Once Upon A Time for Crafting Con

Several months ago I signed up for a HUGE challenge: Crafting Con. Crafting Con is all about digging into your inner geek-iness and making an article of clothing that "hints" at a given theme, but isn't a costume. It's not supposed to be super totally obvious as far as the connection to the theme goes simply because it's not a costume. It's supposed to be something that your child could wear everyday while simply hinting at their favorite thing. Here's what I love most about this theme..."Once Upon A Time"...it can be interpreted so many different ways. 

First I started with a basic hoodie pattern. I had in my pattern stash the Knight Hoodie. Since I had previously made the knight hoodie, I already knew what adjustments needed to be made in order for it to fit him well. And I just knew it was the perfect blank slate for me to be able to turn it into a dragon hoodie. It wasn't as simple as it sounds, but both of us had an awesome time coming up with the dragon hoodie.

I made several adjustments to the knight hoodie. First I cut off the knight detail on the hood and inserted scales instead. From there I added spikes to the opening of the front pockets and as well as the sleeves. I did not add any of the knight details on the shoulders, hood, or sleeves. Instead of the knight details, I added dragon scales. The back bodice was not cut on the fold. I cut mirror images and added a half inch seam allowance so that I could insert the spikes down the back.

The final touch was made only at the request of him. He really loves the movies and audio books of How To Train Your Dragon. Naturally, he would request a Toothless dragon hoodie. So I added this removable Toothless tail. It turned out really well. He suggested we put some stuffing or something in it so that it would have some structure and not just crumple up when he was wearing it. I just so happened to have some headliner foam left over from a project that my husband worked on, so I inserted that into the tail and tail pieces. That stuff is awesome-sauce to work with! I was nervous at first, but truthfully it sewed like butter. :) And I couldn't leave off the prosthetic tail that Hiccup made for Toothless. I found a graphic online to applique onto the tail. Once it was stitched on, I added Kam snaps so that the prosthetic piece could be removed. 

He's pretty proud of his hoodie. It's soft and cozy and he wears it almost all the time. I think it was pure genius on my part to make the tail removable. He was pretty impressed with that too. You can check out my post and see more pictures at Friends Stitched Together.

So what will you create for your "Once Upon A Time" look?

and while you're at it, hop on over and visit me on Facebook! I love to see new friendly faces.