I saw this tutorial for superhero capes but put it out of my mind. I didn’t think I’d be sewing a superhero cape for a few years. But Isabelle surprised me the other day with her superhero antics. So I immediately went looking for it. It gives you the basic idea for the cape and how to do the appliqués.

But don’t just wing the neck area like I did. That’s how you end up with two superhero capes (which isn’t a bad thing for a big kid like me). I screwed up the first cape using my real red fabric. What happened was, I didn’t quite understand how to do the neck area. I thought, it’s just a cape. How hard can it be? Well that resulted in a cape that wouldn’t fit around Isabelle’s neck.

I didn’t want to waste more red fabric without testing it on muslin. And the second time, I was smart. I measured her neck. What an improvement. It actually fit around her neck.

I was about to make her another one when Alan said, why don’t you put an “I” on it for Isabelle. I didn’t have any felt or fusible web so I thought I’d test yellow fabric out on the screwed up cape. It worked but it’s a little puckered.

But before I could even start on a new cape, Isabelle noticed the “I” on the red fabric. She went gaga over it, yelling, “super baby! super baby!”. So instead of cutting new red fabric I cut more of the neckline away. It was a pain to turn the fabric but it worked, it fit around her neck. Yeah…blah blah blah. You want to see the pictures right? Here they are:

Mild mannered baby…

with a secret identity! It’s SUPER BABY!!

She leaps tall buildings in a single bound.

Or ummm errr steps.

Up, up, and away!!

Hee hee!

Sorry. No pictures of me in my super cape. I couldn’t find it this morning. I was sort of bummed that I didn’t know where it was. It’s not as fun running around yelling “Super Mama!” without the cape. And when I did find it, Isabelle wanted to play with SUPER DOG!!!

Oh and how we photographed Isabelle flying.

Oh my gawd, I’m just kidding. Do not throw your baby. It was actually done through Photoshop, of course!

Posted by Kuky at 7:49 pm in: Family, Finished Project, Illustrations, Sewing
16 Comments

I’m having one of those days where I didn’t get much done. I thought about doing a lot but that’s about as far as I got, the thinking part. BUT I DID scan in the pictures from ISBN 9784579110438.

Here’s the picture from the book of the tank top I showed yesterday. I’ve altered it since then and…it’s so depressing, I’ll write about it tomorrow.

No. Actually, I’ll write about it now. The test tank top in muslin (thank goodness I made a muslin) as I mentioned before was pushing down on my boobs.

The empire style (is that what it’s called) part of it was sitting in the wrong area. It’s supposed to sit right under my boob but my damn boobs are so big I had to mush them in and it wasn’t fitting. The bottom half puffed out unattractively making me look pregnant. I didn’t take pictures of a side view because, oh my gawd, the horror! The picture, from yesterday, didn’t look that bad but in person, YIKES! So I altered it.

I thought I would add three more inches to the top half so there would be more room for the girls. Well it doesn’t smoosh my boobs down anymore. And it doesn’t make me look 8 months pregnant. But it’s still a little tight, just a tad. Then it dawned on me, to measure my chest. That’s when I realized, I’ve gained weight since I first purchased the book. Or to be more accurate, I’ve gotten bigger.

That’s why it’s so depressing. That’s why it doesn’t fit! I made the largest size, 13, and it still doesn’t fit!! Aaaarrrgggh!!!

So now I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I should alter it more to actually give me more inches around or just give up and try a different pattern.

But what’s the point? Maybe all the patterns from this book won’t fit since the largest size is 13. I really wanted to make pattern #13, the one above on the left, but it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of room in the chest area.

Maybe pattern #10, the one above on the right, has more room? I don’t know. Maybe I should measure the patterns.

Man, I’m bummed. I look at pictures of myself and am sometimes surprised that I look bigger than I imagined. Is that a weird thing to say? Well turns out I am bigger.

So yeah…don’t know what to do now. Oh I almost forgot the whole reason for my post. I got distracted by lamenting about my weight. Here’s what I meant to link to, the rest of the pictures from the book.

Oh I hate being pathetic. I had to give myself a laugh. I looked up “I’m too sexy” on youtube and sang “I’m too big for my shirt, too big for my shirt…” with a little head shake and everything. Yes I’m a goober, a big fat goober.

Posted by Kuky at 1:08 am in: Books yum BOOKS, Finished Project, Sewing
17 Comments

I spent way too much time on the computer today trying to make a change to my Wordpress theme. I was on the computer so long researching, I actually feel nauseous. And the change did not work to my liking. Sucks. And because of that, my plan to scan pictures of the one of the Japanese craft books I got ages ago, ISBN 978-4579110438, didn’t happen. Oh well…maybe tomorrow.

This tank top is from that book. It’s too small and pushes down on my boobs. I’m so disappointed.

