#MichaelsMakers - The Incredible Mounted Cat-Moose Costume DIY

So you all know me... you know I'm a cat lady.  Not quite crazy yet, but steadily approaching, I think. When the #MichaelsMakers challenges are posted, most of the time I immediately think of something insane I can make for my cats.  Well, this month's costume challenge was no exception!  I decided to turn my cat, Skilo, into a whimsical jackelope type creature... hence, I present to you Cat-Moose.

As you can see, Skilo loves me.  You can see it all over his face.  See...  That look says, "Mom, I love you, my life is better because of you and these antlers you've crafted with love for my adorable head." I know you're all dying to know how to make your own Cat-Moose or, dare I say, DOG-Moose... so let's get to the tutorial!

This is no sew - of course!  You will need:

Felt

Card Stock

Faux Wood Grain Paper

Glue Gun

Scissors

Paint Pen/Chalk

First and foremost, you have to sketch out your moose antlers.  Cut them out of cardstock, then use that as your stencil for the felt.  Make sure to leave about 1/8 inch between your chalk line and stencil because the card stock is going in between the two pieces of felt to give it some structure.  You want 2 sides for each antler (obviously).

Next, cut strips of felt about 3 inches long an as wide as the base of your antlers... you want 4 strips.  Glue one strip to each antler piece (about 1 inch overlapping).  Once that is done, glue the card stock and the 2 antler pieces together.  

Now you want to cut the band that will go around your pet's head.  Mine is about 1.5 in wide.  Find the center of it and cut 2 slits the width of the base of your antlers, about 1/2 inch apart.  Fit the flaps at the end of your antlers through the cut.  You will then fold it out and glue to the under side of the strap, then fold it up over the top and do the same.  Where the strip meets the antler, reinforce it with hot glue to make sure the antlers stand upright.

Next, make your plaque!  I cut mine out of card stock first then layered the faux wood grain paper over top.  Once that was done, I attached the antlers with a strip of felt and hot glue.

There you have it.  Now all you need to do is stick your pets head through the hole and you have a whimsical creature as a pet!

Can we give props to my Mum for modeling with my kitten??  

When I'm having a bad day, I put the antlers on my cats and just laugh hysterically at their expense.  Does that make me a bad person?  I think they secretly like it.

Make sure you check out all the other awesome costume ideas from the #MichaelsMakers!

An InLinkz Link-up

DIY Sushi Costume for a Dog

Can you believe Halloween is in 3 days?? My kids have already gotten over a pound of candy each from a parade and church event we attended this weekend, so I know we're going to be up to our eyeballs in candy come Thursday. Not that I'm complaining. I'm actually eating one of the kids' Twix bars right now because I had to make sure it was safe. You know, for the kids.... Unfortunately for them, it seems all the Reeses cups and Twix bars are unsafe. And the Snickers. And pretty much everything that involves chocolate in some way, those were all confiscated.

You can never be too cautious ;)

After finishing up Connor's hooded dragon cape, I called it quits on costumes for season. Then, while I was pinning stuff on Pinterest (you can follow us here!) I came across this adorable DIY baby sushi costume. Right then, I decided I needed to make a sushi costume for someone, and who better than Shannon's little black jack russel/black lab mix, Atari? I used some of the leftover orange and green felt from Michael Levine and put this together in a little over an hour.

SUPPLIES: 1/4 yard green felt, 1/4 yard orange felt, 1/4 yard white felt, 1/4 yard white cuddle fabric (you can use felt for this too, bu, 1/4 yard black fleece, disappearing ink marker, small amount of polyester toy filling, velcro, sewing machine and supplies.

ONE: since I didn't have the dog handy to measure, I used a dog shirt as a template for my measurements. First, measure how long and wide you'll want your sushi roll to be. (Mine was 12 inches long and 8 inches wide.)
TWO: cut out a green rectangle of fabric in the measurements you wrote down.
THREE: next, draw a shrimp template. I just drew half of a shrimp so I could lay the pattern on the fold and get a uniform shape.
FOUR: lay your pattern on the fold of your orange felt and trace around. Cut two shrimp from your orange felt and one from your white felt.

