The Lady Beekeeper

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Winter Solstice and Happy Holidays!  I hope you had/are having a wonderful time celebrating with your family and friends.

Every year my co-workers and I make each other gifts for Christmas. In the past it has been a food product.  One year it was mulling spices, another it was peppermint bark. This year I wanted to sew my co-workers something since I’ve been on a sewing kick. I also figured that all my extra time on sabbatical would enable me to prep for the holidays more adequately. Boy was I wrong. The sabbatical just gave me the hope that I had infinite time, and encouraged me to create an idyllic time blind list of dozens upon dozens of things I wanted to accomplish. I won’t tell you how many things were on the list or you’d just laugh at my naivety. Let’s just say I’ll have no shortage of blog entries in the coming months.

Honestly this whole sabbatical and hat making adventure has lead me to identify one of my tragic flaws. I’m going to call it over-optimistic time dilation. You see I’ve always been terrible at time management. In college I would stay up for days on end with different partners to finish projects we all thought would get done earlier. At work I’ve learned to purposely increase my estimates for how long things will take, to lengths that seem preposterous to my over enthusiastic mind. My problem is not necessarily knowing how long something will take but instead giving myself overly ambitious deadlines because I don’t take into account interruptions or unforeseen circumstances or am overly enthusiastic about how hard I will want work on the project after a long day at work.

To add to my estimation troubles, I’m a bit of a procrastinator. My theory is that I’ve actually developed this over-aggressive time estimation as a defense mechanism to cure my procrastination. I actually believe that giving myself nearly unachievable deadlines holds me to lofty goals and forces me to work on these goals rather than procrastinate. It works about 50% of the time. Unfortunately this means that the other 50%of the time I spend watching a movie with Will or drinking wine instead of accomplishing something on my endless list of exciting projects to try. Anyway, all this is to say that in addition to the beast of a sabbatical list, I also created myself a Christmas project list and full on over-enthusiastic schedule for Christmas projects I wanted to accomplish. Guess how that turned out? Yeah… let’s just say I finished my co-worker’s presents the day before I left for Nashville, and didn’t make anything for our families. On the bright side I think I have a New Year’s resolution!

One of the presents I made this year is a great stand by for anyone who needs a quick present for a home owner. My co-worker can’t be described by anything other than an “extreme Purdue fan”. His entire apartment is decorated in black and gold. Being a bachelor he doesn’t have much in the way of frivolities like decorative throw pillows so I decided to make him a Purdue colored pillow for his living room. You can adapt this simple striped pillow to any color scheme you see fit.

Finished pillow

Simple Striped Pillow

• 1 yard of black material (or color of your choice*)
• 1 yard of gold material (or color of your choice*)
• 18″x18″ pillow form

*You can use any materials you want, but make sure that the two fabrics you choose are of a similar structure and weave. For instance, don’t choose a black leather with a knit gold material. I used thick black woven faux suede and a gold pleather.

All measurements below account for 1/2″ seam allowance.

1. Cut two 7″x19″ rectangles, two 1.5″x19″ rectangles and two 12″x19″ rectangles from black.
2. Cut one 5″x19″ rectangle and two 2″x19″ rectangles from gold.

Cut fabric into rectangles.

3. Pin 5″ gold rectangle to both 1.5″ black rectangle lengthwise. Stitch.
4. Pin one 2″ gold rectangle lengthwise to each 1.5″ black rectangle end remaining. Stitch.

Pin black to gold stripe.

5. Pin one black 7″ rectangle lengthwise to each of the 2″ gold rectangles. Stitch.
6. Press on wrong side of pillow. The front of your pillow is complete!

Press

7. Take the 12″ rectangle and fold under a lengthwise edge 1/2″ to form a hem. Repeat for second rectangle.

Pin under 1/2″ on back pieces of pillow.

8. Lay the finished edge of one of the rectangles over the finished edge of the second rectangle, overlapping by 2.5″. Pin and baste along the edge of the fabric at the overlap point.

