For Mouse's Party we needed some jet packs to finish the boys Rocket Man Outfits.
I got this idea from many similar ones on Pinterest.

For each of  the Jet packs I used

Last year Mr T and I were invited to a party were the theme was travelling. We decided to go outside the box and go as Steam punk Time travelers.
For those of you who don't know what Steam punk is, have a look at this wikipedia site. It is a very cool alternative style and very fun to dress up.
One of the main features of Steam punk is that most of the outfits have goggles similar to aviation goggles but jazzed up a bit.
I really tried to see if I could hire some or even buy some 2nd hand goggles, but with the party looming I just bit the bullet and made some with some great help from Youtube. See these sites for inspiration.

Threadbanger on Youtube.
Instructables.com

This is what I used to make my goggles using everyday items I had at home.

Old denim Jeans
2 Empty Toilet rolls or kitchen roll
Plastic clear drink bottle ( like a Sprite bottle)
Sellotape
Black sewing thread
Sewing Needle
PVA glue
Black, gold, brown acrylic art paint
Paint brush
Thumb tacks of different shapes

To make the eye pieces first of all I cut the toilet rolls on an angle so it would fit nicely on my head. These would be the round parts of the goggles.

I got the plastic bottle and traced around the end of the toilet roll to make two circles that would fit on the end of the rolls nicely.

I then carefully stuck them on the straight ends of the rolls with clear sellotape on the outside and the inside so it was attached well.
(I would have used fancy glue to make it neater but I didn't have any and I was on a time limit!).

I cut the second toilet roll into four thin strips about 1cm wide.
I stuck these with the PVA over the sellotape that was attaching the clear plastic to cover it and to give the ends of the eye piece some definition. I did two layers to make them stand out more, overlapping them as they were not long enough to go around fully.

I painted the eye pieces gold with black and brown to give it a dirty bronze look. 

To make the strap I cut the hems of the jeans off about 3cm up from the end.

I cut the denim in half and cut a 2cm piece off to be the nose piece.

I followed that by measuring around my head from temple to temple to see how long the band of denim had to be and cut it to size with about 1cm extra on each end for sewing allowance.

I shaped the denim with the ends getting larger towards where they would attach to the toliet rolls to look like triangles. This makes a more aviator look I think.

I then hand sewed the triangle ends onto the eye pieces with black thread. It was a little hard going through the cardboard but you could use strong glue if you had some.

Then making sure the band wasn't twisted I sewed the smaller 2cm piece to make the nose piece onto both eye pieces.

The denim was then painted black with gold and brown accents.

I finally added some different shape thumb tacks around the front of the eye pieces to make them look more mechanical and gave these a little brush of paint to blend in.


I was really happy how these turned out and made another pair for Mr T for his outfit. It took me one evening to do 2 pairs and mainly took me that long because I had to figure out what to do.

Below is a picture of our full Steam punk Time traveler outfits. We had a blast at the party and have used the goggles for other dress up party's too.

We had our Mainly Music Christmas Party last week and we were asked to dress the kids as wise men/kings, Shepherds or angels.

I raided the dress up box at the last minute for ideas and found some old bandannas that were perfect size for Kings capes and then made the crowns out of newspaper.

I folded the newspaper over a few times to make it stiff and stapled it to the size of the boys heads.

Then I painted points with the top half black and bottom half gold to look like a crown without any annoying fraying paper bits.

Considering this took me approx 5 minutes to do with a little longer for the paint to dry I think they look pretty cute!

Tigger is turning ONE!! I can't believe my baby boy is toddling around and tearing the place up. 
For quite sometime one of the only things that would calm him down if he was upset was to listen to Cookie Monster sing "C is for Cookie". So we have decided to have a Happy Cookie Monster Birthday Party for Tigger. Of course we need dress ups so I came up with the idea to do furry Cookie monster and Elmo inspired hoods for Tigger and Mouse to wear to the party.

I had a look around the internet and have been inspired by the following web sites which have done animal hoods. Have a look if what I have done is not clear enough, 
Check out
www.fleecefarm.com
http://greeneggsnhamm.blogspot.co.nz
http://www.craftster.org

What you will need - for 1-3 year old boys

Paper to make pattern
30cm by 50cm approx - Lining material - I used old t-shirts 
30cm of 150m roll approx - Fake fur material what ever colour you like - I used red and blue
5cm by 5cm white material for eyes - I used some old fleece
3cm by 3cm black material for eyes - I used some scrap black cotton
Dome Snap clips set 
Hammer
Pins and scissors
Matching thread
Sewing Machine

1 - I traced around one side of an animal hood at play group to get the right size and shape of hood I wanted. But check out the fleecefarm web site for a different way of doing it.

I then cut it out to make a pattern.




2. I then used the pattern to cut out two sides of lining for inside the hood.

I used old t-shirts for the lining and just cut through two layers of t-shirt.




3. I used the same pattern to cut out the furry material. Be careful to make sure you have 2 sides of fur. It is probably easiest to fold over the material and cut through two layers.

4. To make the eyes fold over the white fabric and cut circles the size you want the eyes to be.










5. Then fold over the black fabric and make smaller circles to make the irises.










6. Pin the black onto the white where you would like them to be placed.

7. Sew the black circles onto the white circles using black thread. You can use zig zag or straight stitch going around the outside of the circle. You could also be very clever and do a proper Applique if you have time.





8. Pin the lining pieces together right sides together and Sew the pieces together from the forehead to the back of the neck. I used a zig zag stitch as it was t-shirt material.







9. Repeat with the furry materials, pinning furry sides together and tucking any extra fur inside while you are pinning. I Used a straight stitch for this.

10. Place the eyes where you would like them and pin on. Sew with white thread around the outside of the white part of the eye. You could use straight or zig zag stitch for this.






11. Pin the lining and furry pieces together right sides facing each other. Make sure all furry parts are tucked inside.






12. Sew from the back of the hood around all the seams but leave about 5-10cm at the end and backstitch.
You now need to turn the hood inside out so the furry part and right side of the lining are now on the outside.

You then can fold the last little bits in and finish off closing the hole with the machine - or hand sew it for a neater job.

13. Lastly use the dome snap closures on either side of the neck. Use a hammer to knock them into place or follow packet instructions.

You could use velcro but I thought it would get messy with all the fur!!





So there you have it!
My take on Elmo and Cookie Monster inspired hoods.
They are not exactly alike due to different length furs, and I think Elmo has a nose. But the boys love them and we are now set for the Monster Party.
Just need to sort Mr T and myself out now for some Monster madness.