Project: Hobbes Halloween costume

This year's halloween costume went through many many options. But, we finally settled on Hobbes from Calvin & Hobbes. A syndicated comic strip that ran in the old school newspaper from the mid '80s to mid '90s. From one of my favorite artists of all time, Bill Watterson. His comics are one of the best written .. in any format. And they stand the test of time. True classics.

Hobbes is the sidekick of Calvin (in his vividly wild imagination), but only a stuffed toy to everyone else.

Since it's Bill's principle that he would never license out the Calvin & Hobbes property for any commercial sales, I was fairly confident that we would not see another Hobbes on another kid. Well.. unless it was also homemade.


NOT THIS GUY:


The projects starts off with paper as a template. Sizes were taken off of Persephanie directly. Then with the paper template, simply transfer it onto the fabric.






Daddy's little helper. Helping pin the fabric together. Prepping for the sewing machine.




Sleeves done. Now the body. 2 pieces, almost identical. For the exception of the crotch. There's an extra piece of material added for the butt so it can 'stretch' a bit, so there won't be any kind of wardrobe malfunctions.

Entry would be through the crotch/inside legs area. Just pulled over her like a long sweater. The hole would be attached by little snap-on buttons. (Which will be hand sewn on)




The Hoodie:
This piece was actually pretty hard to start. Very challenging. Trying to figure out how to make a flat 2-dimensional piece of fabric wrap snuggly around my daughters head. Then it hit me. Why not just go grab one of her other hoodies she had and reverse-engineer it! I can just flip them inside out and see how they sewed them together. It would also show how many pieces and what shape the pieces are. Once that's figured out, it was super easy.

Since it was SO hard to get my daughter to stand still while I take measurements or 'test fit' pieces on her.. I went out and bought a foam dummy head ($7.00 at Dressew!) This way I can just work ON the model without fear of poking/stabbing it.


The Chest Hair:
Found this hair at Dressew! Place is SO AWESOME! They have everything.. and so cheap. This piece was simply cut and fabric glued on. SO EASY!! I thought of sewing it down... but, got lazy.. and time was running out for me.


The Tiger Stripes:
Simply used fabric glue again to paste it all on.


The Hands:
I found Sephie's gloves and was planning on using it to reverse-engineer the pattern. Since the hand is such a complicated thing to wrap fabric around. I wanted to see how the pros do it. Upon research.. I concluded it was just TOO complicated for me to try. Time was running out for me. So, I took the easy way out. Hoping the frabic's inherent stretchiness would save me! I took an outline sketch of Sephie's hands. Preschool style!! woohoo. Cut the pattern on the fabric (x4). Sandwhiched two pieces... and prepped it for the sewing machine.


With the two halves together, all I had to do was sew along the lines I had drawn. Giving myself an extra 3/8" buffer outside the actual profile outline. When done, I flipped the glove inside-out, so the stitching is on the inside.

The pieces for the ears. I stuffed a thin piece of fabric for the black part of the ears to give it more volume. And a simple white piece of fabric for the center of the ears. Those little triangular notches are material I removed so I can bend the 'ring' without have excess material to bind.

Rough cutouts for the tail.


The ears and tail. Used standard pillow stuffing to stuff the tail for some soft volume.

Some more of the batting stuffed into the muzzle of Hobbes.

Hand-stitched the muzzle closed.

Hot-glued the nose ($0.25 brown cotton ball found @ Dressew). More hand-stitching for the ears onto the head.



The Final Product:






There is a flaw in the design. One that I hadn't anticipate or even expected. Persephanie had a hard time getting into and out of the costume. Not that it was a perfect fit. It was. Maybe TOO perfect. The suit fit super snug on her frame. The problem was when the costume was being pulled over her eyes, extreme claustrophia set in. She cried and screamed "I'm LOST!" Absolutely terrifying for her.. but, hilarious for us. Even when I got her head through, her arms were trapped while struggling to find the sleeve. Midway through she even tried to get back out... which resulted in more crying. She only wore the costume for her Preschool. Manage to take a few photos there. But, as soon as she got home, it came off. And of course.. another struggle.

So there it is. The costume was retired.