Place hemmed edge of pillow back over other hemmed edge and pin at edges.

9. Line up the back square created in 9 by the front square created in 6, right sides together.

Pin pillow back to pillow front, right sides together.

10. Pin edges and stitch. Trim edges and clip points, turn inside out.
11. Place pillow cover over pillow form by inserting through back opening.
Enjoy!

Finished pillow front.

Finished pillow back.

I love flannel.  I confess it.  It is so cozy it feels like you’re being wrapped up in a big warm hug.  Almost scandalous to wear to work its so comfortable.  Anyway I’m working on a flannel dress (to be honest I’ve been working on it since mid sabbatical nearly 8 weeks ago). You see, I used to go all out for “Fancy Fridays”.

Since I’m an engineer, dressing up for work inspires a lot of confused questions from co-workers.  “Hot date tonight?” “Good luck on your job interview.”  Or the plain old, “why are you wearing a dress?”  So I started dressing up on Fridays and using the excuse “Fancy Friday” as a joke.  People thought it was funny and I got a lot of compliments.  Then after work one fall night my co-workers remarked that it was getting too cold for dresses and wondered what would I do.  A work friend was wearing flannel that day so we decided to adopt “Flannel Friday” as a group.  I originally planned to do a combined flannel Friday and fancy Friday, but have you ever tried to find fancy flannel?  It just doesn’t exist.  Hence me working on a dress.  Anyway.

All this is to tell you that I am making ornaments out of the scrap fabric from my dress to make for my Flannel Friday following co-workers.  I hope they don’t read this in the next couple days.  This is a super quick and easy tutorial, so I hope you whip some up for your fabulous co-workers and inspire some flannel-wearing.  Trust me, you won’t regret it.

Voila! Your tree in fabulous flannel!

Flannel Friday Heart Ornament

• Scrap flannel (about 12″x12″ square)
• 8″ of 1/2″ satin ribbon
• heart pattern

1. Cut out the heart pattern above and trace onto scrap flannel along the bias (This makes the pattern pretty cute, but is a bit trickier to stuff and sew) or lined up with selvedge.
   

   Trace heart pattern onto flannel.

   

   Trace two hearts on flannel on the bias.

2. Cut 2 heart shapes out leaving 1/2″ seam allowance.
   

   Cut around heart leave 1/2″ seam allowance.

3. Pin hearts together, right sides together.
   

   Pin.

4. Fold ribbon in half, insert inside the heart the cut edges above the point where both lobes of the heart meet.  Repin.
   

   Pin ribbon inside heart.

5. Stitch hearts together leaving a 1″ gap opened on one of the straight side seams of the heart.  Clip curves and the “v” of the heart.
   

   Clip curves and dip in heart.

6. Open out and stuff.
   

   Stuff.

7. Tuck the unfinished seam allowance of the gap inside the heart and and stitch (whip stitch) the 1″ gap closed.
   

   Hand stitch opening closed.

   Voila!

   

Well we finally finished decorating our Christmas tree, so I’m happy to say that Santa can come now.  December always seems to fly by, especially this year when I have an extra long list of crafts I want to finish by Christmas.  To keep me in the spirit, I’ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music lately  and “My Favorite Things” from Sound of Music is one that comes up frequently.  A lot of the things she sing about seem so arbitrary yet so poetic.  I have a similar list of arbitrary things that I conjure up when I’m feeling down or scared.  Here’s a snapshot of mine.

• my sewing machine
• yoga
• laughing babies
• flannel friday
• fall
• the smell before a thunderstorm
• thunderstorms
• the full moon obscured by clouds
• pastures of cows
• fires
• meteor showers
• when you exchange glances and share a joke with a complete stranger without saying a word
• acoustic guitars
• mashed potatoes and gravy
• short legged dogs like dachshunds and corgis (one in particular)

I don’t know why but my list’s short legged dogs combined with Maria’s “girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes” had me thinking of Corgis with bows around their necks.  So I decided to make Dany a festive Christmas bow for her collar.  You could change out the velcro portion and attach a hair clip instead for a cute hair accessory.  For a male dog you can omit the tails of the ribbon and make the width of the bow slightly narrower for a bow tie.  For cats, scale down as appropriate.

