Radiant Rapunzel

 Last A to Z Challenge post of the week! Today's letter is R, for Radiant Rapunzel, the first character costume I made for my daughter.

 We're big fans of Tangled in my house, so when I asked my daughter what she wanted to be for Halloween, she picked Rapunzel. I might have encouraged the choice a little bit... and then she tried to change her mind after I bought the fabric and started planning the costume - no turning back then! (If you look above, this dress is one of the items in my logo banner!)

I stubbornly refused to buy the Disney brand Simplicity pattern for this costume, partly because I thought I could do better without it, and partly because I do not like single-style patterns, and there were no other dresses it showed as options. The Cinderella costume pattern from last year was different - it can be Snow White also. Instead, I used a formal girls dress pattern my mom had handed down to me. I think she got two copies of it by mistake one time. Free patterns can sometimes be best patterns, and Simplicity 4764 was a good fit!

Pretty flower girls, aren't they? I liked the skirt and sleeves, but the bodice needed work to be Rapunzel's.

This was my sketch, to get an idea I could draw and scribble on, not one of my daughter's books or her play table with Rapunzel on it! I decided to just make the bodice wider, and fold over and sew for the corset parts - it didn't need to be supportive or shaped around breasts, not for a two and a half year old!

 I did a lot of this work in a marathon sewing session, staying up all night watching The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition, finally - after probably five or more years of having those dvds and never watching them. (I watched all of our Star Wars dvds while sewing the Cinderella costume [original trilogy]) Remotes can make handy pattern weights!

My first attempt at widening the bodice for the corset inlay wasn't quite wide enough... the wider one was actually my third attempt! Good thing I got extra fabric, and this didn't take much yardage.

This is a little bit of the steps I took - figuring out how far apart, fold, pin, sew, iron, sew more!

The sleeves weren't too complicated, once I discovered the ribbon I thought would work for stripes was too sheer and wouldn't show up. Extra bit of pink satin to the rescue! I cut the pink satin close to the shape of the sleeve - narrower because there wouldn't be stripes in the underarm area, taller because I wanted them caught fully in the seams. Then I cut strips, ironed down both sides, pinned to the purple sleeves in rows, and stitched them on. Adding the lace at the bottom is just the perfect little touch!

For the skirt, I made the main front panel a lighter purple, with two overhangs of darker purple coming over that on both sides. Gathering the skirt together to attach to the bodice can be a pain when it's a full skirt, but that rectangle sure does look pretty when it's all together, doesn't it?

Here you can see the dress almost finished... with sleeves, then the grommets! I love my grommet presser, it's so nice to come up with a project like this, and know I can add in grommets with ease. This dress also has the MOST trim I've ever put on a single dress - but it's all costume-appropriate. Since in the movie, Rapunzel makes her own dresses, I think she just has a thing for lace.

I may be a snob when it comes to store bought costumes, but I can be a sucker for licensed accessories... This year, she didn't get the princess shoes (they were sold out anyhow), but she got a light up crown that came with a musical necklace and a purse - mainly I wanted the iconic crown! And she already had the doll, I can't resist taking a photo of doll and costume!

 And here, the princess herself in her dress! She still loves it, even though the satin snagged early on. Maybe it's because I let her sit on that bridge? There is a lot of length hemmed up in the skirt with the idea of letting it out as she grows taller, but with the snags I'm thinking that's a no-go. Oh well, she can have fun with it now!

Thanks for joining me again on the A to Z blogging journey! Check out the other bloggers in the challenge and come back next week for more!

Lizzy's Fancies

Wow, can you believe it's been two weeks of the A to Z Blogging Challenge? This is my twelfth post of the month! Thanks for joining me again, we're almost halfway through the alphabet.

Today's post is for the letter L, and I'm breaking my little tradition by not making the title words match, to feature my little business, Lizzy's Fancies.

This is the banner for my etsy shop, Lizzy's Fancies. (Check that out, and my facebook page for the shop and this blog too!) I have been selling on etsy since July 2011, but I changed my shop name a little along the way. At first I wanted matching letters, the whole alliteration/assonance lure, and went with Izzerdoodle's Inspirations, but that didn't feel quite right. Naming a business is really difficult! that first name was too much of a mouthful, and while I use the name izzerdoodle for a few online accounts, it didn't seem like a good business name.

When I really wanted to change, I decided to go with Lizzy something, because I go by Liz and Lizzy more often than Elizabeth, and while a little more informal, it's still a recognized name. I still couldn't come up with something good though, and defaulted to Lizzy's Accessories for a while. That felt to bland though, and I was never happy with it. Searching online, Lizzy's Lovelies and variations of that name were already in use in a few places, and I didn't want to get confused with someone else's business.

Finally, I was sitting in the car while my husband was getting ice cream at Coldstone Creamery that I got the idea of Lizzy's Fancies, and the tag line "What do you fancy today?" And it felt right. It only took over two years to come up with a name I was happy with! And no one else was using the name online, it was available on etsy and on facebook. 

The downside to facebook, though, was that I had too many fans on my Lizzy's Accessories page to change its name, so I had to make a new page for the new name, and, well, not a lot of people followed over. Facebook fan pages are annoying that way - facebook chooses what people see in their newsfeed and if you like a page for a giveaway, but never interact with it again, you don't see the updates. So most of the fans I had gained through a few giveaways didn't see my page anymore, to know to go to the new page. I had discovered how poorly giveaways seem to help, so I decided against doing any for a while, I still haven't had one since making the name change over a year ago.