But here are some pictures of Isabelle that make me happy.

We were drawing with Crayola 3-D sidewalk chalk. It comes with glasses and when you draw with both sides of the chalk, and then look through the glasses, the colors pop out all 3-D like.

I thought it was very cool. Alan thought it was very cool. Isabelle? Didn’t notice at all.

She just had fun drawing outside on the sidewalk, on her face, and on her clothes.

Posted by Kuky at 12:01 am in: Family, Finished Project, Sewing
5 Comments

I’ve been feeling a bit scatter brained lately so this post is all over the place.

How was everyone’s weekend? We didn’t do anything except buy toilet paper and stuff like that from Target. Wow, how exciting huh?

Well we did play with binoculars.

They’re screaming fun! (Well for Isabelle)

Oh and I did get sewing done! Not this one but a tank top.

This one is the alteration on the pattern I showed before, in muslin, from ISBN 4579111494. I liked the band at the bottom but wanted it a little thinner than my test shirt. But I went overboard and made it too thin. I still love it. Well except for the color. What can brown do for you?

Oh and because this post isn’t random enough, here’s the drawing:

And also to make this post even more random and all over the place, here’s a video.

We were in the car and Isabelle was singing “Happy Birthday” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider”. It was so cute that I grabbed Alan’s cell phone and started recording. But when we got home, I checked the clip, and realized you can’t hear her. So I edited it just to the last bit where I’m singing and Isabelle is doing the hand motions. (Password: izzybear)

Itsy Bitsy Spider from Kuky Ideas on Vimeo.

Posted by Kuky at 12:05 am in: Family, Finished Project, Illustrations, Isabelle Video, Sewing
3 Comments

Thank you everyone for the recipes!

And look! I’ve been drawing again…finally. I have another one all drawn up and ready to go for tomorrow (or whenever I get to posting again).

Yes. I know, I just went to the fabric store last week. But really, if you were me, you wouldn’t say no either.

And plus, I got to take pictures like this when we were there.

And I came home with….FABRIC! Bwa ha ha ha!

It’s linen. I had in mind to make more tops like the green top and the blue top with some alterations.

Alterations like this. No, I haven’t gotten back to sewing. I’m just playing catch up with pictures. This is the same pattern as the blue shirt from ISBN 4579111494. I just altered the hem. It has a wide band on the bottom. I don’t know if you can see that from this picture.

Yeah, so the plan was to make more of these shirts. That is until I remembered that we’ll be getting very hot weather in the summer. Then I thought maybe I should be making tank tops. No shirts. Tank tops. Shirts. Tank tops. I’m wishy washy like that.

Ok. Off I go to not sew with my new fabric or patterns, but to argue with myself on what to make. Have a good weekend and may you be more productive than me!

Posted by Kuky at 7:11 pm in: Fabric love, Family, Finished Project, Illustrations, Sewing
5 Comments

Meet Isabelle’s new dolly, Maggie! She is inspired by Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. Remember my original idea was to use felt for the hair? Well that didn’t work out. Isabelle kept kept taking it off, calling it a hat. I don’t know what she did with it so I went the yarn route. The strands are all painstakingly sewed down. It was hard work but absolutely worth it, it’s a better fit.

I remember when I was little, I loved playing with dolls with removable clothing. So with that in mind, I made this dolly with removable clothes, using velcro.

I also did removable shoes. That might not have been the best idea. Isabelle keeps taking the shoes off saying, “oh no!! HELP! Shoooooes!” and wanting me to put them back on.

Isabelle likes her Maggie doll. But she doesn’t see it as Maggie. She just says, “dolly”.

Back to the drawing board? Ahh…forget it. Isabelle likes her fine enough to dance with her even though she doesn’t call her Maggie.

Posted by Kuky at 12:29 am in: Family, Finished Project, Sewing, Softies
14 Comments

So I ended up cutting a pair of socks up, not the ones I took a picture of, but one of the pairs I drew. I cut them up and turned them into a sock elephant. I had a hard time taking a picture of him though, because Isabelle was running off with him. I’m going to say it again but wow it’s hard to take pictures of soft toys with a toddler around!

I did manage to finally get this picture of him by himself but it’s not quite accurate. He’s falling over so you can’t tell he’s all wonky.

His head is too small for his body. It’s not noticeable in this picture. I probably didn’t cut in the right place. And I should have stuffed his head more before I sewed it up. I didn’t notice though until after I made up his body. Then the size difference was waaaay obvious. And his ears are funny. I took such care with his arms and legs and ran out of steam with his ears. They’re not tucked in and just funky.

But Isabelle likes him and that’s all that counts.

Posted by Kuky at 11:18 pm in: Family, Finished Project, Illustrations, Illustrations - Daily Comic, Sewing, Softies
13 Comments