CellPhone Costume - Fancy Dress

My dear friend's son had a fancy dress competition at school. The topic was 'Product'. Since this was very generic, we were initially confused, when given an option, the fancy dress participant himself chose mobile phone and even scripted his own dialogue!

• I started with a cardboard and cut it up to the length measuring his height from head to ankle
  
• Then from about 3-4 inches from top cut-off about 8 inches for Display screen where his face will be shown..
  
• Added Slits at various heights to be tied around this chest, and stomach. Add ties through the slits and kep them ready
  
• Wrapped up the cardboard with silver foil kind of gift wrapper. (ensure the display area is left open)
  
• Then added panels by wrapping up newspaper with a reverse of a gift wrapper , silver foil effect, cheap and easy!
  
• Using  a black marker added the navigation, answer and cancel buttons and also the entire keypad.

Viola! cell phone fancy dress was ready to worn. I did not get to fit it around him and check it, but after seeing the pics my friend mailed, i guess i have nailed the measurements and positioning right.

How do you like this cute little 'cell phone'?!

Click Here to Pin This to Pinterest Pin It

Blast from the Past - Part 2

I made this shirt sometime last year (Yes, it is really from the PAST)

Kurta for my birthday

These are really dug out from the past hence old domain with blogspot id, hmmm so its literally blast from the past ins't it..

Discover a Blog with Me!

In today's blog discovery, this is an interesting site by the Pamela Erny. I landed on this site while searching for shirt making techniques... but this site has lots more in store than just shirt making skills... check it out . the below link shows how to wear your cowl in different ways..

Off The Cuff ~Sewing Style~: Tutorial-- Quick, Easy, Draped Cowl Variations !

Have you checked my Cowl Neck Drafting Tutorial, in case you haven't check it out and make yourself a cowl neck and try Pamela's variations on it.

Good luck...

Guess what i have been working on today....

This is a mini-pic tute of 'Something' Any Guesses.... i can disclose it only by weekend.... keep watching....

adithisammasews.com is still awaiting redirection of adithisammasews.blogspot.com to the site. so followers tab in blogspot page will not work, please view through adithisammasews.com directly....

Thanks for bearing with me through this period of transition....

Warm Welcome to 'www.adithisammasews.com' from now on... !

Internet has been my 'Virtual Genie'. It all started off with learning Crochet online, slowly i diversified into making bags and then to sewing dresses, for which the online tutorials were a constant source of support.

If I could take and make use of the information available online, why shouldn’t I share some information that i am privy to and help in my own little way by sharing the knowledge i gain. That’s how it all began.

I started a blog with just 2 followers and a few page hits. Took a sabbatical.... decided to get back, now after a year since my comeback of sorts, here I am with a whopping 50+ followers and over 38000 page hits, and still counting....

At any point in time, if I ever look back into what I did in my life after quitting that high-paying IT job (as my little darling daughter is more important to me and needs my time), my website had all the answers to it. It hasn’t churned money for me as yet. But, it has offered me the kind of joy and identiy that just money can’t buy.

Today, I own my blog – yes I own the domain. Finally, It is just www.adithisammasews.com.

It would not have been possible without the support and encouragement extended by each one of you. My beloved readers. Happy surfing www.adithisammasews.com! Please do follow, bookmark it, add to your reader, whichever way you would prefer to keep tab on what i get to post.

Followers gadget is currently not shown in blogspot address since it is transition period, so please do directly drop in to adithisammasews.com

Looking forwarding to your continued readership; signing off with a promise to make this blog even better with every passing day.

P.S. Due to transition period of 3 days it may take you to earlier blogspot address itself when you access older pages...but that's ok, it is just temporary... 

Anarkali Tutorial - Enjoy!

For Sale - Kids Custom Clothing From Adithis Amma Sews- Click Here

Pattern making softwares take a break! Here is another hand-drafted pattern from Adithis Amma Sews

P.S. Though i hand drafted it and scanned, some problem with scan settings and it was very light imprint and hence add to darken it using Photoshop. Hope it is clear, in case you have any visibility problems in any of the steps please do let me know, i will try to fix it.

Coming to sleeves, will do a separate tute on drafting and sewing Short Chinese Lantern sleeve later.

STEP 1: 

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'Kaarthigai Deepam'

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Tulasi Kalyanam

Day before yesterday was Tulasi Kalyanam. Holy Tulasi gets married to Lord Vishnu in the month of Karthiga. (Please google it to know more for those who aren't familiar with that)

Read more »

Anarkali Kameez - First Look!

