Sometimes, being the Dark Knight is lonely

Now I'm sure, if you know anything about me, it is that I have a major crush on Batman. Ok scratch that, I am in Love with Batman. He's my other husband.

I have Batman tattoos, two - one on each shoulder, I own many Batman shirts and have bought many Batman shirts for my husband. You've seen my Batman customised ugh boots. I have Batman + Robin glasses, but no one is allowed to drink out of the Batman one but me! This weekend we are going to Movieworld for the last day of the DC Comics 75th Anniversary special. We're also getting VIP passes which means we get unlimited entry into Movieworld, Wet n Wild and SeaWorld for a year for just $99.99 a pass!

Alright I better reassure you now that this is not a big advert for Movieworld.
I'm not affiliated with them, but I wish I was! ahah.

The world's greatest detective?

So because we have convinced alot of our friends to buy VIP passes and come with us, most of us are dressing up! First things first though, and that was outfits for the 'twins' - the Monster + his bestie the Genius. After ahming and ahing and changing my mind from Nightwing to Robin to Aquaman, I decided that the Monster would go as Batman, since Sophie decided The Genius would be Superman.



And so today, I sat down and I got to it. I whipped these up in an afternoon. The Monster already had a pir of black leggings, and Sophie had bought the exact same kind of leggings in blue, with red pilchers to wear over the top.



I used an old shirt of the Monster's as a pattern, the boys are the same size so that was not a problem! I cut out all the pieces, then perved studied pictures of Batman for ages to get the bat symbol right. Batman has had many different costumes over the years, but I settled on Michael Keaton's outfit in Tim Burton's Batman ((Yellow symbol on the chest and a yellow belt)). I made the symbol out of black and yellow felt, stitching it onto the chest before stitching the rest of the shirt together. On the shoulders I added press-studs so the cape could come on and off.



I really love the hood, because it hides the press-studs when the cape is off. I think in future, I'll use smaller silver press-studs ((I used these massive ones Sophie had bought)) and spraypaint them the same colour as the shirt, so it's not so obvious.



Their capes are attached by press-studs, so are detachable. The Monster had a superman outfit my mum bought him when he was tiny, and that cape was detachable too - which I learnt was good, since it did get a bit hot under there!



Kal-El's shirt was made from a shirt that my mum gave me to cut up. I made it in the same way I made the Monster's, but made ribbing for the neck instead of adding a hood. I also used the existing hem on the sleeves and main part of the shirt as hem for the resized tee!

I love the superhero poses these boys were pulling out! Something about their suits maybe? ((They're only 14 months old!))

Just remembered that I havn't made the Monster gauntlets yet. I'm also going to be Batman. Note - not Batgirl, Batman. Tim is going to be the Green Lantern, my friend Frank is going as CatWoman and Betty my sister is going as Huntress. Not sure what everyone else is going as, if they are even dressing up!



Yes I am going to do a tutorial for all of the outfits. Yes I probably will be making some to sell too :)

((Sorry about the watermarks guys, I'm becoming a bit more aware of putting my kid's - and other's - faces onto the internet. Some people are messed up and you can't be too careful!))

Hey kidlets, it's like tutorial weekend here! I stumbled across an amazing blog FULL of rad tutorials I am DYING to try out, but I will save THAT to divulge on Try This Thursday! hee hee hee!


Like I said, you lucky trailer park fiends are in for ANOTHER amazing tutorial ((wow, how vain of me to claim my bra tute as amazing... well it is amazing... TO ME!)) by our favourite crafty pirate, Thera Joyce! She surprised me today with this tutorial waiting for me in my inbox! Take it away Thera!

Hey guys! Thera here, and I wanted to share a new t-shirt refashion tutorial with you. I just finished up writing this tutorial tonight, but I've already worn my shirt out and about. I got tons of compliments on it! This shirt is super comfy and the best part is that you'll be recycling old t-shirts into new, super cute ones! What are you waiting for?? Scroll down and get your craft on!





So doing this this week! Gosh I love this girl!

Hello visitors! This tutorial is the most popular page on my blog! Thank you for coming, I hope it helps you make your own bra, or at least give you confidence that you really can make anything! While you're here, you should check out all my other tutorials by clicking on the Tutorial page, or look at other stuff I have DIYed by checking out the DIY Directory Page. Please leave a comment!


Yesterday I got sick of waiting to go to Spotlight to buy a good bra pattern, I decided to DIY! This is good if you do not have a very large bust. I'm a 12C-ish, and this tutorial shows you how to make a basic padded bra. You can easily add underwiring, which - when I get some - I will add to this tute on how to put that in as well.

I am going to buy a bra pattern, and give that a test run too, the most widely reviewed one that seems to be good is Kwik Sew 3300, so hopefully I can pick that up tonight as well as some bra-making supplies.

