Alice in Wonderland White Rabbit Plushie

     If you've been following my craft blog for a while, you may have figured out that two things I love are Halloween and Alice in Wonderland.  This year I decided to combine the two.  For the next few weeks, I'll be posting costume and prop tutorials for Alice in Halloweenland, as I've dubbed this darker Alice look.  With some color modifications here or there, everything should work just as well for a more traditional Alice costume and traditional props.  Follow me down the rabbit hole as we embark on the first leg of our crafting journey.

Materials:

*White flannel fabric
*Black buttons for eyes
*Black thread
*White thread
*Sewing needle
*Stuffing
*Metallic marker
*Scissors
*Pink felt

Directions:

*Print out a copy of the template given below:


*Trace two copies of the rabbit's body and four copies of the outer ear, leg, and arm shapes onto the white flannel and then cut out.

*Trace two copies of the inner ears onto the pink felt and cut out.

*On one copy of the rabbit's body, sew on black buttons for eyes.

*Cut a small triangle from the pink felt and sew or glue on to make the rabbit's nose.

*Using black or pink thread, stitch on a mouth for the rabbit.

*Take the inner ear pieces and sew each to one of the outer ear pieces.

*Take the remaining outer ear pieces and place them over the outer ear pieces with the inner ear pieces such that the inner ear pieces are facing in.  Stitch around the edges, leaving an opening in the bottom for stuffing.

*Turn right side out, stuff the ears, and set aside.

*Take two arm pieces, right sides facing in, and sew together, leaving an opening for stuffing.

*Turn right side out, stuff the arm, and sew closed with a ladder stitch.

*Repeat to create the second arm.

*Take two of the leg pieces, right sides facing in, and sew together, leaving an opening at the top of the leg where the leg will meet the body.

*Turn right side out, stuff, and set aside.

*Repeat to construct the second leg.

*Take the body piece with the face and place it face up.  Place the two ears on top of it, the pink inner ear pieces facing down, the points of the ears pointing toward the bottom of the body piece, the part of the ears that join with the body just barely past the top of the head.  Place the other body piece on top, right side facing in.

*Start sewing along the top of the head until the ears are secure.  Sew the rest of the head closed.  This may be a little tricky, as the ears will likely be a tight fit.

*Sew the sides of the body pieces together.

*Insert the legs between the two body pieces such that the "feet" are pointing toward the rabbit's head, the part of the leg that joins with the body sticking out a little past the end of the body pieces.

*Sew the legs into place, leaving an opening between the legs, then turn the rabbit right side out.

*Stuff and sew closed.

*Attach the arms using a sewing method of your choice.

DIY Zombie Romper with Pockets

     I still can't believe I made this!  I've only made clothes from a pattern once before and those were pajama pants, which were much simpler.  I even managed to modify the pattern to use hook and eye closures instead of buttons without messing anything up!
     Okay, so maybe I'm overly excited about this, but what's not to love?  Zombie fabric, full size pockets that can comfortably hold my phone and its backup battery - it's like the romper of my dreams.
     Since I did use a pattern for this, in this blog post I'm only going to focus on adding the hook and eye closures, since I deviated from the pattern in adding those.  I know the directions on the pattern can be a bit confusing if you're new to sewing, though, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me.  I'm no sewing expert, but I'll try my best to answer any questions.

Materials:

*2.5 to 3 yds Beauty with Brains fabric
*Simplicity Kwik Sew romper pattern
*Sewing machine or needle and thread (I used a needle and thread, but it took me five days to make this, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend if you have access to a sewing machine)
*0.75 yds fusible interface
*0.25 yds non-fusible interface
*Hook and eye closures
*All purpose adhesive
*Iron
*Metallic marker

Directions:

*Follow View A steps 1-14 of the pattern.

*Measure half an inch from the top of the right side (when wearing) bodice piece and place a dot at that location.

*Measure the distance between this spot and the waist.  Divide by 6 and mark out the remaining 5 places.  I used 2" increments for the XS pattern, but if you're making a different size you may need different increments.

*Sew eye closures onto each of these spots.  You'll have two layers of fabric here and you only want to see through the layer that will be sitting against your skin so the stitches won't show.

*I'm not sure if this is the best way to attach the hook closures, but here's what I did.  Initially I had marked the locations for the hooks on the left side in the same way I did for the eyes on the right.  However, I kept worrying that things wouldn't line up, so I looped the hooks through the eyes and marked out where the hook closures rested on the left side.

*Sew on the hook closures.

*Glue together the two layers of fabric using all purpose adhesive or fabric glue.

*Continue to step 16.

Some observations:

*I'm not sure how this works with the other sizes, but with the XS at least, the hip measurement is the most restrictive.  My natural waist is about half an inch larger than the largest size of the XS, while my hips are pretty much exactly the largest size that should fit into the XS.  The waist measurement turned out not to be an issue because the romper doesn't come all the way in to my waist (this may not be true for larger sizes), but because your hips have to fit through the place where the bodice meets the shorts, I can barely get my hips through.  I have to very carefully wiggle into the romper (although it's super comfy once it's on).  If you're between sizes in the hip measurement, you may want to consider going for the larger size.  If you're making the XS and your waist is a tad larger than the size range, it probably won't make a difference.

