Halloween!

Making Halloween costumes is one of those little "when I have a kid" things I have really been looking forward to, so, even though Adelaide is not quite six months old and much too young for real trick-or-treating, she was all dressed up for Halloween. Adam Adelaide decided she should be Ohio State's mascot, Brutus the Buckeye. Well, I can do that.

I couldn't find a shirt with big red and gray stripes, so I turned to some freezer paper stenciling. It went pretty well. I painted the front and the sleeves with red stripes, but I left the back plain.



The "BRUTUS" on the front is done with iron-on letters from JoAnn's. They didn't really want to stick (I assume the fabric paint is mostly to blame for this), but they didn't peel off completely. I'm calling that a success.

The most challenging thing was, as you might imagine, figuring out how to do Brutus's big nut head and little cap. I considered making a big, stuffed nut head, which would let us get away with using a regular Ohio State cap. But in the end, I made a snug brown hat (using Sew Liberated's Sweet Pea Pilot Cap pattern/tutorial, which is free and awesome!) and stitched up an improvised mini-cap. I am pretty proud of the improvised mini-cap, largely because I thought of it around 9:00 p.m. the night before Halloween and managed to execute it before bedtime.



Just add some red pants and little black sock shoes (already in the closet! score!). Oh, and don't forget the little towel Brutus always has with him (I just cut a strip of leftover terry cloth from this project).

Cutest Brutus ever, if I do say so myself.

Freezer paper stencils

A few days ago was our anniversary (3 years!) and I made Adam this T-shirt as a little gift (it is a college basketball thing). I love decorating shirts with freezer paper stencils. It is so easy.



1. Print or draw design on the paper side (as opposed to plastic-coated side) of some freezer paper.

2. Use a utility knife to carefully cut out design.

3. Lay out T-shirt with a piece of cardboard between the layers of fabric to keep the paint from bleeding through.

4. Position the freezer paper stencil on the T-shirt, plastic-coated side down, and iron it. Use the hottest setting appropriate for your fabric and make sure the stencil is stuck securely to the shirt all around the edges of the design.

5. Using a medium or large brush, stipple your fabric paint all over the stencil until it looks completely opaque.

6. Let the paint dry completely and then carefully peel the stencil off the T-shirt.

7. Heat set the paint by ironing on the reverse side of the fabric. I like to put a piece of cardboard between the shirt's layers again just in case I missed a damp spot in the paint or something.