You're probably wondering why on earth I am making my own damn bras? Well part of it is because of the Self-Stitched September pledge I took a few days ago, and part of it was because I was so intimidated by making my own bras I had never attempted it before! Knicker, ha, old hat. Bras? EEK! Well not anymore!

Please note:: there will be no shots of me actually wearing these bras! I took a few, then decided it looked alot less like me modelling a bra I made, and more homemade sexy photos D:





This is the quick n dirty version. I'm going to do an in-depth tutorial of fold over bands {Edit: tutorial for Fold over bands here} and more about the back clasp, but for now, it's not hard to wing it from where I leave off ;D ((sorry!))

Are you ready? What you'll need is::

• A bra you are willing to cut up that fits you well. If you don't want to cut it up, you can make a pattern from it, but it's ten times easier to just cut the sucker up! ((See that ginormous leopard-print bra? yeh that's how big I got when I was breastfeeding Vince. It's like 16DD))
•  Fabric. I used two old singlets. It doesn't NEED to stretch, but it does help! 
• Fleece. I used regular ol' fleece to pad my bra! ahah. Did you notice this is a quick n dirty bra tute?
• Bra Straps - I didn't have any of these handy, so I just stitched lace onto regular 1cm wide elastic
• Bra closure - I didn't have any of these handy either, so they don't do up at the back yet! ahah

Now you're going to cut your bra up. The key here is to only cut up ONE HALF of the bra, so that you can see which way the pieces go with the uncut side! I'm using the black bra I already cut up as a guide for you guys. You'll want to cut down the middle of the bra ((centre of your chest)), cut the cup out, cut down the seam in the centre of the cup - if your bra doesn't have this seam, cut a curved line approximately down the middle. Cut the straps off too. If you're using shirts and not one continuous piece of fabric, cut the side seam of the bra as well. Cut the bra closure at the back off also.


This is what your pieces should look like


Now get the shirts you will be working with. Cut up the sideseam and the shoulderseam. If it's a tee, cut off the sleeves.



Ok, here's a good tip. Instead of cutting straight onto fabric, trace around your pieces, adding 1cm on all edges for seam allowance onto paper. This way you can adjust your pattern when you finish your bra - to make it fit better. Now use those pattern pieces and cut out 2 of each pattern piece.



Don't forget that the main part of the bra ((the bit that the cups are stitched onto)) should be cut on the fold ((remember you cut down the centre of this piece and left half of it intact)). Don't add a seam allowance to the centre front like I did. Lol.


If you've got the underpart in two pieces, cut the back pieces out now too. Add seam allowances!


Cut out a pair of the two bra cup pieces out of the fleece. This is going to serve as your padding. :D ((wow.. super blurry photo Max...))




Now find on your outside cup section the part where the strap was attached. line this up with the pieces you cut out and do a little snip to mark that point. This is to mark where you will sew your new straps onto.


Do the same for the back

If you havm't bought proper bra straps for this, cut elastic to the length you need. You can use fancy elastic, I just used plain white elastic and...





Ta-Daaaa, pretty bra-strap!


Now we'll do the cup.



Get the inner cups and place them ontop of the outer cups, right-sides together. Use the uncut side of the old bra as a guide.


Stitch 1cm from the edge.


Do the same with the 'padding'


Now lay the cup over the padding, making sure you're matching up the right ones.


Sandwich the bra strap between the padding and the cup.


Pin, then stitch across the top of the cup and the outside.



Clip the corner where the strap is.


Whoops. I had my strap the wrong way! Trusty unpicking time!


Yeh that's better!


Top-Stitch the edges you just stitched.


Get your main bra pieces.If they aren't in one piece, stitch the backs to the front.


Get your cups and line them up


Sandwich the cups between the main pieces and pin


It should look like this.


Stitch from the end of one cup right acrossto the other side. The middle part where the cups do not join should be flat across. Flip it the right way and it should look like this. Now flip it back inside out again!


Pin the ends of the bra straps down to the parts of the bra back where you snipped it earlier. Sandwich the strap between the ends and then stitch.



Then top-stitch.



And this is where I cleverly forgot to take more pictures! I'll give you a wordy tute now, and add photos for ya'll later! If you're stuck on anything, let me know! Send me an email!


After you've top-stitched, cut a piece of fabric 2x as wide as you want the little band at the bottom ((don't forget to add seam allowances)). The piece of fabric is going to be as long as the bottom. Fold it in half lengthways and stitch it the bottom of the bra. Topstitch the seam allowance down.

TA-DAAAAAA

You're done, now just DIY some sort of bra clasp if you havn't bought one. Velcro? Press-studs? Mine have pins in them, ahahahah. So rock n roll...