Sock Dog

Last week, I made a sock dog for my friend Lauren's son Dylan's first birthday. I got the idea from this great book called Sock and Glove. I plan to make another sock animal for the birthday of the baby downstairs, Marganitte.

I took a pair of my husband's tennis socks (which he was not happy about as these are his favourite socks.)

Cut, snip, sew, and stuff with cotton.

Crazy Octopus Costume

To kick start my Shin-Made blog. I'm posting about a Halloween costume that I made for Mila.

This was also featured on Designing Moms.

I made this costume days before Halloween. I had originally decided to skip Halloween this year. But one morning, I woke up and looked at Mila and thought, “I can’t deny Mila her very first Halloween. “ Of course, my husband Kiril added more quilt by saying to me, “You’re creative, why don’t you just make her something? ”

So I immediately sprang into a DIY baby costume frenzy. What could I make with materials that I already have at home and complete the project in one afternoon? I only have one day off, so a quick project is key.

I decided to make Mila an octopus costume (an idea I borrowed heavily from the October issue of Parents Magazine).

MATERIALS:

Four pairs of tights or socks. I used two baby tights and two pairs of adult knee and thigh highs. I decided to use the light blue pair for Mila to actually wear and the others will be her 6 additional legs.

I found this belt laying around that my friend Marie brought back from Paris. I thought that the colourful rivets were perfect for the tentacle suction cups.

If you want to make this costume at home and you don’t happen to have a French belt with rivets, here is your chance to use up all those extra buttons that come with sweaters and jackets. I think using buttons will achieve a very fun DIY look. Of course, pieces of cut out round felt will work too.

I also used a black ribbon, a long sleeve onesie, hot glue gun, lots of cotton balls, and a needle and thread.

STEPS:

First I cut the longer tights and socks to match the length of the actual tights Mila will be wearing.

I kept the waist top from the tights for a future project.

Then I cut the ends to pointy ends and sewed the seams from the inside. Of course don’t alter the tights that your baby will wear.

Then I stuffed the 6 legs with cotton balls. I couldn’t find batting in the art supply store nearby (which would have been preferable) so I hand shredded a ton of cotton balls. After stuffing the tights and socks, I sewed up the tops to close the openings.

Next I cut all the rivets off the belt and kept the buckle for a future project.

I then hot glued all the rivets to the legs to create the suction cups. After cutting off the blue bows, I sewed the pieces onto the light blue tights because I didn’t want the hot glue to itch her legs. I used 8 rivets per leg and had two rivets left over.

Then I measured Mila’s waist to determine the length of ribbon needed. Her waist is 17”. Imagine having a 17” waist?

I used masking tape and mapped out the 17” on the ribbon and added about 10“ to each side of the 17” for a total length of 37”.

Next I sewed all the legs onto the ribbon making sure that the legs stayed within the 17” outlined by the masking tape.

Remember the waist top from the tights? I decided to turn it into a hat for this costume. I sew on a couple pieces of white felt and added the remaining two rivets for eyes. I pulled at the leg openings to curl them back slightly.

I dressed her in a black long sleeve onesie. This one is from Imps and Elfs. The buttons spell out "LOVE". Tie the ribbon around her waist, add the hat and voila! Crazy octopus!