Okay fine, here’s the bow.

Dog Bow Christmas Collar Accessory

• 1/4 yard of festive cotton material
• a few inches of string/ribbon
• 1 inch of velcro

1. Cut a 15″x9″ rectangle for the bow, a 9.5″x7″ rectangle for the tails, and a 9.5″x3.5″ rectangle for the center.
2. Fold the 15″x9″ bow in half long ways to form a 4.5″x15″ rectangle, right sides together.  Pin and stitch along the open length.
   

   Fold Bow in half, stitch long end.

3. Open out. Pin and stitch the ends together to form a tube.  The unfinished edge should be in the center of the tube.
   

   Pin and stitch ends together.

4. Take the 9.5″x7″ rectangle for the tails and fold it in half the long ways to form a 3.5″x9.5″ rectangle, right sides together.
   

   Pin and stitch along the edges of the tail, leaving a 2″ gap.

5. Pin along all 3 sides, leaving a 2″ gap in the center of the long side.  Stitch all three sides except the 2″ gap.
6. Clip corners, open out and press flat.
   

   Turn inside out and press.

7. Take the center 9.5″x3.5″ rectangle and fold it in half the long ways to form a 9.5″x1.75″ rectangle, right sides together.
8. Pin and stitch along the open length.
   

   Fold bow center in half and stitch.

9. Take your bow tube and put the seam in the center back.  Place the tail directly under the bow tube.
   

   Line up bow and tails.

10. Scrunch the bow tube along the center and the tail along the center and tie them together with string or ribbon.
    

    Tie bow and tails together.

11. Take the center rectangle and wrap around the string.  Form a loop, pin and remove from the bow and tails.  Stitch.
    

    Form a loop to fit around bow and tails, remove from bow.

12. Measure your dog’s collar width.  Mine was 1″ thick.  Double and add 1/2″ for your strap length.  Stitch velcro on the back of the center loop you formed in 11.  Measure one strap length from the center of your velcro.  Cut.
    

    Stitch velcro to loop.

13. Fold under 1/2″ and stitch.
14. Attach velcro to folded edge, making sure the velcro will meet the other side of velcro in a loop.
    

    Stitch velcro to end.

15. Attach the loop around your dog’s collar and show her off!
    

    I’m such a pretty Christmas Corg!

    

    I’ll show off my downward dog skills, oh and this bow.

    

    You sure you don’t just want a picture of my face?

This was my first week back at work after 9 weeks off.  Let me just say, it was really, really rough getting up the first day.  Not to mention that I spent the entirety of last week dreading going back, so that was a waste of a week!  I’m starting to get back into the swing of things, but I have such a backlog of gifts I wanted to get done for Christmas that I made daily sewing appointments in my calendar for craft projects.   Get ready for some great Christmas projects in the coming weeks!

We had our first real snowfall today so its really starting to feel like winter.  That and I’m curled up by the fire with a glass of wine writing this post.  While I’m sitting here reminiscing I thought I’d point you to some past blog entries with cute quick Christmas gifts you could make in a pinch (each takes <1 hour to create)!  I hope they inspire you to create this Christmas!

For your fit and fabulous friends:

Running Belt for your keys and cell phone

For someone you’d like to pamper:

Homemade lip balm

For your co-workers:

For the foodie (add in a bottle of wine):

For the environmentally conscience:

For the nerd in your life:

This is just a taste of some of the past ideas on my blog.  For other ideas click on one of the categories above and scroll through the photos.  I’d love to hear what you’re making for folks this year!  Drop me a note in the comments below!  And without further ado here are the instructions for my fabulous flapper headpiece!