You should now have 2 orange shrimp, 1 white shrimp, and a green rectangle.

ONE: place the white shrimp on top of one of the orange shrimps. Pin, then sew all the way around.
TWO: on the orange side of your shrimp, draw V's on your shrimp with disappearing ink marker. Sew on top of the lines you just drew.
THREE: use a pair of scissors to cut away the top layer only of your V's to reveal the white felt underneath.
FOUR: here's what it should look like as you cut.
FIVE: with the "V side" facing up, place your other orange shrimp felt piece on top and pin all around. Sew to attach, leaving a 1 inch hole for turning.
SIX: turn inside out and stuff with polyester filling.

ONE: cut a rectangle from your snuggle fabric as long as your green felt but slightly less wide (I chose snuggle fabric because it has a texture that looks just like rice!) Pin and sew around the edges of your snuggle fabric to join.
TWO: use your scissors to cut small slits along the long sides of your green fabric.
THREE: cut a long strip of black fleece for the seaweed band that will hold everything together.
FOUR: sew the hook portion of your velcro to one end of your band and the loop portion to the other.

Place your shrimp on top of your snuggle fabric, then wrap your seaweed band around and you're finished!

Then all you have to do is attach your sushi roll to your victim, er dog.

Atari was clearly thrilled about my decision to make him into a sushi roll ;) I had a lot of fun making a costume for my little fur nephew, even if he wasn't as excited to wear it.

Check out our Link Party Page to see where we link up each week!

7 Fabulously Fancy Felt Projects + A Giveaway Winner!

We're not the only ones in the blogosphere having fun with felt! Check out these other fabulous felt projects that you can DIY in no time.

Felted Ball Necklace via Dans le Townhouse

DIY Felt Boxes via All Your Sites

 Felt Fall Leaf Garland DIY via Pam Garrison

DIY Felt Succulents via Instructables

DIY Illuminating Felt Houses

Boogie Monster Tissue Holder DIY via The Sewing Rabbit

Easy Felt Crown Sewing Tutorial by Make It Handmade via The Sewing Rabbit

Now it's time to announce our winner!!

The winner of the $25 certificate to www.LowPriceFabric.com is.....

Katie T.!

The winner has been emailed. Katie, be sure to check your mailbox!

Thanks to everyone for following along and entering the giveaway. Remember, even if you didn't win, Michael Levine is offering our readers a 10% discount on your orders through December, so grab that code (you can find it in our right sidebar) and go shopping!

Fall Felt Series: Felt and Suede Clutch

I hope everyone has enjoyed all of our projects from the Fall Felt Series this year! Shannon and I have had a ton of fun getting creative with felt and coming up with some new ideas for fall outside of the typical felt projects you may see around.

For our last post of the series, I decided to make myself a felt and suede clutch. I'm not typically a clutch kind of girl (lugging 2 kids around means I need a strap on my bags or else I'm bound to leave it somewhere - not that I've done that before *cough cough*), but I gave it a go and I love how it turned out!

This bad boy is big enough to hold my stuff - I made sure to make a few pockets inside to hold everything - and it's great when I'm on the run, or for a date night out sans kiddos (hint hint husband.)

Wanna make one too?

SUPPLIES: 1/2 yard felt - I used 100% virgin wool felt in classic navy from Michael Levine, scraps of suede or leather - I used brown suede from Michael Levine, a rectangle of fabric 6 inches wide by 13 inches long, sewable interfacing slightly smaller than your fabric, leather or suede cording, rotary cutter and mat, chalk or disappearing ink marker, sewing machine and basic sewing supplies.

First you'll need to cut out your pattern pieces. Cut one piece of felt 21 inches long by 13 inches wide, and cut out a triangle from a piece of suede 4 1/2 inches tall by 10 inches wide. You will also need a rectangle of cotton fabric 6 inches wide by 13 inches long and a piece of sewable interfacing slightly smaller than your rectangle.

