A Quick Sew - A Witches Hat

We hosted a small Halloween party last night. Sprog and Widget chose whatever they wanted from the dress up box, but both chose the PJ Masks costumes I finished last week. Husband went as Donald Trump which was easy, a suit, a pillow, and bronzer, completed with an offcut from Widget's Ewok costume for a wig.

My costume was a last minute through together. I pulled my Academic robe out of the cupboard, my favourite, but dying stripey socks from the drawer and slapped green face paint over bared skin. To cap it off I popped on a hat made fresh that afternoon.

This was a super quick sew. If I hadn't been sewing a Mummy-ing simultaneously it would have taken 15 minutes from go to woah.

For this hat I used the Oliver+S bucket Hat pattern as a base. I made it in the largest size, ostensibly size 6-8. It was a smidge on the small size, but having tried Sprog's Paddington Hat and having it fit OK, I figured a size that worked for the boys dress-up box would ensure the most use.

For this one I used black felt. I cut the brim as normal. the crown I did away with completely. For the pointy part of the hat I lined the pattern piece for the side of the hat up against the fold then drew a straight line from the other end of the pattern piece on the same angle all the way up to where it met the edge.

Then it was cut, sew down the straight line, attach the brim as per the instructions and wear.

One last minute witch costume.

A Quick Sew: A cat pillow

For a few years we have had a couple of super cheap duvets in our house. We bought them when we were brand-spanking-newly married to provide a bedcovering for each of  Husbands brothers when they stayed. Since then they have been on spare beds. One of them was left without a cover for a while and the cat took a liking to it. It must be a cozy spot for feline sleep, with the added bonus of being a spot where Widget and Sprog won't bother him. Cat has padded and pawed and clawed the cheap duvet to the point it was having bunches of polyester stuffing pull away. It was time to do something about it.

For the cover I used and old but in very good nick sheet. When I say old I mean "bought in the 70's" old. When I say "in good nick" I mean it was only taken out of the plastic packaging about 7 years ago and only used very sporadically since then. The pattern is very 70's though so I'm unlikely to use it. It's one of the reasons it has only been used sporadically.

The first step was to fold over the sheet and sew down the end edge. I then sewed about 1/3 of the way up the long open edge. I measured it against the folded duvet and cut to size. Then I sewed about 1/4-1/2 inch from the edge up the fold, to make all the edges be defined. I sewed the fourth edge completely, and on the still partially open side sewed about a third from the other end.  This meant it was completely closed on three sides and the ends of the fourth side were also sewn, with an opening in the middle.

I stuffed the duvet in, I had it folded over into a half, then that half into thirds before stuffing. The last step was to close the opening. I used three white snaps to make the gaps between the snaps small enough the cat wouldn't slip inside the cover.

The pens mark the end of the sewn portions, and if you look closely you can see the snaps

 Cat not using pillow. 

ETA: Cat using pillow!