DYI Costume: Fairy Skirt

Halloween is tomorrow! I wanted to share with you what my costume is and how you can make it! I know, this post is late, but if you have the supplies on hand or can make it to a store in time, you could finish it in a couple hours.

I dressed up this year as a fairy. I dressed with a group of other teachers at the school I work at. We have a fun costume contest every year to raise money for a cause. The staff and students are encouraged to bring in spare change or a few bucks and they use those monetary donations to vote for their favorite teacher costumes. Here is the tutorial for the skirt or tutu.

You will need:

• several yards of tulle in 1 or more colors (I bought about 9 yards but used about 8 yards. I am also a size 3 in juniors. The more you use, the poofier the skirt which is not always a good thing!)
• ribbon
• scissors

The tulle is for the flow-y, frilly part of your skirt. The ribbon is for your waist. I'll refer to as your "belt."

1. When you buy your tulle, it should already be folded in half. If not, do so now.

2. Lay on table and cut off a part that is a workable size. The length of your table/workspace or about a yard is good.


3. Starting from the creased end, roll the tulle into a long tube.


Optional: Trim the ends if your rolled tube is crooked. Otherwise, your strips will be different widths and may not be usable.

4. Cut sections off the tube about 1.5 to 2 inches in length.


*The purpose of rolling up the tulle is because it's easier to cut off chunks of the tube rather than cutting each strip individually.*

5. When you unroll one of your little "curls" you should have a length of tulle that you can use to tie around your "belt."


6. Lay your "belt" on table or flat surface. Place one your strips of tulle under the belt as shown in photo. (I am using yarn to illustrate this because the tulle did not photograph as nicely. The pink yarn is the belt, the green is your tulle.)


7. Pull the ends of the tulle through it's loop (where the crease is).


8. Continue pulling it tight so you have a knot.


9. Repeat this process until your tutu is full!
You can alternate colors and cut the strips different lengths to add pretty effects.

Optional: I cut the ends of each of my strips at an angle and mixed in another shimmery fabric.

**Fairy Skirt concept and instructions courtesy of the purple fairy! Thanks!!!!**

WIP Wednesday 9 - Best Pals Pattern (WIP 8 skipped)

So much to do, so little time! I ran out of stuffing and have not been able to do any work on my Best Pals amigurumi dolls! Besides that, there has been a lot going on. All good things though! Here are some photos that cover some of things I've had the opportunity to participate in! I have a nice life with wonderful friends and family.


Hibachi for my boyfriend's and our Chinese guest teacher at my school district/work. She and I agreed the fried rice we made together was better!
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Golfing for my first time ever! Yes....18 holes. My arms hurt. It was hard. Really hard. It was for a benefit though and we all had fun.
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My boyfriend's sister and husband came for a surprise visit because they got a new puppy! Isn't she adorable! I hung out with them at an adorable town called Bethlehem and we had tea at an Irish Tea House!

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So...in the mix though, guess what I did sneak in.

Photo above of me waking up early on the weekend and enjoying coffee, Pandora.com, crocheting and playing on the iPad.

Yup! Some crochet! But since I have no stuffing...I decided to whip out some amigurumi-style iPod Touch pouches! Well, just one is finished. I actually might add some more to him...possibly some tiny arms/legs.


The idea came from my boyfriend's aunt who said she saw a cat zipper pouch with the zipper being the mouth. It was more like a purse or pencil pouch, but I was inspired to make it for an iPod Touch. I started it one night before going to bed and I didn't measure it, so it ended up being a pouch for whatever (which I will improve upon later). But, I think the kitty pouch turned out pretty decent for my first time and have plans for more! Stay tuned...!

WIP Wednesday 7 - Best Pals Pattern (WIP 6 skipped)

This is WIP Wednesday 7 and not 6 because I wanted to keep up Tami's Amis blog since she is hosting the WIP Wednesday blog-share. I skipped number 6 because I didn't get any crocheting done! You gotta take a break from things every once in a while!

Over the weekend, I did get to work on my Best Pals Pattern that I talked about in the last WIP Wednesday post. I have all the text written for the pattern, but I really like to include photos so I am recreating each animal and taking photos that I can go through to add to the pattern. The sunlight is different these days since the seasons are changing so that makes it tough to take photos! There is either too much sun which gives my amis a weird neon glow or it's too gray outside. I don't know what I'm going to when Fall really hits!


I'm designing each of the animals in the pattern to have a different facial expression. I want to showcase different ways of making the face besides just different shapes for their body parts (ears and tails mostly). Can you guess which animal I have planned for each of the four featured in the photo above? They could be anything, but I made them each with a certain animal in mind.