Fabulous flapper headpiece

Fabulous Flapper Headpiece

What you’ll need:

• Assorted feathers ( I choose two ostrich plumes, a peacock feather and a couple rooster feathers)
• 1 yard of 1 inch wide trim
• 2 inches of 1″ thick elastic
• Oversized decorative button

1. Measure the circumference of your head just above the ears.  Cut a piece of trim 1 inch larger than the circumference of your head.
2. Turn ends of trim under 1/2″ and stitch in place.
   

   Turn raw ends of band under and stitch in place.  Sorry it is so blurry!

3. Slightly overlap edges of trim and stitch elastic to trim, one side at a time.  Make sure you do not sew the trim together completely.  Stitch close to the top of the band then close to the bottom of the band.
   

   Stitch elastic to inside of band, slightly overlapping the ends.

4. Arrange your feathers as you prefer and use masking tape to hold their bases together.
5. Place feather arrangement on the side of the headband on top of the right side of the band.  Stitch through tape and feathers to adhere to band. Sew one line of stitching near the top of the band and another line near the bottom.
   

   Stitch feathers to band.

6. Take a 2″ piece of trim and fold edges under.  Matching the pattern on the band, stitch piece of trim on top of the feathers, hiding the masking tape.
   

   Stitch piece of trim over band to cover bottom of feathers.

7. By hand, sew decorative button on top of the trim hiding the feathers.

I have some great friends… A few weeks ago some of my friends’ found out that there is a “speakeasy” themed bar in town that serves prohibition era cocktails.  It claims to be a cobbler shop and its entrance is hidden in the back of a working creamery.  The suggestion was that we get a few people together, dress up in 1920’s garb and head to the speakeasy for some cocktails.  AWESOME.  How fun.  I’ve been wanting to create a flapper dress for a while and have a bunch of pins on my pinterest sewing board of authentic 1920’s dresses.

If you’ve never seen a quintessential flapper dress I can tell you they are not particularly flattering.  I used to say I hated 1920’s style for this reason, but with my love of costumes I’ve grown to love this time period too.  And looking more into authentic dresses they aren’t as hideous as I once thought.  The commonality seems to be a top portion that is square to the hips (which does not flatter the breasts in any way).  At the hips the skirt generally became either fuller or tight fitting.  From the models I observed, many dresses had skirts that were cut on the bias so it would stretch to your curves.  For a time, the skirt was shorter than average for the time period, but not well above the knee as modern interpretations and Halloween costumes would have us believe.

Many of the examples I looked at had a chiffon overlay with a silk lining underneath.  The lining was form fitting in the few examples I saw.  I decided to go with this, and use a vintage silk slip I had sitting in my closet as the under dress.  To make the overdress I drafted the entire thing on my mannequin, and didn’t even try it on until it was time to leave.  I figured since the style was masculine and ill fitting this shouldn’t be a problem.  I had many yards of nylon chiffon left over from my hatmaking, and since nylon chiffon has the advantage that it doesn’t fray I thought this would make things ever easier!  Overall the dress was fairly simple to make, and when I mentioned this to my husband he said “I’m not surprised, you could have taken a potato sack, cut arm and neck holes and called it done”.  Thanks babe.

Anyway here’s how I did it if you want to try your hand at it yourself.  And take a look at my next post for how to make the flapper headpiece!

Flapper Dress

What you’ll need:

• About 2 yards of nylon chiffon (the beauty of this chiffon is that it does not fray so there is no need to hem!)
• About 5 yards of trim
• mannequin

1. Start by measuring from your waistline to the top of your shoulder in both the front and back. Then measure from inseam to inseam around your waist at the largest part of your hips in the back and from inseam to inseam at the largest part of your bust in front.
2. Cut two rectangles of fabric bust width x front height and hip width x back height.
3. In the front piece, cut a 2 inch notch in the center where the neck will go.
   

   Cut notch in neck seam.

