloon right? off to pinterest I went, but nothing. What is wrong with the internets? it couldn't give me the panda love I needed. So I bought some white balloons and here my lovely friends is what happened!

You will need:
White balloons
Sharpie
Craft glue
Black crepe paper (normal paper will probably work fine)
Scissors

Step 1: Blow up your balloon

Step 2: Cut out two semi circles of your crepe paper, and have little tags at the bottom on each side. It also helps to have a little curve in between the two.

Step 3: Using your sharpie draw some nice big panda eyes on your balloon and colour them in. You might want to draw up a quick template if you are worried about getting the eyes the same. My panda is looking a bit evil here, but he will look cute in a minute I promise.

Step 4: Draw a little nose and smiley mouth on your balloon, I find the closer to the eyes, the cuter the panda.

Step 5: Fold up the tabs on your ear pieces and pop a little bit of glue on the bottom.

Step 6: Stick the tabs on to the top of the balloon, place the tabs pointing towards the face, and it helps to angle them in a little bit so you get a nice curve on the ears, and this helps them to stick up rather than fall over. A bit like pointing your big toes in towards each other.

And you are done! Hazzah! Panda balloon to the ready How cute and easy was that!

Photo credit: Ian Plumpton Photography

Now all that is left to do is prance around pretending you have a panda for a head!

I would love to see your versions if you decide to give this a go. Maybe think about other animals, I would love to see a kitty cat.