DIY hats for Disney

If you follow me on social media, you know that our family is counting down the days until we go to Disney World.  Last time we went, we only had two kids and the second was only 18 months.  So, for two out of three, it will be a first time type experience.

I had seen all over Pinterest different custom and homemade Disney ears and thought that would be a fun project for my oldest and I to do together.  She is twelve, so some days are a bit strained and I am always looking for ways for us to have a close moment.

She is quite the artist, she she sketched out what we would do for various characters.  I am a firm believer that people should wear hats to protect their faces from the sun, so we went to the Dollar Store and picked up some ball caps.  Also at the Dollar Store we bought craft foam.

Those were the only two purchases for this project and everything else we used were scraps or notions I had on hand.  That forced us to be especially creative.

I had a few bumps in the road.  The first hat we worked on, Fear from Inside out seemed to be a miserable failure and I wondered if that was going to be the case for all of them.  I had to put it aside for a while and work on the next hat.

A special thank you to my husband for modeling and taking selfies of each one!

Genie from Aladdin was next and I think that one turned out quite well.  It was a good thing too because it gave me the emotional strength to keep on going.

Ignore arm and hair behind him.

We then made King Triton from Little Mermaid.

And then was our most complicated one, Rapunzel from the movie Tangled.  I really enjoyed this one and like the music a lot.  I did not realize how good the music was until my youngest was listening to Disney radio on Pandora and I discovered that those songs really are pretty good and do not get old as fast as some of the others.

This one is one of my daughter's favorite.  She loves the movie Lilo and Stitch.  She drew the picture of Stitch free hand and then we laminated it with packing tape.  She also drew and cut the shapes of our white leaves.

By the time I did this last one, I totally was done fighting with the ears.  That was the main problem; our ears did not want to stand up.  So I asked my son if I could just glue the Baymax face on his hat. He was cool with that, so I was too.

I broadcast some of our progress and struggles on Periscope.  (you can follow me there if you want @MajorMoma) and I save 3 of the 4 videos.  So if you want to know our ear struggles and solutions, watch these:

I never got a picture of our Fear hat completed.  It is OK.  So if you follow on Instagram, you are sure to see it being modeled in the happiest place on earth and you can decide if it was worth the effort.




Thank you for letting me be apart of your day! Did you know I have an Etsy shop? Well I do and there I sell handmade home decor. Come on by and check it out.

                                        

A purple zebra?

On Sew Cool for the Tween Scene earlier this summer I reviewed a McCalls 6548.  I sewed up the shirt for my daughter to wear for her school play.  They were supposed to wear something "western style."  She did not have anything that fit the bill, so I made her something that would work and would be a good top for the whole summer.

She also needed a "stick pony."  The kids were told to get creative and that parents were not to go run out and buy one.  Given that her mom is a bit crafty, and loves to sew, we had a great time with this project.

I sent her digging through my scraps of fabric and she found this purple zebra twill fabric left over from a pencil skirt I made me a while back.  I thought it was great!  Then we went on pintrest and looked at several other home-made stick ponies and adapted a couple versions to fit what we wanted.

She is just learning to sew, thus we made it a joint project.  She cut out the horse head and ears pattern.  That helped her understand how a pattern is cut and how the pieces end up going together.  She pinned the pieces together and watched me sew.  The main was made by wrapping it around a two inch wide section of a cereal box and then I stitched down the outside edge catching the yarn.  Then Abi cut the other side so that we had a bunch of short yarns connected together.  Then I folded the yarn along the sewn line and inserted that into the long top seam of the horse head.

Abi stuffed the horse head with poly stuffing and we wrapped the stick with fabric in order to keep it's rough edges from poking through. The nose was stuffed first, then we inserted the stick and then stuffed the rest.  Using both a basting stitch to close the bottom and a bunch of hot glue, we were able to finish it off.  I did not like the look of it where the stick met the head, so I simply hot glued a ribbon at that joint and then tied a bow.