4. Using your mannequin pin shoulder seams.  Serge shoulder seams.
   

   Pin the shoulder seams

5. Return to the mannequin wrong side out and pin side seams, leaving a gap from the shoulder to the armpit (this line should be on your mannequin or is approximately 5 inches from the shoulder). Serge side seams leaving gap for arms.
   

   Pin side seams

6. Turn dress right side out and return to mannequin.  Take scissors and even out the bottom so it is even with the largest portion of the hips.
7. Cut two 21″x 27″ rectangles of chiffon for the skirt.
8. Sew both ends of the chiffon together to make a wide tube 21″ long for the skirt.
9. Pin the seams of the skirt to the seams of the bodice, right sides together.  Pleat the rest of the skirt evenly between the seams.  Remove from mannequin and stitch.
   

   Pleat and pin skirt to bodice.

10. Return dress to mannequin.  Pin trim on one side of the side seam starting just below the skirt seam.
    

    Pin trim along side seam.

11. Continue pinning up the dress, making sure the edge of the trim is right at the side seam.  When you get to the armscye, curve around the entire armscye with trim slightly inside the shoulder line.
12. Continue down the other side of the side seam, pinning right against the other trim.
13. Repeat with the second side, making sure to match where the trim falls on the other side of the mannequin.
14. Stitch along both edges of trim.
15. Starting in the center back, pin trim where the skirt attaches to the bodice, covering the edges of the trim on the side seams.  Be sure to fold over the trim and overlap the start of the trim in the center back.
16. Pin trim starting at the center back, a few inches below the shoulders.
    

    Start pinning at center back.

17. Continue pinning up to the shoulder, leaving an inch gap between neck trim and arm trim.
18. Pin down along the front up to the other shoulder, with a gentle slope that matches the turning ability of the trim.  Don’t force it or your neckline will look lumpy.
    

    Pin gentle curving neckline matching the play of the trim.

19. Continue down the back to the first point forming a v-neck in the back, being sure to fold over and overlap at the center back.
20. Remove dress from mannequin and sew all trim down the left side and then back up the right side.
    

    Stitch up both sides of the trim to hold it in place.

21. Trim excess fabric that shows under your trim at armscye and neck.
    

    Trim armscye and neckline.

22. Return dress to mannequin and trim the nylon chiffon skirt evenly to where you want the dress to fall.  As I’ve mentioned I made the dress sit right at my knees.
    

    Trim hemline to where you want dress to fall.

Voila!  Make sure you wear a dark slip or underdress as the chiffon makes the dress 100% see through.

Front view of flapper dress.

Side view of flapper dress.

Back view of flapper dress.

After the faire my aunt commissioned a new hat.  She’s a school teacher and when she wore her Shakespeare hat on Columbus day she got a great reaction from the students.  She thought a Puritan hat would delight her students around Thanksgiving.  After I finished my mom’s curtains I whipped something up.  I really hope it fits her, I had to estimate the size because I didn’t have her head measurements.  If you’d like to make your own you can follow my instructions below!  Or send me an email, give me your head size, and I’ll make one for you!

I must admit that when I was making the hat I completely messed up the hook timing on my sewing machine.  None of the stitches would work so I spent 3.5 hours messing around with it.  There are a lot of tutorials on how to adjust your hook timing, but they don’t really explain where the needle needs to be at each point during its traversal.  This article gave me the answers I needed and saved my butt.  My sewing machine is alive again, and I didn’t need to take it in to a shop (which I’m certain would have left me for weeks without a machine, which is just something I could not bare).

