Dragons!

A few months ago the little guy turned 5 and we had a "How to Train Your Dragon" birthday party for him. Many hours were spent browsing Pinterest and the internet in general, and we came up with a few games/activities to keep the kids busy. But first Mr almost 5 insisted on a Toothless costume...

So I made one up as I went. I was originally going to have the wings on the back and the sleeves would be Toothless' front legs, but the little guy wanted wings he could flap with his arms and I realized that was going to be way easier to do, so we went with that... The 'top' over laps in the front and does up with a bit of velcro at the neck. The tail goes on like a belt and again does up with velcro. Once Toothless was finished the little guy requested his sister be Stormfly, but that was just a bit beyond what I was willing to do, so we rummaged through the little miss's closet and came up with an Astrid costume instead.

On party day we set up a shield decorating station where the kids could decorate their own shields. This was good to get the kids involved in something as soon as they got in the door, and also kept them busy while waiting for the other dragon trainers to arrive. I pre-made the shields from cardboard, tape & ribbons so the kids could hold them on their arms. We just put out our stock of coloured pencils & markers and the kids loved it.

Next the kids needed to earn a sword to go with their shields, so we played pin the tail on the Toothless. I had planned to make swords, but then I found some inflatable ones for $1 each and figured there was no way I could make anything for cheaper, and they were nice and safe to be played with even after the inevitable sugar rush. Everyone got a sword, but they were handed out in order of who got Toothless' tail closest to the right spot.

After a bit of sword fighting mayhem, we played another game... Feed the Gronckle. Every good dragon trainer knows that gronckles eat rocks, so I made up some rocks out of scrunched up newspaper covered in tape. I printed out a picture of a gronckle and stuck it to a large box. I cut out the bottom of the box and also the mouth of the gronckle, and the kids took turns throwing rocks into the mouth. It was great fun, and the kids kept going back to this one throughout the party.  

 And then one last organized game before cake time... It was our own little version of sheep racing.
The kids lined up into two teams and took turns putting a sheep pom-pom between their knees and delivering the sheep past the line placed at the other end of the room (without using their hands). If they dropped their sheep they had to go back and start again. Again, lots of good fun and the kids really worked together to help each other out with this one. It was pretty much impossible to get a photo of this one, sorry... But then there was cake, a fire breathing cake even!

The party finished up with opening presents and then running around the deck and more sword fighting - fortunately the hanging balloons were a favourite target.

Frozen Ice Ribbons/Force Lightning Gloves

 It's birthday time again... I've been party planning (searching Pinterest) for the little miss's upcoming birthday, she wants a Frozen party, and came across these Frozen inspired icy snow gloves. I thought they'd be fun for the girls to dance around to the songs from the movie with icy ribbons swirling all around them. I've been crocheting a lot lately, and figured instead of buying cheap gloves and sewing ribbons to them as per the link above, I thought it would be nice to crochet some fun finger-less gloves and make the ribbons detachable so that the gloves would actually be useful after the party was over. I altered a basic adult finger-less glove pattern I already had in my library and the little miss helped me to pick out some 'icy' colours from my yarn stash. We found enough colours that were suitable so that every party guest will get a totally unique set of gloves.

All of the gloves were crocheted a while ago, but I had yet to sort out any ribbons for them. Today was a pretty miserable day and we ended up putting the Frozen blue ray on and I was convinced by the little miss to attach some ribbons to her pair so that she could dance around with them to the songs in the movie. They were a hit! (Now I just have to attach ribbons to the other 6 pairs...)

While dancing around, the little miss came up with a genius idea - a black pair for her Star Wars obsessed brother so he could use them for force lightening. So I got my crochet hook, some black yarn, and some ribbons (the little guy insisted on black and blue) and within an hour a pair of force lightning gloves were on the little Sith Lord's hands and forcing pretty much everything in sight!

Note: It's nearly impossible to get a photo of how cool these actually look when the ribbons are flying around!

Shoe-box Rocket

First off I have a confession: I did not make this shoe-box rocket. In fact, it wasn't even my idea. My wonderful husband came up with this one, but it's so cute and loved so much by the Little Guy that I just had to share it with you all.

 All you need is a shoe box and some extra cardboard (the husband used the box lid for this). The box itself forms the main part of the rocket, and the fins, wings, and nose are made from the lid (you can use your extra bits of cardboard if you don't have a lid). He made slits in the sides of the box, slipped the wings through them, and then taped them (and the other bits) on with packing tape to secure it all together.

I should note that this is not at all how I pictured the rocket would be. In my mind it was going to be a stand up rocket shaped like a milk carton, but I'm so glad it wasn't! I never would have even thought of making it so that the Little Guy could pile his toys in it and fly them around the house.

This rocket was made in a few minutes a few months ago and it's still well played with and still going strong (although the nose has been repaired a few times with a bit of tape).

Daddy Pants

Today my husband handed me two pairs of trousers that he no longer wanted. They were both in really good condition still, so he gave them to me to either pass on to someone else or do 'whatever' with. I instantly thought of a conversation I was having in a craft group about ways to up-cycle some great old tweed coats and thus was inspired to up-cycle them... I made them each into a pair of pants for my little guy.