Howzz That!

Anarkali kameez - Front View!

Anarkali Kameez is finally ready and has already been flaunted at a wedding by my Sister.

This dress has been in the making for long now and decided to finish it yesterday.

Will do the tutorial for this in parts

Bodice part
Skirt part
Sleeve part

Features of the dress are

Princess seam bodice
Chinese Lantern Sleeve (i wish i had interfaced the green brocade fabric as well in the sleeves so that they stand out more..., will do so in the next Lantern sleeve attempt)
Skirt part of the kameez has panels a.k.a. 'Kali'. 10 each at front & back.
Back has invizible zip closure

This has been paired with a brand new churidhaar... i just love the churidhaar material, i thought it would be difficult to work with initially, but it was such a darling to sew and more comfy to wear as per my sis's words.

It fits her and she is happy with the outfit, that made my day.

Watch out for the Tutorials to come out in 3 parts...all drafted, to be scanned and uploaded....

Back View

Churidhaar

Close Up of Panels!

CHECK OUT THE ANARKALI KAMEEZ DRAFTING TUTORIAL - CLICK HERE

Hibiscus Fancy Dress - Mini Tute

For Sale - Kids Custom Clothing From Adithis Amma Sews- Click Here

Customized Fancy Dresses - Made to Order also accepted 

Contact: adithisamma[@]adithisammasews.com

I saved a few pics while making the Hibiscus costume, thought of sharing it. Lets get started.

Materials you will need:  

Red Stocking (number depends upon the size of hibiscus you are planning to make, for the hibiscus i have made to be large enough as petals around my DD's head circumference, i used 1 stocking net for 2 petals)

Cut Red Stocking into half and stitch (lettuce edge effect) one side of it.

Green Stocking for bodice & hands (skip this if you have a matching turtle neck kind of green tee)

Yellow stocking for stamen (3 x 15 inches piece)

18 or 20 guauge wire for petals (thick wire because it has to stand still at such big size)
22 guage wire for leaves

Nosepliers, wire cutters.

Cut required length of gauge wire (I had cut approx 18-20 inches for 1 petal, since we are coiling it, the length would come down by about 20%, so keep this in mind while cutting the length of wire for each petal)

Wind it around a base tube (I have used a 'Dhandhiya' stick here, any cylindrical shape can be used, keep in mind the circumference of it and choose accordingly, to get big curls choose large diameter ones and for small flower petals you can even use crochet needles, in fact i have used crochet needles to wind coil for the leaves i made use 22 gauge wire)

Hold one end of wound wire coil tightly and pull the other end using nose plier, you will get curvy wire.

Curve it to match both ends, this forms a petal shape, wrap the stocking net over the petal from broad area to narrow area; the stitched closing of the stocking will at the broader area of the petal.

Pull the stocking tightly (not too tight!) till it blends with the curves in the wires, be careful while you do this, and don't do it harshly as the stocking will then tear (mine did, and i lost 1 petal in the process and had to redo!)

Make 5 such petals (or any number you deem fit to cover the circumference of the head for which you are making this)

Make a headband (just Google fabric headbands in case you need a tute on how to make them)

I added Velcro closure to the headband

Hand stitch these petals onto the headband by positioning the petals in such a way that they kind of overlap each other at the starting

Cut slash lines through the yellow stocking piece (do not cut it off, just do it till the edge) so that you will have shreds kind of look for it. add red color beads to 20 guage wire and wrap the yellow stocking around it.

Add this stamen to the band right to the front of the center petal.

I had a green tank top (but in different shade), so i put that on first and then wrapped a retangle piece of matching green stocking on top. 

Took 2 more same shade of green stockings, one each for hands and pinned the hand stocking to the bodice stocking 

Used RTW green leggings for stem alias legs!

Made coiled effect leaves using 20 gauge wire  in the same shade of green stocking and tied them around the wrist.

Viola. Your own Hibiscus costume is ready.

Check out the Tutorials Page for more ....

Click Here to Pin This to Pinterest Pin It

Meet the fresh Hibiscus a.k.a my Darling Daughter

Remember the teaser i gave in the Deepavali pics post... its time to reveal what i was working on this weekend...

At last, i got hold of the snaps from my sis's cam.

I was so excited at the fancy dress competition held at Peek-A-Boo patterns at Express Avenue Mall, Royapettah, Chennai, that i forgot to take pics in my cam when my DD was posing as a Hibiscus.