Puritan/Pilgrim Hat

What you’ll need:

• a yard of Pellon Peltex 70
• a yard of black material (I used cotton velvet because I had it available)
• a yard of black bias tape 2″ wide (I usually make my own)
• a yard of steel spring wire & joiner
• a strip of faux black leather or suede
• a metal buckle

1.  Measure your head size then add 1/2″.  Either use my flap topped cone tutorial for the fez to calculate the template for the top part of the hat, or plug in measurements here.
   • A=4″
   • B=head circumference/pi
   • C=7″
2. Using a string and a protractor cut out the arc calculated above from Peltex 70. Also cut out a circle of radius 2″ larger than your head radius and a 2″ radius circle.
3. Cut 2 circles of black fabric 1″ larger in diameter than your large circle, one circle of black fabric 1″ larger in diameter than your small circle, and one arc 1/2″ wider on all sides than your Peltex arc segment.
4. Take the large circle and measure out steel spring wire to fit just within the circumference.  Join the ends of the wire.
5. Very carefully sew the steel wire to the Peltex circle using a large zig zag stitch.  You do not want the needle to hit the steel or bad things will happen (trust me, see above).
   

   Carefully zigzag stitch the steel spring wire in place on the brim.

6. Right sides together, pin and stitch the edges of the black fabric arch together.
   

   Pin right sides together and stitch fabric arc.

7. Pin the small black circle to the top of the arch.  Stitch.
   

   Pin small circle to top of sewn arc and stitch.

8. Sew the edges of the Peltex arch together using a zig zag stitch.  I was only able to sew the top and bottom.
9. Hand sew the small Peltex circle to the top of the arch.
   

   Hand sew Peltex circle to top of Peltex arc.

10. Cut a circle out of cotton batting slightly smaller than the top of the hat and place it on the top of the hat.
11. Turn black portion of the cap right side out and fit it over the Peltex structure.
12. Mark out a circle the same size as your head on the Peltex brim and two black brim pieces.  Cut a large X in each, then trim to within an inch of the circles you drew.  Snip in 1″ increments to 1/8″ of the circle you drew.
    

    Snip x into your brim.

13. Pin and sew the two brim pieces together, right sides facing.
    

    Pin and sew brim together.

14. Place the brim interfacing on the two brim pieces and turn everything right side out.  Adjust everything so interfacing sits flat.
    

    Place interfacing on brim pieces and turn right side out, sandwiching the interfacing inside.

    

    Finished brim.

15. Pin the excess material of the hat top to the brim.
    

    Pin seam allowance of the hat to the brim.

16. Here I think you could do a couple different things to finish the hat that may have been smarter than what I did.  Step 17 is an alternative finishing method.  Below is what I did.
    • Open out bias tape and pin right side of tape to right side along the seam you just sewed.  Stitch in place.
    • Trim seam and fold old bias tape over the trimmed seam. Stitch. When you wear the hat you’ll fold this portion in.
17. Or try this alternative method:
    • Trim the brim interfacing and innermost black fabric to 1/8″.
    • Fold the outermost layer of black fabric (that you didn’t trim) into the hat.  Stitch in place.  The belt will cover this stitching anyway, so it shouldn’t be a big deal.  You can also sew bias tape over this to neaten it up.
18. Finally, make the belt for your hat.  Take your faux leather and cut it to 3″x head size + 1″.
19. Pin it the long ways right sides together. Stitch along this seam and also along one end (so you can easily turn it).
20. Turn right side out, add buckle, then stitch ends together, right sides facing.
    

    Finished Pilgrim hat

Last time I was in Disney World  I purchased an adorable Pirates of the Caribbean themed set of Mickey Mouse ears!   They are so cute, but they were Disney overpriced (I checked and they were $27).  If you have a set of kids I recommend making your own.  You can tailor them to any theme you want and they are very easy to make!  Lots of people make theirs entirely using glue guns, but if you’ve read my blog you know that is just not my style.  Don’t get me wrong, I love glue guns, but glue guns have a time and a place.  If you want things to last… sew them.