Finally, I wanted to show off this awesome decal I got from etsy shop Macetera for my MacBook Pro. I love it and everyone is jealous even if they don't know who Totoro is! Only one co-worker at the school I work at recognized that it was from a Hayao Miyazaki film because her husband and daughters watch his films. I promoted his movies every time someone asked about my decal so I hope they remember if they ever come across Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli films when movie-hunting!

For the Love of Shoes

Who doesn't love shoes!? I'm taking a break from crochet-talk today and want to spread the word about Kelsey Jayne's original shoe designs and her etsy shop ForTheLoveOfShoes. The top photo is of what's called a shoe last that Kelsey a.k.a. ForTheLoveOfShoes designed and handpainted. It's such a unique art piece! At her shop, you can find painted shoe lasts and artwork of beautiful shoes. Kelsey is a shoe designer in New York City for Joan and David shoes so she knows what she's doing!



See how cute her shop is? You should totally order some of her artwork for your room or office. They make great gifts too, if you're stumped on what to get your sister, mother, girlfriend...whoever!

I requested custom shoe designs for my little sister as graduation gift. ForTheLoveOfShoes created sketches of a style of shoe I knew my sister liked. The sketches exceeded my expectations! They were perfect. I framed them myself and surprised my sister! She has them displayed in her room on a shelf full of her shoes which you can see in the video below.

You can Like ForTheLoveOfShoes on Facebook to keep up to date on new artwork.

By the way, if you want real shoes you should check out ShoeWoo!

WIP Wednesday 5 - Best Pals Pattern

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Thanks for keeping me going, Tami! Work-in-Progress Wednesdays always come sooner than I expect! School started officially yesterday...I barely had a chance to sit down! Of course I wore heels too and after a summer of wearing flip-flops and flats my feet were just a tad tired. In fact, my entire body was tired! Anyway, I realized today that I can only get so much done in a day and I shouldn't stay for too much longer after school gets out to work on things. There is always tomorrow and people will just have to wait! Everything is going very well though all in all and I do feel the excitement now of my job. Helping teachers incorporate technology and showing people new tricks is fun and I feel good about what I do.

Moving on to the crochet part of things...I started to make a pattern for what I like to call Best Pals! It will include how to make bears, bunnies, puppies, kitties, piggies, and who knows what else. It's meant to be like a starter package for amigurumi beginners!




I have all my notes written out because I've made the lil guys several times, I just never photographed the steps and pieces and I like to include progress photos in my patterns. I know I appreciate them when I purchase patterns because sometimes the text just isn't enough!


Here's all i have so far from the weekend. It's really windy outside and getting a little dark so my photos didn't turn out so well. I just placed an antique effect to give it a little something. I know, I did say I was going to focus on my Meden Patapon...I just can't seem to get the motivation! I don't know what's gotten into me! Maybe because she's turning out to be harder than I thought. She'll make an appearance soon. I promise.

Tip - Yarn Color Change

This is how I change colors of yarn in the middle of an amigurumi project. There may be other ways, but this is how I figured out how to do it! This project shows changing colors when beginning a new row. Your last stitch of the previous row is where you actually begin the color change. So, if my patterns says to complete 30 single crochet (sc) stitches and then change colors for the next row, you will pull your new color up during the 30th sc. Sounds weird, but then it makes it so you actually end with your last sc being that original color and then already being ready with your next color in hand to being your very first sc of the new row.

Insert hook through your last stitch.
Pick up your new color yarn.

Pull the new yarn through your stitch.

Yarn over with the new color, and pull through the two loops (one will be the original color, the other will be the new color). Your final stitch will be the original color!

You now have the new color to begin your next row...

...and your first sc of the new row will be your new color!

When you know you're good to go, snip off the original color leaving a tail to sew/weave/hide the end. You'll have to do this with the tail of the original color as well as the beginning tail of your new color so when you begin with your new color, make sure you leave a long enough tail! I usually give myself 6 inches or so with these tails--whatever is long enough for you to put a needle on the end and poke through a couple times. It's always better to have more than not enough.

WIP Wednesday 4 - Tear Fairy Complete

Voila! Finally finished and ready to share with Tami's Amis for her WIP Wednesdays. I know, took me long enough, right? I've been a busy girl with the start of the school year! The kids officially start next week so I'll still have some details to take care of to get everyone and everything situated and then once we're all in a routine, I'll be able to relax a bit more. Anyway, I crocheted the little Tear Fairy to be sitting since I have no idea how to make this guy stand on his own with such tiny legs. Plus, I figured his legs could be used as support if he falls over since his nose is heavy. He sits very nicely though! Sometimes you have to press on him and flatten out his bum a little but is just wonderful to me!






Now that I have my companion, I just need the game! Gahh!

Edit--I just did a google search and according to dshyper, this guy is named Shizuku (which translates to "droplet" in Japanese). Cool, huh!?