He's Got Undies on the Outside!

Its no secret around here that this kid loves a good dress up. Fireman Sam has been given the flick in favour of Superman, and man o man, Superman has just about moved in.

What started out as an innocent Superman t-shirt purchase soon turned crazy when this kid saw his first Superman movie - thanks Dad! While I'm all for a good role play and imagination building things weren't so good when the t-shirt was being worn in icy winter temps WITHOUT a jumper-slash vest-slash anything slightly warm- as it was covering up his "badge" (aka Superman logo)! Even a mere suggestion that he should put something warm over the top would prompt a tantrum of massive proportions!!

So! A plain blue jumper under the t-shirt solved this prob but now he insisted on wearing his red undies on the outside of his pants! Ha! Cute and all, but made toileting a nightmare - off with the red undies, off with the pants, off with the underneath undies! Phew.

So out came some plain blue tracky daks and some red fabric scraps which would create some faux undies! Ta da! It worked, he loves them and even lets me wash the outfit once a week. Yup, once a week. Eew. Oh well, who am I to get in the way of his massive imagination?

 Red scraps....

...plus tracky daks

= faux undies! 

Genius! Sometimes the battle just isn't worth fighting with the little people so rather than resisting, a little imagination on my part works wonders! 

Park-ready winter Superman comin' at ya! 

And just for a giggle, on that one day a week where his outfit is having a wash and he reluctantly dons plain clothes - do not dare call him Ollie - no no - "I'm Clark Kent!"

Oh bless the little people! 

I am Fireman Sam!

I'm on the dress-ups bandwagon again!

While we've all been cursing the copious amount of rain this summer, our little guy has been taking what is usually bushfire season very seriously! What started off as a cute little role play emulating his new hero Fireman Sam, quickly became an obsession. Our house must be called the fire station, our cars the fire trucks, Ollie must be addressed as Fireman Sam or he is a seriously unhappy chappy - even "Mummy & Daddy" has been given the flick in favour of new monikers "Elvis & Trevor"!

Cute at first, but 8 weeks later he is still keeping up the charade and driving us a little nuts at times. Whipping up a mini fireman outfit allowing him to indulge a little in this new world now seems more like mum is feeding his obsession!

This outfit was created without patterns (yay me!) using only existing clothes as a guide to get the sizing right. And it didn't turn out half bad!

The only stipulation from Sam himself was that the jacket had to have two rows of buttons, just like Fireman Sam's. Sure thing.

Reporting for duty, Sir!

Water on!

"I love my shiny buttons"

Crazy fireman dude maybe, but adorable nonetheless!

The yellow strips were cut from an old t-shirt, and the reflectors are simply...wait for it...strips of duct tape! Ha! You can buy the reflective strips in haberdashery stores but I thought this was a cheap creative alternative.  Oh, and because our shiny buttons are purely decorative, I added a couple of little velcro strips to hold the jacket closed.

Success! And its all because of you, big guy...........

The Abba Refashion Challenge!

Yes yes I've been missing in action again but life gets so busy sometimes my lil projects get put on the back burner. If only there were more hours in the day!

About 4 weeks ago a friend of mine cheekily asked for help with some fancy dress costumes by laying it out as a "challenge" - now how could I refuse when its dangled in front of me like that? The theme was rock/pop stars from the 60's-90's so the range was broad and MH & Co. decided to go with Abba so the whole family of four could get in on the fun!

The trick here was getting something up and running on a tight budget, so off to the op-shops she went! Loads of white satiny stuff was purchased at bargain basement prices and I couldn't really back out now.

Here's what we started with....

One ladies blouse...

Another satiny number....

And a lovely (hmm hmm) satin dressing gown 

...PLUS a small stack of typically psychedelic fabric that could have come straight from the 60's!

 

First things first we decided to go with dressing all four the same - MH is not a big dress fan so we went with shirts to be teamed with jeans and topped off with some kick-ass flares and accessories! 

The ladies shirt was chopped down to fit a girl of 4yrs - a simple take-in and alter the shoulders and sleeves to fit. 

The other satiny shirt (of which I'm not really sure belonged to man or woman but was being used to clothe the big guy of the foursome) was already a decent fit so the sleeves were simply chopped a little.

And that oh so sexy night gown thingy was used to make a shirt for my girl MH and a basic tee for the little guy. Off came the lace around the neckline, a few adjustments with length and we were good to go.

Did I mention how scared I was that this totally wouldn't work? I only ever sew for myself so if it all goes horribly wrong its no biggy...but this was nerve-wracking...these guys really needed these outfits! 

And the finished products? See for yourself...

 

Cuteness! Mini Abba-channeling.

 

 Mummy daughter team.

(Just quietly) I love how these flares turned out and the

matching sashes set them off perfectly

 Family affair!

Hmmm...perhaps a couple of decades early for a mullet but these guys definitely rocked it!