Luke, Susan, Alice and a Storm Trooper

Hello there!
Just popping by to share my characters.  :)


Meet Susan Pevensie of Narnia


Alice in Wonderland (had a bit of injury during the fall down the rabbit hole).


Luke Skywalker


And of course a Storm Trooper

Sorry for the absence.  I guess you guys are used to the fact I come and go.  :)
Life and laziness get in the way.

Been busy painting the house up a storm.  Living room and kitchen getting a bit of a redo. 
The kids and I are crafting our way through Christmas gifts.
And I've had some luck thrifting.
So will be sharing all that hopefully soon.

And oh, I am over an Instagram now.
Due to my love of anything visual, I take lots of pics.
So if you are so inclined to keep up with me and my kidsand projects between my blog posts you can follow me at:   dmbender73



Oh and happy Election Day!
Today I did 2 very important things....had my first mammogram and voted.
One was more painful than the other!  ;)

Catching up--Halloween scenes

Nothing scary about our Halloween.

Couple of superheros.

I have no idea where he got the idea to be Flash.

I had to order this costume.

But he was quite popular with his cute little lightening headed costume. :)

We trunk-or-treated on Sunday night.

This is my cute (but 'scary') cat by our trunk.

We painted pumpkins.

I cut stars into the rainbow pumpkin to light up.

Our spooky snack.

Our spooky dinner.

Then we went trick or treating in the neighborhood.

Lots and lots of candy.

What were your little monsters for Halloween?

What do you do with all your candy?

Another cool giveaway coming up!

My littlest veteranarian, aka animal doctor

Costume #2 for this one.

Her preschool class had a community helper party today in lieu of a Halloween party.

When she decided to be an animal doctor I just couldn't help myself.

I found this adorable kitty fabric and made some super simple scrubs and doctors coat.

I used an old pants pattern for the bottoms.

I just used a shirt of hers to trace to cut out a simple top.

I learned the hard way not to use a knit tee.

Cotton tops need to be much more wide.

As you can see I just cut the sleeves in.

This ended up being too fitted.

So I added those strips you see to the left all along each side seam.

This made it perfect and was easy to do.

I didn't take a picture, but I cut a vneck top and after sewing the shoulders and sides,

 I used bias tape for the edges of the neck.

For her doctors coat, I bought a size large boys white button up.

I cut all the buttons off.

Then I cut off the sleeves after the entire cuff and hemmed.

The bottom I cut evenly across and hemmed.

Then I used a scrap of the shirt and wrote Maressa's name with a fabric marker.

Sewed it to the pocket.

Yes, now I'm officially bonkers.

I reasoned by the lavish costume that she can use the scrubs as pjs.

The lab coat can be used for play.

Luckily, I don't have to make anything much for the others.

Kalla is going to be a black cat.

Black tee, black yoga pants, ears and tail from Target and we'll make her a cute collar.

Micah is going as Flash and the mailman brought his costume.

Zachary is going to be Robin.

Couldn't find a proper fitting costume for him so I'm transforming a tee and sweat pants to the Boy Wonder.  ;)

Course will have pics of all next week.

What are your kids going as this year?

Make this: Unicorn costume tutorial

This was Maressa's halloween costume request this year

We went from Hello Kitty, to Wonder Woman, to girl gnome to a pink unicorn.

She saw a doggie unicorn costume at the pet store. 

She wouldn't budge after that.

I saw an expensive, but not super impressive one at Potttery Barn kids.

I finally decided to tackle a home made one.

It was really easy actually.

Just a plain sweat suit with hood and felt.

I didn't even need my machine.

She liked it just a little bit.

She kept it on all day once we tried it on.

Her sister and her played princess and unicorn for a while.

So here's how I made it:

The hardest part was finding a plain pink hoodie and sweat pants.

I actually ended up finding this set on Amazon.

Then I cut a bunch of white felt for the mane and tail.

Then black felt for the hooves and bit of pink trim for the feet.

I'm not sure how long the strip of white felt I used.

I cut 2 long and wide strips like above.

Then I sewed them down over the hood, one on top of another, with white embroidery floss.

The mane was too long so I cut it off where I wanted it to stop.

I used those pieces to sew a tail at the bottom hem of the jacket.

I added felt hooves to the hem of the legs and arms of her sweat suit.

I didn't take a picture, but I added the pink scalloped felt over the top of the stitches.

Then I added ears to the top of the hood in pink felts.

I used glitter white felt for the horn.

I simply cut a skinny cone shape. 

Then sewed the sides together and added a little stuffing.

Using white embroidery floss I sewed it to the top of the hood.

And a big thank you hug from my own unicorn.  :)

Photo courtesy of Kalla.