Terrorific Tuesday Week 3

Use a 2-liter bottle to make a super cute Halloween cupcake dome with Pattiewack!

Glory shows you how to make Creepy Spider Biscuits with spider Halloween stencils and edible color spray!

Make a funky and functional Plaid Skull&Crossbones Skirt with Excell Crafts!

Vanessa and Erin team up to make Awesome Halloween Cookies in a Jar Crafts complete with free easy to download sticker and label printables!

Cheryl Ball shares her beautiful Embroidery Floss Acorns - the perfect fall accent.

Korinne whips up a spectacular Vintage Style Halloween Wreath on her Crafterella blog.

Make Glow in the Dark Jewelry Using Polymer Clay and Rubber Stamps with Kate at the Rubberstamping About.com page!

Learn how to make festive Pom Pom Pumpkins on the Marvelously Messy blog!

Paint a super easy Pumpkin Pin with Ann Butler to accent your fall wardrobe!

Be a hit at the costume contest with this Corpse Bride Costume by the Crafty Chica!

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner shows you how to make a Snooki Painted Pumpkin inspired by the popular Jersey Shore Guidette!

Eileen Hull shares a Cute Halloween Bookmark project that will melt your Halloween heart!

Sebastian is faster than a speeding bullet in his Superman Costume featured on the Sew DoggyStyle blog!

Phyllis Dobbs wows us with this festive Spider Apron perfect for Halloween baking!

Silvia shows you how to make a No-Sew Fuzzy Monster Cuff - the perfect craft project for all ages!

That's it for this week! If you are interested in playing in my fun Terrorific Tuesday roundup, e-mail Alexa at swelldesigner (at) gmail (dot) com and she'll send you the details!

Vintage Styled Halloween Wreath

I was inspired by this tulle and embroidery hoop wreath at My Modish Mood.  I ended up with an great vintage styled wreath and I’m going to share how I made mine so you can make one too!I followed her instructions using a 12” hoop and black netting instead of tulle (cutting strips 3” wide and 26” long).  I folded the strips in half and pulled the cut ends through the loop to attach it to my hoop.  The wider strips gave my wreath a eerie, tattered look. Using scrap cardboard I cut a ring, the outside measured 14” and the inside measured 9”, and painted it black. I cut some pages from an old, inexpensive book and rolled them into cone shapes, securing them with a staple.  I hot glued the cones to the back of my cardboard circle. I made a paste of Mod Podge and orange glitter and applied that to the outer half of my cardboard circle.  The Mod Podge keeps the glitter from flaking off.  It doesn’t look that impressive wet, but once it dried (and it took forever to dry) it was awesome, sparkly, but not over the top!

Using my sewing machine I zigzagged over some string to gather some crepe paper streamers into ruffles.  Zigzagging over string gives perfectly even gathers, it does slightly tear the crepe paper, but once it’s gathered up it is invisible.  The ruffles we then hot glued to the inner and outer edges of the cardboard circle.  I also hot glued my cardboard circle to my tulle hoop.  Be really generous with the hot glue, you want it to hold together well. I aged some white cardstock with walnut ink.  I used the dialtone font in the largest size(72) and printed it at 200% to spell out Happy Halloween.  It came out the perfect size to be punched out with my 1 1/2” circle punch.  I strung the letters onto gingham printed ribbon and attached that to the wreath. Finally I used orange tulle, grosgrain ribbon, paper and buttons to make some flowers/frills for the bottom of the wreath.

Let me know if you make one, I’d love to see how it comes out.

McCalls 5241 Pattern Review

This pattern has been at the top of my must sew list and with cooler temperatures on the way I wanted a quick, stylish cardigan to wear around. I thought it would also be great for breastfeeding, a jacket with a built in drape! The pattern is very simple and only has two pieces, but one of them is huge, so you'll need a lot of space for cutting. I used a rayon spandex knit from Joann's (I had a 50% off coupon). This is a one hour pattern, yeah right!, I wish they would just say it's easy and be done with it, what sort of speed sewer is making these patterns? and that can't possibly include cutting time!

I had read several other online reviews and they mentioned that the sleeve hole had stretched. I decided to stay stitch the holes before cutting them out and ended up with the opposite problem, sleeve holes that were too small. I eased the sleeves in by gathering the sleeve cap seam allowances, so putting the sleeves in was a little fiddly, but I got them in. That was the hard part of the pattern, hemming the edges was the most monotonous. I did decide to use a twin needle and I am sooooo glad I did! Using a twin needle is very easy and the results are so professional looking. It gave me two perfect lines of stitching with a small stretch that is just perfect for knits. I absolutely LOVE how this pattern turned out! I love it so much that I was to rush out and buy more fabric to make it in other colors. I would say it's a great addition to my wardrobe and the fiddly sleeves were so worth it! I was fairly easy to sew and I imagine that someone with a serger could really make one of these fast. I have seen this style of jacket in almost every brand of pattern and I also have see directions free online. I, of course, bought mine when it was on sale for a $1.00 and it was definitely a well spent dollar. I would also like to note that I made view C, the longest jacket, in size XXL and it is almost to big (I could take the back in at the center seam). The only thing that I may change the next time I make this pattern is the sleeve, I think I would like a snugger fit and maybe some extra length.

Have a super crafty weekend, see you next week!

Terrorific Tuesday - Week 2

Silvia Chenault turns a toy bat into an instant neckpiece (but will it bite your neck?)

Phyllis Dobbs shows us how to recycle a t-shirt into a really cool Halloween trick-or-treat bag!

Kate Pullen brews up adorable Paper Cone Witches!

Messy Missy makes a super spooky wreath with Duct tape!

Avalon Potter goes glam with her Halloween Masquerade Ball mask!

Patty Cappelluti goes bat crazy making this spooky bat door decoration!

Crafterella is a ghoul gone wild in her Ghoul Scout Costume. Download the custom patches she made for her costume!

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner upcycles a Starbucks bottle into a swell Halloween vase!

Cheryl Ball delights us with yummy candy corn cupcakes!

Pattiewack upcycles an apple tray into a festive cupcake carrier. So inexpensive and easy!

Ann Butler crafts up a boo-tiful holder for your ATCs complete with a black cat!

Glory whips up a super fun and healthy pumpkin-inspired muffin meal for her kids. Love it!

Crafty Chica makes the perfect mask to celebrate Dia de los Muertos.

Maya in the Moment has some face painting fun with her little cousin and of course, hilarity ensues!

Eileen Hull has a ghostly good time creating this cute diecut necklace!

That's it for this week! If you are interested in playing in the fun Terrorific Tuesday roundup, e-mail Alexa at swelldesigner (at) gmail (dot) com and she'll send you the details!

Pomp-a-Doodle Yarn

I have been wanting to get my hands on the new Pomp-a-Doodle yarn from RedHeart for a while.  Hobby Lobby doesn’t carry it and I haven’t been to Joanns or Michaels for a while (the less I go the more money I save).  This yarn is interesting, basically it’s string with pompoms at regular intervals and you knit the string, skipping the pompoms. I made the one ball scarf pattern found on the wrapper.  I really like how the scarf turned out (wish that it was a little longer), the yarn is super soft and squishy, I would love to make some pillows out of it.  If you get the chance you should give this yarn a try, it one novelty yarn that is fun and easy to work with!  I think I will be making a few more of these, they will make great gifts.