One of the items I gave away in a local mom website promotion

I have gotten some fans, though interaction from more than just my family and a few friends would be nice, but you get what you can! I mostly sell jewelry and some accessories - dice bags are a great seller, in my shop, and I also have some girls skirts up for sale, with my daughter modeling them. Chainmaille is one of my favorite things right now...

Two-Tone Metallic Chainmail Bracelets For Sale!

When I finally decided to start a blog, choosing the name was pretty easy! Just the same as my shop, but singular, for what I fancy, instead of the fancies I make! But you know I fancy the fancies I make, so it all works together pretty well. Maybe now that I have a blog, I'll try another giveaway. We'll see, depends on how burned out I am after the A to Z challenge and a birthday party!

Just for fun, here's a Lego Lizzy that I made while trying to think about what to write today! Please join me again on Monday next week for something that starts with M, and take a look at some of the other blogs participating in the challenge:
A to Z Challenge Participating Blogs

Headband Holder

Thank you for joining me again for the A to Z Blogging Challenge! Today is H, for Headbands and a Headband Holder. Below is what I made, continue reading to see how!

 Looks nice, right? It took a bit of work to make, but I'm happy with it!

Here's why we need it:

 My daughter has quite a few headbands. More like a LOT. I love styling my daughter's hair, but the ease of a headband is just great, and you can get them at a good price, to match a lot of outfits - or make your own! A little brushing, headband on, and cuteness achieved along with hair out of face. 

But a jumble of headbands isn't very helpful when you're in a hurry to get ready, or want to find that specific one for a cute outfit. So onto organizing!

I got an unfinished coat rack from the craft store and painted it for her room decorations, to hold the headbands, but it just didn't work. There were too many, they didn't all hang straight, with at least four on a peg, you knocked three or more off getting just one headband.

This photo is a few years old, the rack was much more crowded the last time it was used. The shelf above it got very crowded as well. There had to be a better way to hold her pretties!

When I worked at a clothing and accessory store, we had metal bars to hold headbands that worked well, but nothing like that is sold in stores. Maybe I could make my own though...

The idea brewed in my head for a while before I finally decided to take action!

Want to see how I made it? Read on, maybe you can make your own!

I gathered a few things: cardstock (well really comic book boards), dowels, a wood back, and some tape.

 I got distracted by beads, but then focused back on this project! Following are a few diagrams and photos of what I did next.

 Above are the materials I used. Measurements shown are what I used, to match another shelf in my daughter's room, but you can adjust to your need. I taped together a few comic book boards to make the whole for the horseshoe shaped headband holder bar. [Edit: the foam should be about an inch or inch and a half longer than the cardstock, if you want the foam to go to the edges. Mine was the same, so you see cardstock sticking out! Seam allowances are important for a reason.]

 

 This first step I did not take photos of, so you get sketches =)

 These are the following steps. If you choose to paint the wood back, do so at this point, instead of taking it apart again to paint like I ended up doing! Paint the dowels as well, the whole dowel of both short sides, and the ends of the dowels taped to cardstock. I rounded the corners of the wood back, and softened the edges of the short dowel ends, with my dremel, since I had it out for cutting the dowels and sanding the edges.

 It is good to note at this point that a thicker wood for the back would have been better, since the one I used was too thin for the sawtooth hangers' nails!

This is the 'horseshoe' shape for the part to hold the headbands - tape it to the right size for a headband, using one as a guide. Cover the exposed tape on the inside of the U with more tape to keep from getting messy.

 With your holes drilled, you can screw the side dowels onto the bar dowels, as in the photo.

 Then attach the side dowels to the back, as shown.

 Here is a view from the bottom, assembled.

 And a view from the top!

Ta-da! It hangs on the wall and holds headbands! 

But... something's missing. It's not painted and needs something to cover that cardstock and tape. I considered covering it with scrapbook paper, but foam and fabric seemed a better choice. And some paint on the wood!

 Look, foam! And fabric!

 A cushioned bar for headbands now!

 And painted!

 Sewing the fabric and foam sleeve was a little difficult. I can show you one diagram for it, but the rest is hard to draw because I came up with the idea, then acted on it, not writing it all down or taking step by step photos (I'm new to this photo tutorial thing!)

This is how I attached the foam to the fabric - right side of fabric to the foam. It is easier to place fabric side down on the sewing machine, then some scrap fabric on top of the foam to make it move better. Go slowly and use a long or basting stitch. The fabric should be longer than the foam, match up the edges with the slack of the fabric in the middle.

After sewing the fabric to the foam, fold the raw edges in and stitch a seam with the two long ends of the fabric. Then flip this right side out, and you should have a nice cushioned foam sleeve! You may need to tighten the cardstock horseshoe to fit the sleeve, or it might stretch your headbands while holding them - we don't want too big headbands!

Slip the sleeve on the cardstock horseshoe, then screw the side dowels on, and then those to the back, and you have a nice finished headband holder!

You can barely see the holder for all her headbands! I made the four on the right.

Here is a nice collage of different angles, with less headbands on it so you can actually SEE the holder! [Edited post to add better photos]

I hope you enjoyed this entry in my blogging challenge, join me again tomorrow for something that starts with I!