Last year when Lily told me she wanted me to make her a Black ninja assassin costume I raised my eyebrows and thought to myself...."hmmmmmm."

"Sounds challenging...."

And the perfect opportunity to experiment with some black faux leather stretch fabric I bought downtown for 2 dollars a yard that had been donated from the workshop of the BEBE design room, a chain shop catering to cheesy, super sexy, and age inappropriate fashion knockoffs for teens. 

Now that I look back, I wonder if it had something to do with the rough school year she was having, her wanting to be a black ninja assassin for Halloween, that is.

Or maybe she watched a ninja movie with her big brother when I wasn't home....

Oliver is his thrown together explorer costume. Always putting something together at the last minute.

 Characters from the film Ninja Assassin- Korean

  Lily drew a picture of what she wanted, and I set about figuring how to construct it. 

I traced some of her pants and a long sleeved t shirt, and connected them to make a jumpsuit pattern.

I made the top wrap around because that was a part of Lily's design.

Then I created a hood pattern using a pattern I had. 

I made a hole on the top of the hood to put her pony tail through.

I think she looks really tough!

 Don't even think about messing with this girl.

 That's actually a real sword cover on her hip there. A souvenir from a trip to Japan. Sword not included on hip... But she wanted to use it. Too sharp.

I have to draw the line somewhere.

I still have the Stitched Blooms book giveaway up so stop by and enter here! 
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Little Miss Muffett sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey.

When along came a spider and sat down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away. 

 However, this Little Miss decided the spider would look fabulous on a headband!

My kids aren't allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to school, but can maybe get away with wearing this headband.

Or maybe I will wear it myself! 

It was a perfect project to make for my Craft Lightning post hosted by Country Chic Cottage and 30 Minute Crafts,  since it took only 15 minutes.

There will be 15 minute Halloween projects linked up all week. It started yesterday, so head on over to see more!

Would you like to make a spider headband in 15 minutes, too?

Here's how: 

 I made this headband from a plastic spider and headband I bought at the 99 cent store and some ribbon from the hobby shop.

I used some little scraps of felt and my glue gun to put it together.

 I cut the felt into little ovals the same size as the spider body.

 From the ribbon, I cut two 2 inch pieces.

 I glued them to the bottom of the headband.

 I wrapped about two yards of ribbon around the headband, gluing down at both ends.

I glued down one piece of felt to the spider's body.

Then I sandwiched the headband in between the other piece of felt, which I glued .

Done!

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 This little dress I'm sharing with you today was made from a men's shirt I bought at the half off sale at the thrift shop ( yes, they have half off sales even at the thrift shop), some black paint, elastic, and bias tape.

Don't get too wierded out here, but we found that witch hat in the trash in front of an estate sale yesterday. It was on the top of the trash and it is positively old, made in Taiwan, so I'm almost sure any germs on it died a long time ago. When was the last time anything was made in Taiwan, the 90's? They don't even call it that anymore. Correct me if I'm wrong!

So that brings my grand total for this costume to two dollars since I only bought the shirt, and had all of the other stuff lying around or boug it thrifted ages ago.

I used the top for a pattern I recently made to make the bodice: The Perfect Peasant Dress by Peek A Boo Patterns. 

So happy to use up some of my supplies!

 Yes this kids DOES have some serious attitude. And I swear I have nothing to do with this.

I found those clogs at the Rose Bowl Flea Market last week. I love them. 

I sewed the bodice with bias tape to look like a lace corset. The stripes were made with 2 inch painter's tape a method I love to use when painting stripes.

Here are some photos of the making of this dress:

 I cut off the bottom of the shirt straight across from the underarms and used 2 inch painters tape to create stripes for the skirt. 

For the top , I used the top portion of a pattern, The Perfect Peasant Dress by Peek A Boo patterns. Which Is a great basic peasant dress pattern by the way.

I painted the stripes on the sleeves and drew guidelines on the bodice, then sewed on the bias tape to make the faux lacing. 

I made the elastic casings for the neck, sleeves, and waist, then made another elastic casing at the HEM of the skirt. Then I tacked the skirt under and sewed it down in a few spots, creatinga  balloon like effect.

It's puffy and ballonish without having to use a lining. There was no way I wanted to spend time making a real balloon skirt. That would have been too consuming, and I'm not even sure if my little one has decided she is going to wear this for Halloween yet.
She changes her mind almost every day.

Chevron Halloween Wreath Tutorial

 

 I never thought of myself as the wreath type but this was so fun to make I see now why people like making them!

I went to Joann and bought a foam wreath and two chevron patterned quarter yard cuts, some felt squares and some glue sticks for my glue gun.

The black bird came from the dollar store. I bought it like two years ago and it has been hiding out in my craft cupboard with a menacing look like, "When are you going to use me lady, or will I end up at your estate sale someday?"

 The Scrabble pieces are from the Rose Bowl Flea market in Pasadena, but they do have Scrabble type squares at Joann if you don't have ages to collect all these little tile pieces like I do. Spending hours on a Sunday morning starting at the crack of dawn, aimlessly walking the stalls of the flea market wondering if I should buy a ten dollar sausage sandwich or not and an overpriced grain sack. Seriously, how do I end up with so much junk? That's how.

I

 To make the wreath I tore about 2 18 inch strips from my two chevron pieces. The fabric was only 9 inches long so I sewed them all together to make one long piece and wrapped it around the wreath. I used the glue gun to secure it where I started and to secure the strip at the end.

 I cut some 4 inch by 12 inch felt strips, folded them in half and cut slits.

Then I wrapped the strip like this, to make a loopy flower. And glued it to a small felt circle then glued that to the wreath.

I used popsicle sticks  to glue to the back of my Scrabble pieces, creating a little sign... then glued some baker's twine to the wreth to make a hanger, and then I glued on the bird.

Do you like it?