Cock-a-doodle-doo! First kid's costume!

On monday I had a little rooster at home :-)
Long before I was pregnant I had seen a picture taken by Julie Rivera and absolutely fell in love with it. It showed a baby all dressed up like a chick. And it was so cute that I printed it out and filed it until I would have a baby myself. And now finally the day arrived.
Last monday we celebrated "Rosenmontag" - this celebration is similar to Mardi Gras. There are big parades and everyone is dressed up - at least in the catholic regions of Germany.
Well, this was my chance to convert little Lucas into a cute little chicken. I asked good old Martha Stewart for some advice and started crafting:

First I bought a big shirt and cut it into a onesie shape. (I zigzaged the cutting edges). And then I dyed it because there were only white shirts on the shop but I needed a yellow one. Therefore I used onion peels which worked quite well.

I also dyed pants and socks:

Then I started to prepare the chicken feet out of rubber gloves. I turned them inside out, sewed a zigzag seem between the ring finger and the little finger and cut the little finger off. Then I slit the back of the hand and made a zigzag seam on the edges of the slit to strengthen them. After this I turned it on the right side I stiffed the gloves with some batting.

I thought that Lucas would be cold without a scarf, so I cut one out of a yellow fleece blanquet which was cheaper then buying fleece on a fabric shop:

But as you will see on the fotos beneath I decided later, that the scarf should be red to complement the costume even better. So I've ruined another blanket for this:

And then I made this little hat. Again I used the yellow blanket and an (unused) microfibre cleaning cloth:

This is the pattern of the hat, which I copied from one of Lucas' hats. I sewed the whole hat letting a slit open from the front to the back, were I inserted the cockscomb (which really was a freestyle object - just try it yourself).

And here's the main part: At first I fixed two feather boas with safety pins on the shirt. Later I sewed them on by hand (every 10 or 15cm a stich).

Do you fancy a look on my little chicken now?

*cheep*

(Besides, he is laughing not crying. :-) It's incredible how difficultit it is to read faces if you 
can't see someone's eyes!) 

Warm and cozy - my first handmade sleeping bag

Finally I find some time to show you my latest project. Lucas ran out of sleeping bags and so I've decided to sew one. It was not really cheaper then buying one though - only the fabric cost almost 40 € - but I wanted a soft baby towelling and a nice cotton fabric for it. And I believe it was really worth it. The sleeping bag is soft and cuddly, just like I wanted it to be.

Now, here are the pictures. As you will see the zipper doesn't match perfectly, but it was a really great bargain ;-)

Oh yes... I forgot to tell you how I made it.
I really have to begin to make tutorial fotos... but, you know, when I'm in the creative process I am really chaotic and uncoordinated, yes sometimes totally illogical and messy... Nothing I'm proud of and I would like to document. :-) And to be honest showing you a perfect (although artificial) work in progress would prolong the project so much and I'm so impatient while crafting :-).

But here's how I made it:
I laid one of Lucas' sleepingbags on paper and copied the form to get a pattern. After cutting out the four parts (two for the inside, two for the outside) I sewed two separate sleeping bags and put the red  one into the blue one (left side on left side). Then I sewed both bags together on the arms and shoulders (yes, the seem is visible and ugly up to this point).
After that I inserted the zipper in between the red and the blue fabric. Finally I finished the edges on the shoulder and axle with bias tape (now its nice) and pinned the press buttons on. It was a real fast and satisfying project. I'm sure it wasn't the last sleeping bag I made. So... try it yourself if you like ;-)