Project: Snowie's Casket (part 1 of 2)

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Snowie Chow has passed this week. He was older than grandma at 112 dog years old!.. so he did do pretty good. He didn't exactly see any World Wars or witness any major transportation get invented in his time. But, he did get to see the revolution that is the iPod/iPhone/iPad!


This project is for Snowie. The final resting place for him and his favorite toy. A small wooden traditional casket to house his cremated remains and his chew toy. This will be buried in Drew's parent's backyard under the pine tree.

The initial assemblage of the materials. The hardware, some found pine wood around the house(already slotted for the floor!), and a quick sketch of what I think it should look like. I wanted this to look exactly like a full-human-sized casket. Just mini-er.


Cutting up some decorative trim on the mitre box


Simple box cut, glued, and screwed together. Nothing fancy so far.
Test fitting where the handle should go.

Traditional side?


Or on the ends? I think we'll go with this option as this would allow me to put a dedication plaque on the side later.


All trim sanded and glued into place. Holes drilled for handles. (Only temporary to see them on at this point)


The Lid:
Thought of many ways I can approach this. The difficulty is that the design requests it to be curved. If I had decided to have a simple flat top, I'd be done in 10 minutes. (I could have just gone out and bought a jewelry box and be done with it!) But, it's not my style.. I'd always go for the most challenging way I can think of in the amount of time given to me. (An opportunity to learn and grow)

So, carving one out of a chunk of wood, Steam bending thin plywood, etc .. all approaches would take me too long a time to accomplish. Looking around the house to see what material I had to work with is also part of the process.

Half inch (Home Depot) foam insulation boards was perfect. Simple to carve, cut, and sand.


Stacked a few and sketched the shape.


First layer sanded to shape on the belt sander. Next two glued together.


The process of shaping this lid is pretty straight forward. Just like sculpting. just taking away the material in the negative space in one axis, then work on the next axis. This method is best for this shape.


Re-drawing what I need to take away in the profile axis.




On the belt sander working on the 2nd shape.




Same method used to carve the bottom half of the lid.


Ooops.
As I started the painting stage, the spray paint I used started to eat a bit of the foam. I wasn't worried before as I knew I could paint over this foam. The difference this time is that I used a paint from a spraycan with high gloss. Not exactly sure what ingredient it was that dissolves this foam. The damage was minor and was easily corrected with a light coat of spackling. When it dries, I'll sand to smooth finish. This blooper is actually a blessing as it would give the entire lid a harder shell.


Got this plaque made today. Cat/Drew had an opportunity to see the plaque and the work-in-progress casket as it so far. And immediately would not let me 'bury' the plaque as it's 'too nice'. So, I guess I'll have to come up with another alternative. For all you CG folks, this is a "revision"


On a side note... here's a quick pic of my sad workstation! But, it's all there at arms reach. Drill press, belt sander, scroll saw.. all inches apart from one another! Hey, I don't have to go very far for each tool!


Stay tuned for the finish!

Project: Planter

My mother-in-law loves to garden. Spends a lot of time caring for her babies. She wanted a more dedicated place for some vegetables other than the usual rolling pots. Wanted something more 'elegant'. Shopped around and found the sizes she wanted are over $250. I figure I can make one better and cheaper.

Wood of choice is obvious... Cedar. It's naturally rot resistant AND bug resistant. Bugs eat cedar and die. And this happens without any chemicals. And that's important as this project is for a vegetable garden. Her keyword is "organic". She LOVES to use that word. So, every element in this project can not have any chemical that can leech into the soil and contaminate the goods.

Design is both simple and a compliment to the surrounding property fence.

17,900 cubic inches = 293 liters in volume! That's plenty of soil to grow almost anything she wants.

Material cost = $150 (includes casters! So she can move it around by herself)




Drilled plenty of holes into the floor of the planter for proper water drainage.

Dropped down 55lbs of gravel (about an inch worth in height) and then a layer of landscaping fabric on top to separate the soil and gravel. Again, better for drainage.


This planter is sturdy. Twice as sturdy as any commercially available planter I've seen out there. It will last.
Special thanks to Andrew and his dad for lending me a hand and the tools!