*The pockets are enormous.  For everyone who has been begging the fashion industry to give us clothes with real pockets, this is the romper for you.

*The pattern calls for less fabric than the 2.5-3 yds I recommend, but that's because they are assuming you're not using patterned fabric.  If you want to have specific zombies on the different parts of the romper, I would recommend getting more fabric.

DIY Goosebumps "Monster Blood" (aka Slime)

     If you're familiar with the Goosebumps series, you've probably heard of monster blood.  This green substance has caused much havoc throughout the four books it was featured in, as well as the TV series.  While it may not be possible (or desirable) to create real monster blood, you can make slime, which looks like monster blood.  If you're throwing a Goosebumps themed party, vials of monster blood could be a great party favor.  Additionally, particularly if your partygoers are at an age where they're fascinated with all things slimy, you could make monster blood as a party activity.

Materials:

*A bottle of school glue
*Borax
*Green food coloring
*Yellow food coloring
*Water

Directions:

*Basically I just followed the procedure outlined on this site.  I'm not nearly as adorable as the little girl who narrates the video is, so I'll let her explain how it's done.

*The key thing about monster blood as opposed to generic slime is the color.  To achieve the almost neon green color I did, you'll want to add your food coloring a little at a time and adjust as you go.  Unfortunately I didn't write down how many drops I used in total, but I don't think it was that much.

*If you have empty spice jars kicking around, they make great containers for monster blood.  Just peel off the label and paint the cap and you're good to go.

*I made the label for these containers using the technique outlined in this post.

Glitter "Slime" Cutlery

     These "slimy" utensils are inexpensive to make and great for a Goosebumps themed party or a Halloween party, among other possibilities.  If you're not a fan of the glitter, you could probably get a similar slimy effect using green puff paint.

Materials:

*Green glitter
*School glue
*Neon green cutlery

Directions:

*Cover your workstation in newspaper.

*Draw slime drip shapes along the end of the handle using school glue.

*Pour glitter over the glue.  Set aside to dry.

*Once dry, tap off excess glitter.  Pour the excess glitter back into the container.

DIY Zombie Pin Up Girl Throw Pillows

     We interrupt your regularly scheduled Goosebumps crafting to bring you the following post:
     You may be wondering, "Why zombie pin up girl throw pillows?"  Here's how this craft came to be.  Brian was at Joann the other day picking up some crafting supplies for me.  I had asked him to keep an eye out for spooky fabric.  He called me and told me that there was this fabric with zombie women on it.  I'm all about zombies, so I asked him to get me some.
     I wasn't sure what the fabric would look like, but I certainly wasn't expecting zombie pin up girls.  The fabric looked cool nonetheless, but I didn't really know what to do with it. I'm not sure how the idea came to me, but somehow I thought of making throw pillows.  This tutorial will work for any kind of throw pillows, so if zombie pin up girls aren't your thing, grab the fabric of your choice and get sewing!

Here are the other sides of the two pillows:

Materials:

*Beauty with Brains fabric by Alexander Henry (or fabric of your choice)
*Needle and thread or sewing machine
*Metallic marker
*Sheet of paper cut to the size you would like your pillow to be
*Scissors
*Stuffing

Directions:

*Select which part of the fabric you would like to have appear on the front of your pillow and place the sheet of paper over it.

*Trace around the sheet of paper and cut out.

*Choose which part of the fabric you would like to use for the back of your pillow and repeat the first two steps.

*Place fabrics together printed side in, with the zombies oriented in the same direction.

*Sew fabric pieces together, leaving about an inch along one side unsewn.

*Turn fabric right side in by pulling through the inch long hole.

*Stuff until the pillow reaches the desired fullness.

*Sew closed using the ladder stitch.  If you're not familiar with the ladder stitch (I just learned about it), here's the YouTube tutorial I used to learn it:

If you've been waiting for more Goosebumps crafts, fear not, for they will be back here next week.  I wanted to post this craft before the Beauty with Brains fabric sold out of crafting stores, but I have two awesome Goosebumps crafts slated for next week and the week after.

Writing a Choose Your Own Adventure Style Story

     For my Goosebumps birthday party, I developed a Give Yourself Goosebumps style story for my interactive Choose Your Own Adventure game.  It had 16 different endings and ended up being about 8,900 words.  While my guests got to explore only one ending during the party, I sent them home with copies of my story so that they could read all the endings.
     Writing a story with multiple endings can be a bit more complicated than writing a story that follows one path.  Here are some things that I have found helpful when writing choose your own adventure style stories.