I had initially planned to make a lotus, since i couldn't find the pleasing pink for lotus and instead found lots of cheery red stockings, decided to make hibiscus after getting my DD's approval!

The teaser pic was that of a petal i made using 18 guage wire while i coiled on top of a 'Dhandia stick' and then expanded to get the curvy petals, then used stocking net on top of the wire and pulled it tightly to get those petals... it was my first attempt at working with stocking net (though it was on my LONG to-do list for really long) and i am quite happy with how it turned out.

Check out the Mini-picture tutorial to make your own Hibiscus costume
will post a mini-tute using the pics i had taken while making it , a bit later...

As of now fancy dress pics...

My DD a.k.a Hibiscus...

Check out Cell Phone Costume Tutorial from the Tutorials Page

BDay Bash - lots of Fun N Chaos too !!!

Cake Cutting!!!

CAKE!

Atlast i managed to upload few BDay bash pics...

Lets get started...

the Bday Party Invite goes like this ....


Hola! Please Come to 
Adithi's Birthday Party. 
Where are we Going:
Adithi's Home
When are we going: 
12th November 2010 (Friday)
C U at the party! Amigos!

Dora cake was ordered  already...

my MIL & myself were left with decorating the house as FIL was not in town, hubby had training at office and sister was shifting office, hence couldn't make it earlier... we started decorating the previous day itself and add all the streamers etc...

We had divided the living room in 3 corners each having green tree streamers, Twinkling stars and a Dora Pinata (Alas i forgot to take a snap of it and only after children broke it open did i realise i didn't have any snaps.. : )

Just like it actually happens in Dora The Explorer - 3 segments...

we even made a map to suggest to the children to navigate to those 3 areas.... But guess what we had around 45 kids + 10 elders accompanying younger kids and in the process there was lot of chaos and i forgot that i even made a map and only when the kids were about to leave did i remember the pinata and asked them to break it open...

This year's party, i had learnt a lesson, never try to do too many things, i had 2-3 games planned, and in the process, forgot the main Dora Theme Navigation game... somehow managed to add saving grace, by asking the kids to reach out for twinkling stars (my DD & myself made all of them using cardboard and decorated using glitter & rhinestones...) , some of stars had stickers on them, so they all went for it and all those stars went missing in a flash... now i have to make a new set for my DD who wants her share!!!!

Overall the kids had lot of fun with passing the backpack (yes i had a cardboard backpack made using purple crepe paper on to pit and added eyes & mouth, filled it with chocolate....)

During the game, the kids however were busy treating themselves with chocolates that passing the backpack!!!!

Elder kids where asked to try their hands in the Basketball hoop that i had arranged for them as they are too old to play with Backpack...

Once all the guests arrived, it was time for cake cutting, which went on fine and my DD has grown old enough to blow all the candles by herself...!!!!

After cake cutting it was chaos again, as the kids already formed a queue to get their piece of cake and most of them wanted Dora's head or Bhujji's head... now how do i share 2 heads admidst 45 heads ...?????

somehow managed to convince them to take their places and promised them their share of Dora's & Bhujji's heads.... !!!!

Another mistake i made was calculation of numbers and the Jellies i got as the ending desert (Jellies were such big hit and after second serving also, kids asked for more, by then they all had got exhausted....) For next year i shall stock more than required...just in case...

After all the kids had left, it was like calm after storm but we all quite enjoyed the chaos... my Darling Daughter Adithi had grown big enough (read 4 years) enjoy CHAOS.... she liked every moment of the party and hence my mission accomplished despite the glitches...

Looking forward to next year's party ... i know its too early, .. but believe me it felt as though it was just yesterday that we hosted Adithi's 3rd BDay party, and before knew it, an year had rolled by and we had finished having fun at her 4th BDay Bash.... time flies off....

so have fun, live the moment, be happy, keep others happy too...

BDay Baby!!!!

Streamer Trees!!!

Catch the Twinkling Stars

Balloons N More Balloons!!!

Kids Having Fun!!!!

Passing the BackPack!!!

Blown Away!

Tired of gifts!!!!!

Believe me its 2 been 2 days since the party got over, and she still hasn't opened all her gifts... quite unlike kids who love to open up their gifts in a jiffy... she opens one up, plays with it, once gets tired of it, then only she goes to the next gift!!!!!

Kids seem to love stickers, from now on i plan to wrap a set of stickers along with any gift i plan to give at any child's BDay Party!!!!

Stick it up!!!!

Showing off the stickers her Aunt gifted!!!

Decorations - Glimpses

Fandlier!!!!