I made them pretty much the same way as in my pajama pants post using a pair of the little guy's trousers that fit him well as a guide in cutting out the new ones. Because I like to save work where I can, I used the existing side seams in the trousers and lined up the bottom with the existing hem - it made me so happy when I came to the part where I would have normally hemmed them and it was already done!!!!

   

Once I had cut out each side, I placed the 2 pieces right sides together and stitched up the front & back from waist to crotch, and then stitched up each leg. For the first pair I just made a casing around the waist and threaded elastic all the way through. I thought the first pair was really cute, but wanted the second pair to be a bit more polished, so I made them with a flat front and used a wide elastic in the back only.

The little guy loves his new trousers and calls them his "Daddy pants". And I think they're pretty cute too.

Summer Pants

My little guy has recently had a bit of a growth spurt and he is in desperate need of pants (trousers) that actually come past his ankles! I look at pants in the shops and they're all either boring, too expensive, or they just look plain uncomfortable for jumping & playing in... So I bought some fabric with the intention of making him some in the same way I made his pajama pants, but due to the print on the material I was worried they would look a bit too much like, well, pajamas. And then I found this tutorial and pattern for basic pants on Pinterest.

I'm impatient and don't have a printer at home, so I just traced the pattern onto some paper straight from the screen on my laptop. After I cut it out I held it up to a pair of his pants that actually still fit to make sure the pattern wasn't way off before cutting into the fabric! The fabric I chose was quite a thin summery cotton, so once the pieces were cut out, I decided to put some precautionary patches on the knees before sewing them up (as I've said before - getting the arm of the sewing machine into the leg of a toddler's pants is not one of my favorite things!)

He loves his new 'water' pants, and I think they look cool & comfortable for summer. And it was ridiculously easy - so easy in fact, that I've already started on a 2nd pair for him. :)

Now that I know how the 'basic' pants fit him, I've decided to make the next ones with a flat front
(ie the elastic is only in the back) so the top of the front pieces are cut out a bit slimmer.

Cookie Monster Knee Patch

I knew my little guy would give me more opportunities to make more monster knee patches, but I didn't think I'd be doing it again quite so soon!

I noticed a hole in the knee of his blue track pants, but hadn't planned on doing anything about it since: a) they're track pants, b) he's almost outgrown them, and c) the legs aren't any bigger than the last pair I patched up and hence will not be any easier to fit over the sewing machine arm... And then while putting the laundry away my husband said "Did you know these have a hole in them? You should make a Cookie Monster patch - they're the perfect colour!" He then proceeded to tell me how he thought I should do it. Now my husband doesn't normally show much enthusiasm for my crazy craftings, so it didn't take too much persuading on his part to make me cave...

I'm not sure if it's because I knew what to expect, or because the track pants have more give to them, but I didn't have to do too much fighting with the sewing machine this time. I still didn't have any white polar fleece or felt, but I did have some thick & durable white curtain lining which is thermal coated and doesn't fray. Hooray! I used the lining for the large white eyes (one of which is covering the actual hole) and added a little black polar fleece for the googly part of the eyes and the mouth.

It was pretty quick, pretty easy, and free! Oh, and pretty awesome if I do say so myself. But most importantly the little guy seems quite pleased with them. ;) Too bad the pants are a bit pilly and almost too small for him.

Monster Knee Patch

One of the first things I made from my collection of Pinterest items was this awesome knee patch. I must admit that I was super excited when my little boy finally got a hole in the knee of his pants so that I could try this out! 

The first thing I discovered was that this project would be much easier on a pair of trousers that have a wider leg than those of a size 2 toddler. I had a lot of fun making it and it cost me nothing as I was able to find everything I needed from my drawer of fabric scraps. However, I did curse this little monster quite a bit as I was trying to fit the tiny narrow leg through the bottom of the sewing machine (hence why this project would be much better suited for slightly bigger kids). 

The link for this from my Pinterest board takes you here:

http://refashionco-op.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/cute-fix-for-hole-in-knee-of-jeans.html

Clicking through to the link made me realise that I never did actually click through to the link when I made my version of the monster knee patch... Clearly I was so excited to get started that I just looked at the photo and went for it. I might as well admit now that I often jump into projects without thinking it all the way through (or actually reading the tutorial as the case may be). 

I would definitely use this project to patch holes in my little guy's clothes again, but there are a few things I would do differently. For this monster I just used what I could find in my fabric scraps drawer (which was: thick red polar fleece for the mouth, thick black polar fleece for the eyes, and white quilt batting for the teeth). The eyes are fine, and the red of the mouth is lasting better than I expected, but the teeth are starting to come apart a bit. I would probably use a stiffer fabric for the mouth next time (or back the polar fleece with something) and I would use felt, polar fleece, or some other non-fraying fabric for the teeth. I knew that the batting was not the best thing to use for the teeth, but I am impatient and at the time I didn't have anything else white that would work - also, I wasn't worried about it lasting for too long as my guy is currently growing out of his clothes well before he gets a chance to wear them out (hence why I was so excited when he actually wore a hole in something).

My little guy & his monster.