Baby “Link” (Legend of Zelda) costume

Continuing on with my recent theme of wildly outdated and/or seasonally inappropriate posts, here was what baby A wore for his first Halloween (at 3 months old). He went as Link from the popular Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda. As a gamer with a hardcore case of video game nostalgia, this was my husband’s top pick for a costume for A. I was set on sewing him a good costume for his first Halloween, but wanted to keep it relatively straightforward so I actually had a hope in hell of getting it done. It’s tough to find sewing time with a newborn around. I know, shocking news.

The tunic and hat were sewn from a thrifted men’s long-sleeved polo shirt:

Large and green. Perfect for the chopping.

One sleeve was cut off and became the hat:

Chop chop!

Using one of A’s hats to get an idea of width.

I hemmed the bottom edge after I took this picture.

… and I used one of A’s existing shirts to trace as a quasi-pattern for the tunic part.

Had to take the pocket off, since it was going to get in the way of the magic.

I just made it a bunch longer so it was, you know, tunic-like.

After this I just sewed up the sides, underarms and shoulders. I left the collar edge raw and cut a little slit in the front so A’s head would fit through. Baby heads are surprisingly big.

The boots were also salvaged; this time from a brown knitted sweater (that our a-hole cat had chewed a hole into, rendering it scrap fabric instantly). They were based off of a pattern I found somewhere on the internet, but have since lost. (Sorry, blog. Bad linking karma for me.) I cut the boot pattern pieces out of one sleeve and serged them together (making sure the knit stitches didn’t completely unravel). The sash and belt were cut from the other sweater sleeve. Much faster than knitting them, I tell you. The “gold” belt buckle was a simple crocheted circle using some yellow cotton yarn I had leftover from the Republic hat. I machine sewed it on to the belt, then attached some hooks and loops to fasten the belt in place (hooks and loops were all I had on hand — velcro would have been better).

The pants were the only part I didn’t make, so no exciting story there. I think they were from American Apparel? Who cares. BORING.

We took A to a family-friendly Halloween party at our local community baby/parent centre, and of course no one there knew what he was supposed to be. But that’s not terribly surprising, I guess, since most of the other babies in attendance were far more easy to identify (a pumpkin! a cat! a dinosaur!). I might have seen a glimmer of appreciation from one of the other dads well across the room from us. Nerds usually aren’t the most outgoing folks, so I may never know for sure.

But you know what? Obscurity be damned; he was one cute frigging Baby Link. Frig! Right? Frig.

Swifftastic!

I seem to be on a kick to eliminate all the disposable crap from our home. My latest adventure in doing so was also paired with my second ever foray into crochet!  (Points for rhyming!)

I had been long planning to sew some reusable Swiffer cloths (perhaps à la Viscidly or Sew Much Ado) to put a stop to the endless disposable refill buying. But then this kitschy number crossed my path via CraftZine and I was sold on giving it a try. Plus I had some acrylic yarn that had been nagging at me for a while, so I thought it was a match made in crafty heaven.

Also?  The ruffles?  Yes.

Here is the top of the ‘sock’…

…and here is the dirty underbelly after a big sweep! (No judging. We have a cat.)

It turned out pretty brilliantly, and I can even attest to the fact that it made it through the wash without incident.

Did I mention this is also reversible?  If you flip the ruffled side inwards, the alternative is a much smoother (simple double crochet) surface for doing damp wipe-ups. But I never use our Swiffer for damn wipe-ups, so… I doubt that’ll get used. But I did enjoy the challenge of sorting out which side was which while I made this thing!  Crocheting two different things into two different sides of the same stitch can be confusing for a newb. Actually, in the end it was way easy, once I got the hang of it.

Things I covet: Despicable minions!

Have you seen Despicable Me yet?  See it. It’s great. And possibly the best part was the adorable minions, am I right?

Like many crafters, the first thing I thought when I saw them was “omg those would be awesome to make!”   They look like they were modeled after the yellow plastic toy container inside a Kinder Surprise, right?  In fact, that would probably be a good object to model a pattern after…

But all that is moot!  MOOT!  Because the work has been done.  There are two patterns for the minions that I’ve come across so far. Knitters and crocheters, rejoice!

Left: Crocheted minion by WolfDreamer; Right: Knitted minion by Kat Knits.

I… I still kind of can’t get over how cute these guys are. Now, if only I had an army of minions to bring me some potato chips…