*Come up with a labeling system to identify your paths.  You're going to need some way to keep track of which choice connects to which story arc.  Numbering your choices 1, 2, 3, etc. may seem like a good idea at first, but it's easy to forget which number you left off on and adds complications if you decide to go back and add another branch.  What I've found useful is the following: Suppose my first choice has three options.  The top option in the list I'll call 0, the next I'll call 1, and the last I'll call 2.  If I start writing the 0 branch and come to a choice, these choices will have a two digit identifier: 00, 01, etc.  The zero at the front tells me that I came from path 0 to get here and the second digit is a way of identifying the choices.  If I start working on the 01 branch and come to a choice, these choices I'll number 010, 011, 012, etc.  Again, the 01 identifies which branch I came from and the final digit is what distinguishes this choice from the others.  This strategy has it's downsides, the main one being that if you have a lot of choices, it's easy to mistype a 0 or 1 somewhere and mess up your coding scheme, but it's what has worked well for me.

*When using my labeling system, I put one label at the end of the choice and the same label at the top of the page on which that branch begins.  For example, this is what a choice might look like:

If you eat the ice cream, turn to page 010100.

This is what the beginning of that branch might look like:

010100

     You eat the ice cream.  Your body starts to tingle . . .

These labels will all be removed in the end and replaced with page numbers, but it helps to keep track of your paths while you're writing the story.

*Keep a story map.  It's easy to get lost in a story with multiple paths, so this gives you a way to keep track of what you've done and where you're going.  You'll want to write out each choice with a brief description (1-2 sentences) of what happens in that choice.  For example,

You wake up in a cool, damp enclosure.

If you turn on your flashlight, turn to page 0.
If you decide it's safer to leave your flashlight off, turn to page 1.

0

You turn on your flashlight and see you're in a cave.  You hear a scraping sound.

If you go toward the sound, turn to page 00.
If you move away from the sound, turn to page 01.

00

You go toward the sound and see a slimy creature.

If you go toward it, turn to page 000.
If you run away from it, turn to page 001 . . .

And so on.  You can use this map to keep track of which paths you've written or to plan out where you want to go.  I tend to use them for both purposes.

*Write branches one at a time.  This way it's more like you're writing a traditional story.  I tend to start by writing all the 0th choice lines, e.g., 0, 00, 000, etc. until I reach the end of that line.  Then I go back to the last choice I made and finish that line.

For example, if 00000 comes to an end, after I finish writing it I would then go back to 00001 and write this branch and all of its choices.  Then I would go back to 0001.  Each time I finish a path, I move back to the last choice I made until I finish the story.

*Limit your choices.  This is one of the hardest things for me when it comes to writing a choose your own adventure style story.  I want to give people lots of options, but the more options I give, the harder it is to finish the story.  Also, the longer your branches are, the more options you'll end up having.  This is one place where your story map could come in handy.  If you start mapping out the options you want to have, you can see whether your plan is too ambitious.  For the most part, you'll want to limit yourself to two options per choice and maybe four or five choices per main story branch.  If there's a particular branch you're really interested in, you can always have a few more choices or options for that one and truncate some of your other branches.

That's all the advice I have for now.  If you do end up writing your own choose your own adventure style story, let me know how it goes.

The Grand prize for my cover design contest was a copy of my story with this holographic cover.

Everyone else got a copy of the story with a non-shiny cover.

DIY Pikachu Fan Ears

     I know last week I said I would give you a post about writing your own Choose Your Own Adventure story, but then Pokemon GO introduced the Pikachu Fan trainer costume and I couldn't resist making my own Pikachu ears.  With GO Fest Chicago right around the corner, I figured some people might be interested in making these to wear to the event.  The Choose Your Own Adventure story writing tips are still in the works and I will likely post them next week, so stay tuned for that.
     Pokemon GO just released a Pikachu Fan costume in honor of the game's two year anniversary.  The costume is adorable.  I still don't have the gold Pikachu Fan medal, so I couldn't get the whole costume, but here's my avatar wearing the ears, shoes, and shorts:

     I thought the ears were super cute and decided to make a set of my own.  I may try to make a variant on the whole Pikachu Fan trainer costume, but I have a busy summer ahead, so we'll see.  For now, here's how you can make some Pikachu ears of your own, whether you want them to wear out and about or for a Pikachu Halloween costume or cosplay.

Materials:

*Yellow felt
*Black felt
*Black thread
*Needle
*Brown or black headband
*All purpose adhesive
*Metallic marker
*Stuffing

Directions:

*Print out a copy of the Pikachu ear template below:

*Cut out the ear shape and trace four copies of it onto the yellow felt, two traced with the template right side up and two with it facing down.

*Cut the ear shape in two along the diagonal line and trace two copies of the resulting semi-triangular shape onto the black felt, one right side up and the other facing down.

*Sew the black ear pieces to the yellow ear pieces like this:

*Take two of the ear pieces and place them together, right side in.  Sew their edges together, leaving about an inch at the bottom unseen.

*Turn the ear right side in and stuff.

*Glue the ear to the headband.

*Repeat with the other ear.