Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle hat/mask combo

I used the idea from a Craftster post that I can't find right now. Argh! (Just search for teenage mutant ninja turtle mask on the crochet board.) I didn't use the woman's pattern. I just did dc in a round until I got to the eye holes, then sl st through to make the eye holes. I went long in the back so that I could tie the ends in a knot like a regular mask would actually do. I had to test-fit it as I went, and then when it was done, I realized it fit a 3 year old and a 35 year old pretty much the same. Gotta love dc.

Adult shirt to toddler dress

I have seen a couple tutorials online (mostly Craftster.org -- just search shirt toddler dress there and you'll find them) for these dresses, and it occurred to me that this would be a much better use for that shirt with the weird collar that I always loved but now never wear because it's got that one stain on the shirttail ...

Anyway. I cut off the sleeves:

And the collar ...

I hacked off the bottom to make it flat and hemmed everything. Then I sewed on a simple tube of fabric with elastic inside to make it gather a little. Normally I think that fabric is really cute, but once I got it sewn on, I see that it's actually hideous on the shirt. See, even the camera wouldn't cooperate and take a decent picture of it.

I quickly ripped that out and put on a tube made out of matching fabric from a discarded sleeve. I also turned the collar area and added some elastic.

This was a gift for a friend's daughter, but she wasn't around, so I paid my 3-year-old son a quarter to pose for me. I told him he could look as crabby as he wanted to.

Robot Day!

The boys and I taped together cardboard boxes and cut out arm and face holes. I mentioned this to our buddy Melanie (the art teacher who lives down the block). She said, "Bring them over tomorrow!" The next day our next door neighbor asked if her son could come over for a while so she could run errands. Absolutely! Plenty of boxes to go around. So we threw together a box combination for him, too.

An hour or so of kid-led painting and construction-paper-ing later:

Even more T-shirt stencils!

Fun Christmas gifts for the boys' friends for only $2! Gotta love the sales at Michael's.

For Silas next door:

For Silas' sister Bird:

For cousin Hadley (a real-life Texan cowboy, according to the boys)

X-wing fighter pilot shirt

It was a lot of fleece, some fabric paint, a black shoe string, and a couple feet of gray strap.

Star Wars stenciling!

When we planned our trip to the Science Museum's Star Wars exhibit, the boys decided they needed new shirts for the occasion.