Tiger update

Rory's tiger costume is finally fully finished.  It's been mostly finished for ages, but he repeatedly said he wanted back paws too.

Anyway, back to his costume:

I made it using patterns in the cute and easy costumes for kids sewing book that I have.  The book has loads of simple costumes that can very easily be adapted into whatever you fancy.  I mostly used the lion costume, but used the black cat head and then the back paws are adapted from another pattern.

I found a free pattern for fleece boots/socks on Rhonda's Creative Life and made them up in some more of the tiger fabric - her original pattern calls for them to be overlocked together, with the overlocked edges on the outside.  As I don't have an overlocker I made them so that all the seams are on the inside.  It's meant that they're a little slim in the foot and leg, so next time I make them (as I'm sure he'll grow out of them before he grows out of the rest of the costume) I'll make them a bit wider. 

He then insisted they should have pads on them (like the front paws do) - I used some black sock stop to draw the shape of the pads which seems to have done the trick.

 

You can just see the pads in this photo.  

He loves the costume and apart from being a little confused when he's putting it on as the top fastens at the back, it's a real hit.  It even has a fantastic tail that's attached to the bottoms. 

 I think next we need some super hero costumes - but first I have some other WIPs I need to get shifted, and a dress request from Frances.

week 6

Week 6 (last week) is a bit of a funny week around here, and has been for a few years now.  David goes away with work every week 6 and I'm left with the kids, which is not normally a problem but week 6 at the moment also happens to be their half term and I think we'd go mad if it was just the 3 of us without school to go to or anyone else.  Luckily my parents are very understanding and come to us for week 6.  Last week we did lots of train trips (it being Switzerland and the trains being super efficient) and saw lots of things including: the Swiss Transport Museum in Luzern; the Tinguely museum in Basel; Solothurn; Interlaken; the Kambly biscuit factory...  We had a couple of days off while some new shelves were being delivered, but generally had lots of fun.

Of course all this jollying around on trains meant that there wasn't a whole lot of crafting going on.  I managed to do a few swatches of various increase and decrease related knitting for the city and guilds course.  But sadly, no quilt progress has been made. 

The tiger fabric for Rory's tiger costume arrived with my parents much to his excitement - I managed to get it off him so I could pre-wash and cut it out and have managed to make a start on it.

Looking good so far - the fabric is fleece found in my parent's local fabric shop and I'm following the pattern for the lion in the book Cute and Easy Costumes for Kids by Emma Hardy - I'll make a couple of changes to make it a tiger rather than a lion, but I think with this fabric I can't really go wrong.

While my parents were here I also finally managed to get Rory to wear the stripy tank top I knitted for him ages ago.

I think it looks great on him.