Grey Cat Mask

Wool cat mask

For Halloween, I made this wool cat mask - similar to the fox mask I made a few years ago. Josh and I went to the All the Saints Parade in Richmond. It was amazing - anyone how wants to can join in, there was a marching band, and people made really cool giant paper-mache puppets that they paraded through the streets. After that, we went on a haunted hayride with some friends and ran (& screamed) our way through a haunted forest. The mask was a perfect/casual costume for the night.

Adding whiskers!

I started the project by sketching out my mask on tracing paper. Then I cut it out and tried it on. The eyes weren't positioned exactly right, so I moved them and tried it again. When I got the shape correct, I started cutting my materials. The grey wool is from a felted wool sweater, the back is the same shape cut out of black felt, and hidden between the layers is a thin plastic layer (cut from an old plastic folder) to add support.

My mask  :)

For the fox mask, I used paint to add details to the mask. This time around, I decided to needle-felt all my details on. It worked really well! I needle-felted all the black and pink areas, except for the whiskers - which are a thin black yarn. Finally, I hand-stitched the front to the back, sandwiching in my ric-rac ties. And it was that easy!

My Log Saw Something That Night

The Log Ladies

Welcome to Twin Peaks!

Happy Halloween!! Josh and I celebrated last weekend as Twin Peaks characters  :) I was the Log Lady and he was Dr. Jacoby.

My costume was pretty simple, but I had fun with it. I already had all the wool and plaid cloths and even the glasses, so I just had to make my log. I bought woodgrain fabric at Jo-Ann's and light tan twill tape for the strap. I decided to make a log purse, so I could carry all my stuff in it. I filled the log with poly stuffing and lined the inside purse area, to avoid digging through the stuffing to find my stuff  :)

Log purse!

Spooky Sweet

Here are the measurements for my log purse:

1 - 19" x 19 1/2" woodgrain fabric

2 - 6" wide circles

1 - 20"+ zipper

1 - 32" twill tape (for strap)

1 - 19" x 10" lining fabric

1 - bag of stuffing

My log saw something...

The log was pretty easy to sew up. I started by sewing the zipper to both ends of the ~19" square fabric piece, to make a tube. Then I flipped it inside out and sewed a circle to each end. When you sew on the circles, put right sides of the fabric together and sandwiched the strap in-between the right sides of the fabric on both sides. The strap should line up with the end of the zipper on each side. Don't zipper the zipper up all the way when you sew the ends on, or it will be more difficult to flip the rightsides back to the outsides  :)  

Then I just stuffed the whole thing with poly-stuffing and I hand-stitched a lining to the underside of the zipper (after folding the lining in half, into a 19" x 5" rectangle, and sewing the ends shut on my sewing machine. I know it's not the best way to line something, but it was the easiest way since I was also stuffing it. And you see the finished product! A puffy log that could double as a pillow - if the Halloween party you attend gets boring ;)

For real Halloween, last night, I made a felted wool cat mask. Pictures of that will be coming soon!