For Will’s ears, the theme was fairly obvious.  Star Wars.  When Will and I met we bonded over our love of Star Wars.  Will’s groom’s cake (southern thing) had Han Solo and Princess Leia on it and the phrases, “I love you.” “I know.” At one point Will admitted to me that much like the people who can’t picture marrying someone of a differing religion, he could not marry someone who did not love Star Wars.  When Disney bought Star Wars a lot of people were concerned.  Not Will.  He was excited that a new Star Wars movie would be coming out every year for the indeterminate future.  And double bonus – now it is appropriate to wear Mickey Mouse ears themed with Star Wars characters!

For Will’s ears I finally settled on Chewbacca because he’s a badass and I really wanted to make furry ears.  This confused many people that I mentioned it to because Chewbacca doesn’t actually have ears.  I had to explain to them that they are Mickey Mouse ears that are just themed like Chewbacca; they aren’t actually supposed to be Chewbacca’s ears.  Much like the Ariel themed ones aren’t supposed to be Ariel’s ears. That didn’t seem to help.  Oh well.  Here are some Chewbacca themed ears!  You can use the same pattern to make ears of any type!

Will and I with our Mickey Mouse ears on a landspeeder

Oh and double bonus Will and I alternated wearing the ears while we were at MGM (or I guess its called Hollywood Studios now, boy I’m old) and happened to catch Chewbacca walking on his way to the next star wars show.  I shouted “we love you Chewy!” and he turned and looked at Will’s ears.  On his way back in after the show he bent down to get into my picture!

Chewbacca checking out my ears

DIY Mickey Mouse Ears (Chewbacca themed)

Note: if you just want normal Mickey Mouse ears, you’ll only need to do steps 1-6, 9-13 and instead of the grizzly fur, use any fabric of your choosing.  

Will outside the beast’s castle. with his Chewbacca ears.

You’ll need:

• ~1 sq foot of Peltex 70 interfacing
• ~1 sq foot of faux brown “grizzly” bear fur
• ~ 6 sq inches of brown suede
• a Popsicle stick
• Silver paint
• polyester stuffing
• Wide headband ideally with fabric you can sew onto I used this one.  If not you’ll also need the below:
• glue gun
• black broadcloth fabric
• cotton batting

1. If your headband is padded and able to be hand stitched into, skip to step 5.  Otherwise, measure the circumference and width of your headband.  Double the width and add an inch.  Cut a strip of black broadcloth 2xwidth + 1.25 inches by circumference + 1 inch.
   

   Cut broadcloth for headband

2. Fold the strip in half the long way and stitch the short side closed (1/2″ seam).  Stitch the long side closed (1/2″ seam).
   

   Stitch broadcloth into a tube

3. Cut a strip of cotton batting to fit the headband. Hot glue to the headband.
   

   Hot glue batting to headband

4. Gently use the headband to turn the broadcloth cover inside out and simultaneously inserting the headband into the broadcloth cover.  Hand stitch the opened end closed.
5. Using a protractor cut 4 circles of Peltex 2″ radius.
   

   Cut 4 circles of Peltex 70

6. Cut 4 circles of fur 1/2″ larger in radius than the Peltex circles. (Use the Peltex circles as a pattern.
7. Cut a rebel symbol out of suede.  Make sure it is slightly smaller than 2″ radius.
   

   Cut rebel symbol out of suede

8. Center and sew rebel symbol directly onto front of one fur circle.
9. Baste two Peltex circles together.  Repeat for second set. Cut a line across the bottom of each set of circles, 1″ wide.
10. Stitch two fur circles together, right sides together. Leave a 1″ gap at the bottom to flip and stuff.  Repeat for second set of fur circles, making sure to leave the 1″ gap at the bottom of the rebel symbol.
    

    Sew fur circles together leaving a 1″ gap at the bottom.

11. Flip fur circles right side out.  Take a comb and gently pull the fur out of the stitching.  Insert a set of Peltex circles into each fur ear, with the flat side at the opening.
12. Add a tiny bit of stuffing to each side of the ear.
    