The yarn and buttons for eyes also came from my stash of sewing and crocheting supplies.  And the stick was one that we found in the woods behind our house.  This allowed us to completely comply with the school's intent of not spending any money.  And in addition to being free, it was a fun project to do with my girl.  One of the things I really want to do when I return from Afghanistan is to do more collaborative projects with Abi.

Do you have any silly mom-child projects?

If you are interested in hearing more from us, there are a couple ways for you to keep in touch!

March Inspiration

It is March and what does that mean?  It is almost Spring!  And we get a new image for our Inspiration Point.

Last month we had a video, but we are back to a good old fashion picture this month.

But what did we make last month?

Major Moma sewed up a tunic from a BurdaStyle magazine for her eldest daughter.

And M worked incredibly hard on a quilt.  She was able to get all the blocks done (along with several not blogged projects) by the end of the month.  She will share the quilt when it is completely done. 

On to the new picture....

As always, make what ever you want and upload to our Flickr site!

If you need to see the rules again, please click on the Inspiration Point tab on the top of the blog.

February's Inspiration

We had a great time with last month's Inspiration Point.

M stretched herself and made a modern quilt.





Major Moma made some warm pants and a hat. 

and McH was the most adventurous and made plaid antlers ... but hit a major snag in figuring out how to mount them.

For February, we are doing something different and giving you video.  It is of a cello and spoons making some fun music. 

 

You can create something inspired by the music, the spoons, anything in the video!


P.S.

Without Directions is now on FaceBook!  As soon as we figure out how, we will have a "Like Us" button.  But until then you can follow this link:  Without Directions Facebook Fan Page.

McH Inspiration Failbot

This month’s inspiration picture was amazing. I had all sorts of ideas pop into my brain. But like so many instant craft ideas I had a limited budget and limited time.  I ended up doing what I always do when crafting outside the box, I took a field trip to my local thrift store for ideas.

I live in a Navy town. Military communities have an advantage over run-of-the mill civilian towns, we have amazing thrift stores and garage sales. Why, you ask? Well because our community is transient. The military gives you a weight allowance to move and then moves you on their whim. So you learn to pare down. You learn to get rid of what you don’t need, the stuff your kid grew out of, and the crap your mother/grandmother pawned off on you. 

Most military both donate often and shop regularly at thrift stores.  For example, my daughter had a middle school concert last night and needed a white blouse and black skirt. I went to our thrift store and got a new white sweater, black gore skirt and cute one inch heel Mary Jane shoes all for 10 bucks.

Back to the inspiration.



My youngest modeling next to the fireplace



My first idea was a hat rack. I need one and I thought antlers...rack...hat...canes!  I went in search or canes or cane like things to glue/screw together.  Only they had one cane. And nothing else except a lot of golf clubs, but I draw the line at welding.

Idea number two.  Our downstairs I am turning, slowly, into a study/pub/TV room.  It needs something masculine. Something manly. Something with ANTLERS! And because it’s my house. Something with flannel.

I ended up taking all the left over Christmas wrapping paper off the rolls (don’t tell hubby) grabbed some cotton batting, and snagged few of my homespun’s.  To finish off with my modge podge medium.

You are jealous of my crafting prowess, I can tell.

It took the afternoon, and I stuck my fingers together only twice, but they were done.

Problem number two. I needed to mount them on something. It’s all well and good to have antlers but I can’t just leave it. I need them to be above the fireplace.  Mounting Idea #1. A bicycle helmet, drill out two holes and ta-da! But my children drew the line at me mangling one of their helmets.  Idea #2 A wooden plaque. This is still my idea.

But implementation is not going well. And cardboard tubes do NOT have a good life span. They bend, and crumble, and modge podge is heavy, and well we are at fail attempt number 4. 

Will I give up? Maybe. But my idea is amazing. Next time I will cut them out of foam. Or build them inset into a base.

Lessons learned. Inspiration is amazing, creativity rules, but sometimes your idea just doesn’t work. And you have to be cool with that.

He is "Mom you are so weird"