Jedi Robes for kids

I did it, I made 2 Jedi Robes for my boys for Christmas.  The long brown outer robe and the white tunic underneath, plus a belt.  I made it from a combination of an online tutorial plus my own adjustments for kid size.  This was my biggest sewing project attempt to date.  It even involved a Skype consultation with my mom when I got stuck along the way.  Because these robes were a secret project, I used the boys snowsuits and sweaters to figure out measurements.  I made them deliberately big and hemmed it up a bunch of times so they can still use them as they grow.  The online tutorial I used you can find here and found it very helpful.  I did have to make adjustments with sizing, this was only problematic with the hood.  The hood was way too big for a kid sized costume.  I ended up measuring the along the length of the neckline so get the right hood length and made the width smaller than what their tutorial recommends.  It worked.  Here's a few pictures of my process.

 Ironing the miles and miles of fabric. 

 Cutting the outline using the snowsuit.

 Pinning it together .

 Using a sweater to figure out the tunic.

My little Pad-O-Wan learner on Christmas morning.

Making a Photo Album Book Cover

I'm one of those people who try to figure out how to make stuff off the cuff.  Now that I'm more comfortable with sewing and using my sewing machine,  I wanted to figure out a little project on my own.  So I thought to do this.  Friends of ours have a son who loves taking pictures.  We figured a photo album would be a nice gift for him.  I thought I'd personalize it with an album cover. 
I took a fat quarter and lay the album on top of it.  I cut around the perimeter, giving an extra 3 inches on either side and an extra inch on the top and bottom.  I then sewed up the edges. 

I then measured where the fold would be on both ends, pinned it and sewed up the line.  I checked to make sure the fit was good.

I finished it off by hand sewing his first initial, "B" with embriodery thread.  I'm not great at this yet, but I think it worked out okay. 

The word back from his mom was that he loved the album, especially the B on it. 

Twin Dolls

I did mention that I was making two of those cute little dolls for Christmas gifts this year.  One my niece and another for my daughter.  Here are the two dolls together before I shipped my niece's off to her.

My niece was apparently thrilled with her doll, and said it looked just like her.  Well she does have long brown hair.  My daughter, well, she likes chewing on the legs (she's 11 months old).  I'm pretty pleased with them, I think they are cute.

Purses for Little Girls

I made three of these little purses as Christmas gifts for a few little girls we know this year. I hope they like them. I think they are super cute and were easy and fun to make. You can find the tutorial I used at Skip to my Lou here.

Rag Doll

One of the little rag dolls I'm making is finished. This one will be shipped off for my niece Sadie to open on Christmas morning. I think she's pretty cute (Sadie and the doll). I followed the instructions and pattern at Make Baby Stuff Dot Com. You can find this pattern here.

Aunt Lindy's Paper Dolls

I fell in love with these paper dolls on Etsy. They reminded me of 2 things, one the Campbell's Soup kids and two, the Strawberry Shortcake set of stuffed dolls my mom had made me when I was a kid. They were a fun little project to do and I'm sure my daughter will love them when she gets them under the tree this Christmas.
The boys also had fun helping me make these. They loved the stuffing! They stuffed all the little animals.