    Add stuffing

13. Fold the excess fur on the open end of the fur circle into the ear.  Hand stitch the ear onto the headband.  The ears should be about 6 inches apart from each other. To make sure the ear stands up properly you’ll want to keep it 3 dimensional and stitch one side close to the front of the headband and the other side close to the back of the headband.  Make sure you stitch to the interfacing as well.
14. Finally make the tiny Chewbacca ammo belt by cutting 10 pieces of popsicle stick about 2mm wide.  Paint them with silver paint.
    

    Cut and paint popsicle stick

15. Cut a 1/2″ x 5″ wide strip of suede and an 1/8″ x 3″ strip of suede.
    

    Cut strips of suede for belt

16. Center the thin strip of suede in the larger strip.  Using a leather needle, stitch across the top of the thin strip to attach.
    

    Stitch thin piece of suede to thicker piece of suede in center.

17. Insert a piece of popsicle stick under the thin strip and stitch as close as possible to the popsicle stick through both strips of suede.
    

    Insert popsicle stick and sew close to end of stick to hold it in place.

18. Repeat until you’ve used up all the popsicle sticks or you run out of the thin strip of leather. Cut the thin strip down close to the last popsicle stick.
    

    Finished ammo belt

19. Right sides together fold the belt in half and stitch with 1/2″ seam.  Insert over one of the ears and attach by a few hand stitches through the back of the suede and ear.
    

    Finished Chewbacca ears ready for Disney!

These ears cost me only $6 to make, and I have so much furry material left I could make 3 more pairs…

Its November and the leaves have changed from their showy early autumn display of glorious vibrant flame to more subdued golds and browns.  It is almost as if the initial fire has turned into smoldering embers; beautiful but different than the October trees  I love fall and have been lucky enough to enjoy every day of it while on my sabbatical.  But my love of fall doesn’t stop me from clinging to the last ounce of summer!  This week we’re soaking up the sun in Orlando for a quick vacation at Disney and Universal Studios!

And what better excuse to use up some fancy stretch lace I purchased months ago than to create a beach cover up for the trip?  I couldn’t resist purchasing this fabric while I was buying suede fabric for my Robinhood hats.  The fabric is a black crocheted lace and was only $3 a yard!  It is 60″ wide to boot!  I have lots of other ideas for the rest of it, but for starters here’s some super quick instructions for an easy swimsuit cover up!  And at such a low price it cost me less than $6 to make!  You can’t beat that!!

Just in time for Fall Swimsuit Cover Up

You’ll need:

• 2 yards of crocheted (stretch) lace
• 1 yard bias tape in coordinating color
• thread in coordinating color

1. Start by measuring from your shoulder to where you want the dress to hit.  On me this was 36″.  You’ll need to double this to find the length of your fabric.
2. Cut a rectangle out of your fabric 40″ by 72″ (or the doubled length from #1).
   

   Cut rectangle of fabric

3. Fold the rectangle in half.  Mark the center of your fabric and cut a slit 4.5″ on each side of center (for your neck) along the fold.
4. Cut down from the fold 9″ at the center mark. Cut from neck to end of this line forming a “v”.
   

   Cut 9 inch slit down the front of the dress to form a “v” neck

5. Round the bottom corners slightly by trimming with scissors.
   

   Round bottom corners slightly

6. Hem the edges of the rectangle by creating a 1/8″ rolled hem.
7. Open out bias tape.  With right sides together, line up edges of neckline and pin along first fold line of bias tape.  Stitch along this line.
   

   Attach bias tape to neckline

8. Fold bias tape in half back on itself onto the inside of the neckline.  Stitch in the ditch on the front of the neckline to secure the bias tape on the inside.
   

   Stitch in the ditch

9. At this point you’ll want to try the cover up on or put it on a mannequin.  Pin at the waistline where you want the body of the cover up to end.  Mirror and pin on the opposite side.
   

   Pin at waistline

10. Stitch a 4″ vertical line at the point you pinned on both sides. Voila!!

I just love how the sleeves drape!