Friday, June 4, 2010

Blast Off!

About a month ago, each kid in Pi's class was given the name of an inventor or influential person that they had to write a report on. Pi's person is Mae Jemison, the first African American astronaut.

The project included writing a research-based report, a 3 minute speech, and a costume. Pi mentioned that the costume was due towards the end of the year, which meant mid June to me.

Pshaw!!! Shoulda checked the calendar doofus!!


Two Mondays ago, Pi casually mentioned she needed the costume by Friday morning. Wait...back up... THIS FRIDAY? Oh yeah, not even a weekend to buffer all the work I needed to do. This is where I lost a few minutes breathing into a brown paper bag, ha!

I called my dad, who has hazmat type suits at work, to see if he could spare one. He asked his boss, who was more than happy to give him one in a size small because none of the guys at work wears a size small. I got lucky becuase the guys don't go easy on lunch, haha.

I printed out pictures of Mae Jemison and generic astronaut costumes to give me an idea of where to start. Using black felt that was leftover from Halloween, I got started.




Using freezer paper and an 8.5" x 11" peice of fabric, I printed NASA patches right from my inkjet printer. The fabric wrinkled a bit, but I was in such a rush, I honestly didn't care. Good enough!


I backed the fabric with some HeatnBond (that I bought when I was pregnant with Piper) to make the patches sturdier. I sewed those bad boys on pretty quickly.




My neighbor was kind enough to give me a USA patch she had lying around.



She's also a retired stewardess and lent us her wings to use on a patch. With no time to embroider the name on nicely, I went with the fast and dirty way... white out pen!



The only thing we bought for this project was a plain white baseball cap from the craft store. I couldn't think of how to make a helmet in such a short amount of time, so we settled on the hat with a NASA patch sew on.

After a few nights of getting less than 5 hours of sleep, it was finally all done. Here's the final result.


Want to know the best part? Piper brought the costume back home on the Friday she said it was due, because she realized that she made a mistake. The costume wasn't due that Friday.... it was due the NEXT Friday! *headdesk*
Well, at least it got done early!

12 comments:

Wooly Annimals said...

I must a little bit smile at the end of your blogging... ;o)

It´s good, you got done earlier than the other. ;o)

And it´s look like amazing. Really good work.

Nice greets from Germany,
Annika

Karen said...

I would have strangled Danny if he told me he made a mistake on the day. Strangled. I put his due dates on my calendar so I won't forget to harass him on HIS work, and so I don't forget myself if I have to help out in anyway.

BUT, it looks AMAZING, and I'm sure she will get an awesome grade on it!

Deni J. said...

Cute, cute, cute, and now you can use this weekend to relax!

Laura said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laura said...

That looks fantastic! I'll bet Pi will have the best costume in the class! Pi is lucky to have such a crafty mom. My daughter did a report on Mae Jemison for school a few years ago, but luckily she didn't have to wear a costume for the report.

Kristina P. said...

She is a lucky, lucky girl to have an amazing seamstress for a mom. It's adorable.

Caroline said...

Hi Christina! I'm getting caught up again! You're costume is darling! What did we do before Google and the internet? I've been keeping an eye on your quilt to, hope that's coming along. We're finally out of school here and just starting to let out a sigh of the year's stress and breathe in summer. Happy Friday!

Andrea Moberly said...

you totally rock! Love it!

Snap said...

LOL! Well done, Mom! The good part ... it's done and Pi looks great!

Bezzie said...

LOVE IT!!!!! I'll have to show Chunky, because I know someone in his class was Mae Jamison when they did their biography book reports.

Don't you kinda feel bad for the kids' whose mom's don't sew/craft?

Anonymous said...

Great job on the costume! Don't you love it when things just come together?!?! I'm just realizing that Pi is still in school. When does she get out?

T. Joi said...

Great job again and I must agree with prior comments...Crafty moms are the best!!! LOL