So Long, Janome

About seventeen years ago, I invested in a new sewing machine. At the time, I couldn't afford the top-of-the-line brand, but I bought a less expensive competitor that had lots of bells and whistles, a Janome Memory Craft 5700. It was an embroidery machine that also did a great job of just sewing. And it has served me well. But, for the last couple of years, its performance has been undependable and sometimes just downright frustrating. But, it made it through one last project --- a Halloween costume for Michael.

Several months ago, Michael called me to tell me that he wanted me to make his costume and after assuring him that I would be happy to do whatever he wanted he told me that he had picked "Art", one of the monsters from Monster's University. No problem, I thought, let me just look at a picture of him.

Hmmmmmmm. . . . Might be a problem after all. Ever since, I've tossed around different ideas as to how to make this costume work. Finding NO samples online, I finally decided to just "wing it" and here's what I did. Michael was adamant about not wanting fur for the costume (too itchy and hot, he thought), so I used some purple flannel and a purple t-shirt as the base and then made pants and a shirt out of some ruffled fabric---with the ruffles vertical to mimic fur. I used some spray dye to paint the stripes on the legs and arms.

Next came the body/head. Since Art doesn't really have a neck or anything, I used this picture as inspiration

and made a large mouth out of purple lame', and then just stitched it to the shirt.

One more inspiration picture:

I found a cheap black baseball cap at Michael's and covered it with the ruffled fabric. After painting some scraps of fabric, I hot-glued them in place over the Styrofoam ball eyes.

Here, Ron is modeling how the hat will be used.

Well, something like that.

And here is the finished product with some blue gloves I found in the $1 bins at Joanns. The shirt and pants are both way too long for Michael, but since he isn't here to try things on, I'll let his Mama and Daddy trim them to the correct length. Then, Michael can choose whether he wants to walk in a crazy arch like Art or not!

With that costume out of the way, it was time to retire my faithful, old Janome!

And time to say "hello" to my new sewing friend. Meet my brand new Bernina!!!! After wishing for one for years and years, I finally brought one home this morning. Isn't she pretty?!?!?

I hooked everything up and turned her on.

Only, she never got past that screen.
After checking all the connections and re-booting multiple times, I finally called the store. They were so nice and told me to pack her back up and bring in for an exchange. When Ron and I arrived at the store, they had the new one ready and waiting and I brought her right back home and plugged her in. Perfect!!!
And what better way to break her in that sewing a costume out of lame'?

Adellelyn wants to be Boo from the Monster's University movie (the whole family is dressing up), and this is the look she is going for.

And here is the costume, all finished! It's a little bit hard to tell how it's going to really look since this one won't fit around the mannequin, but you get the idea!