Attaching Your Pocket:

ONE: fuse your interfacing to the back of your fabric rectangle according to the instructions. Next, use an iron to iron each of the long sides down 1/4 inch.
TWO: measure about 7 inches from the bottom of your felt rectangle and mark with chalk.
THREE: place the bottom of your fabric pocket on the chalk line and pin, then sew across the bottom only to attach.
FOUR: use your disappearing ink marker to draw lines where you want your pockets to be. Sew on top of the lines you drew to make separate compartments.

FIVE: measure 7 inches down on either side and mark with chalk. Make another mark on the top middle of your felt. Draw lines from the top of your felt to the marks you made on the sides. Cut along your lines to make the triangle flap of your clutch.

Adding Suede:

ONE: fold the bottom of your felt up 7 inches and pin the sides. Sew.
TWO: use a rotary cutter and mat to evenly cut your suede into 3 pieces.
THREE: place your suede on top of your felt where desired and mark if needed.
FOUR: carefully and slowly sew your suede onto the front of your bag.

Making The Tassel:

ONE: make a small line on your suede with your chalk or disappearing ink marker and carefully make a slit with scissors or an X-Acto Knife.
TWO: cut a long piece of cording and fold it in half. Thread the loop through the hole and the tails through the loop.
THREE: this is what your cording should look like so far.
FOUR: now to make the tassel, I simply made long loops with the cording until I was happy with it.
FIVE: after you've made as many loops as you want, wrap the tails of the cording around the top of the tassel tightly and knot.
SIX: snip the loops on the bottom of the tassel with scissors to finish.

I love the handy little compartments inside that hold all my stuff!

I hope we've given you some new ideas for things to make with felt, and we'd love to see anything you'd like to show off (past or recent projects)! Post any of your projects you've made using felt on our Facebook wall, and we will feature some of our favorites next week.

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A HUGE thank you to our sponsor, Michael Levine, Inc. for supplying the felt for the Fall Felt Series! As I'm sure you can tell, we absolutely love their products and were so thrilled when they decided to jump on board and partner with us for the series.

Have a great weekend and be sure to check back with us on Monday, because we will be having a little giveaway to celebrate the series!

Check out our Link Party Page to see where we link up each week!

Fall Felt Series: DIY Needle Felted & Hand Beaded Shoulder Embellishments

It's Day 4 of our Annual Fall Felt Series! Yay!  It's bittersweet, though.  So far, this is my favorite series of ours and I'm sad to see it coming to an end.

I'm super excited about this DIY!  It seems overwhelming, I know... but, trust me, it's worth the patience you'll invest in it!  This DIY Needle Felted and Hand Beaded Shoulder Embellishment is the most amazing addition to any boring, plain sweater you might have laying around.  

What you'll need:

A sweater

Felt

Thread

Seed Beads

Needle felting tool

Needle felting brush

For my felt, I used For this project I used Michael Levine's Classic Navy 100% Wool Felt.

This is the before.. boring, plain... BLAH.  It needs a little something extra, I thought.

I measured the length of the shoulder seam, from collar to sleeve.  I made my triangle exactly that long and half that wide.

Next, pin it in place and then try on your sweater to make sure you like where your embellishment lies.

Once you've settled on placement, starting punching away with your needle felting tool and brush.  Remove pins one at a time as you go along needle felting to make sure the felt stays in place.  When you get both felt pieces needle felted on, you can start your beading!  I just made up my design as I went.  I used tiny little copper colored seed beads and black thread.  There's really no technique to this other than exercising A LOT of patience!!  You just need to keep reminding yourself how amazing the outcome is going to be!

For the record, I am totally digging black and navy together right now!

Total outfit details: Sweater and Pants - HM, Shoes - Kenneth Cole New York, Necklace - Rosewood

Don't forget to check out LowPriceFabrics.com and grab the discount code from our sidebar!  We are so incredibly excited to have them sponsoring this series.  Seriously, their deals are to die for!

Check out our Link Party Page to see where we link up each week!