Cheat's Kangaroo and birthday cards

We had a lovely time at the party.

If you'd like to know more about the endangered bilby you may like to check out this page.

I had planned on making a costume for Moonshine but it's hard to be motivated when she'll outgrow it quickly. Instead opted for a top with a pocket to be her pouch and a little kangaroo joey. (Mind you half the guest thought Rainbow was a kangaroo). The joey didn't spend much time in the pocket! Actually for much of the party Moonshine (and several of Rainbow's friends) wore the bilby ears!

Rainbow and I also had an exciting moment when we saw the dingo out for a walk with his keeper but Rainbow was confident that he would know she was just a "pretend dingo".

For the two birthday kids' cards Rainbow and I made finger puppets. You put your finger through the holes to be the animal's legs. Rainbow made a lion and a monkey. The white stuff on the monkey is glue - it dries clear - I was just a little quick with my photography.

I also made a quick pair of puppets for Rainbow to play with. These little guys like to dance, run, march, jump, kick a ball....

I've been playing around with cards that double as toys. Here's two others we've made recently. This one used Zoe from Playing by the Book's very cool templates. This converts quite magically from 2D to 3D with a few easy folds. Rainbow's hoping to go see the robotic dinosaur temporary exhibit at the museum soon so I'm thinking this may inspire us making a "whole world of Zoe dinosaurs" to play with. Yes, something terrible happened to his tail. That's what happens when you make the card 10mins before the party. I had to balance him with a bit of blu tac between his stumpy tail!

This card is a water painted fairy ballerina. If you rub the skewer between two fingers or your palm she twirls.

Bilby Costume

I'm honoured today to be a guest on Playing by the Book where I'm sharing some of Rainbow and my favourite Australian literature. By co-incidence today I completed a very Australian project.

On Friday Rainbow is attending a party at the zoo - costumes optional. So of course what's Rainbow's favourite animal - a bilby.

Look at these babies aren't they adorable. The weather's likely to be in the high 30s so know full on fur. Though bilby's survive very well in the desert - though their days are spent deep in their burrows.

For a long time Rainbow loved Alison Lester's series about the five kids. In "Clive eats Alligators it goes through what each child wears - stripey pants, overalls ... and Tessa wears a tail. So here is Rainbow's bilby tail and ears...

I can't imagine too many people will ever need to make a bilby costume but it could be easily adapted for any other animal (rabbit ears or tiger's tail). I'm already starting to think Easter bunny ears - with white fleece and pink satin and positioned on top of the head, maybe even one droopy ear.

Bilby's ears are made of fake fur and polar fleece. They have a wire insert to give them a little strength - bilbies need their erect ears to hear predators (mostly dingos) and keep cool. The wire is then wrapped around the headband. The headband is then wrapped with polar fleece.

Oh and here's my own baby bilby.

Making a Mermaid Costume

This weekend we went to a mermaid party so obviously the girls needed a little transformation.

From my internet surfing I found you have two options a tight skirt that frills out at the bottom or a long skirt with a fish tail hanging off the back. I opted for the later because it's a more literal translation for a two year old and more practical for playing. Interestingly it was the costume style worn by every mermaid at the party. Unable to find a tutorial to create the skirt I imagined I created my own. I'm very proud of this as it's the first piece of clothing I have made of my own design.

Material

Another positive is that both costume cost less than $10. I brought 50cm of a aqua chiffon like fabric with a glittery silver pattern and 30 cm of aqua netting (for merbaby). You could use any pretty mermaid like fabric.

For the lining I used 70 cm (50cm if you're just making a mermaid skirt) of aqua cotton that I had at home. You also need a small piece of batting, matching thread and elastic.

I used a papery fabric that is used for tracing patterns. You could also use calico or a cheap cotton.

Process

1. Draw up a dummy skirt. This will become your template for the eventual skirt. Here is the pattern soon to be added. It's all straight lines so really easy to draw up straight onto the fabric.


2. Cut out the dummy skirt and sew it together at the sides using a 1.5 cm seam allowance (or what ever seam allowance you intend to use .


3. Fold over about 2.5 cm at the top. This will form the waistband.


4. Ideally try it on your child now and mark the top of the knee in the middle of the front piece and their ankle in the middle of the back piece.


5. Lie the dummy skirt on the floor (remove the child first) with the skirt folded so that the middle of the front piece is on one side and the middle of the back is on the other side. In other words the seams are lined up in the middle. This will enable you to get a symetrical template.


6. Now draw in the hem line. It starts (at the bottom of the photo) just above the knee (remember the mark you made). It travels across then gently curves and ends in line with the ankle mark. From here draw on your tail. This was my draft - my husband made it a little more fish like. If I make this again I would make the piece where the tail joins on wider to make turning easier.


7. Cut along your line through both layers.
   


8. Unpick your seam. This will give you your pattern.



Pin your pattern to your fabric (cotton and chiffon). Cut a top and bottom out of each fabric.



9. Sew the front and back pieces together at the side, right side together. Repeat using the lining fabric.


10. Turn the top layer so that the right side is on the outside. Place the lining skirt inside the top layer. The two layers should be right sides together and the seams and edges should match up.


11. Lie batting ontop of the fish tail and cut out. By lying the battin on top of the chiffon the edges get tucked behind the lining layer where they aren't visible.
    
12. Pin together along lower seam and tail. Sew.


13. Re-enforce the tail by going around it with a zigzag stitch.Then trim off the excess close to the zigzag stitch.
    


14. Turn the skirt throught the open waist so that the right side is on the outside. This is where a wider tail opening would help. I eventually unpicked the stitches around the tail and closed the edges afterwards.


15. Top stitch around the bottom hem and tail.


16. Turn over a 2.5cm hem along the top with both layers together. Insert elastic.


17. Sew along the bottom hem using a gathering stitch (longest stitch length, low tension). Pull the bobbin thread to gather the bottom hem into a frill. Sew along basting with a normal stitch.

18. A dangly tail can get in the way so add a matching button on the waistband and a buttonhole on the end of the tail.

It's kind of like a mermaid bustle. Alternatively you could add a small loop of cord or ribbon to one end of the tail so that it can be looped over the wrist.

There you are your skirt is complete.

You might like to whip up an applique t-shirt using the scraps.

You can find this little fish here.

Or a matching hair lacky. This is very simple just cut any matching fibres (strips of tulle, ribbon, wool...) about 15cm long and tie them around the hair lacky until the circle is complete,

Flotsam and Getsam

Look what I found at the beach today.

Two lovely little mermaids.

So I took them home and put them to bed.

This little mermaid slept for 2 hours.

This little merbaby slept for 3 hours.

It's tiring being a mermaid!