Star Wars Party

Now, this wasn't my party.  I just attended it.  My sister-in-law threw this going-away party for a co-worker.  But she worked her butt off, and it turned out so great I wanted to share the details.

First, here's my sister-in-law.  Great costume, right?  I think she bought some parts for it, and then made the rest.  Not sure which parts though.

Here's a jedi making drinks.

My wookie husband and his brother.  His brother made a lot of his costume out of pvc pipe using a heat gun.

She went all-out with the details, they were great.  A lot of them were store-bought (which is fine, but I just love hand-made things.  There are a couple of clever things that she did that I'll show you).

She had these wanted posters printed out and posted on the inside of the door.  She burned the edges to give it a nice effect.

This was a cool idea.  Two whole walls of her living room are windows, so she covered them with "outer space".... I'm not sure what they were.  Maybe plastic table cloths?  Some kind of vinyl.  It blocked out most of the light, but it shined through where the stars were, looked very cool.  it was hard to get a good picture of it.

This was one of my favorite details.  Not sure if you can see these too well in this picture, but she took star wars pictures and replaced her family pictures with them! Funny and clever, right?  I just loved that.  Going to use that idea for my next party.

Last picture, just for fun:

Han Solo Vest

One of my husband's co-workers is going on to a new career, so we had a going away party for him... a Star Wars themed going away party.

I decided to go as Han Solo.  Just because.  I assembled as much as I could.  Got some pants and a shirt from a thrift store (and ribbon, to glue on the sides of the pant legs) (by the way, it was hard to find a shirt with the right kind of collar.  What I got was a button-down and a bit too small, but it would do).  Bought a blaster and spray-painted it black.  Got a holster.  The only thing I absolutely could not find was a suitable vest.

So I had to make one.  It's significant that I point out here that I've never sewn any clothing in my life.  But, I got some assistance from my mother-in-law, and the vest turned out pretty great.  I actually really love it.

I used an old t-shirt to draw a pattern on, cut it out, and traced the parts in paper.  My mistake was using a somewhat form-fitting shirt to do this with, and the first time the vest was way too small.  So I added an extra inch or two to the side seams, and a good two inches on either side of the vest opening, and yay! I had a vest that fit.  (Sorry the vest is black on black.  Hard to see the details.)

The only detail I didn't put on from Han Solo's vest was a bit on the upper back.  It would've taken more time, and I was kind of burned out by that point--all the adding on and adding on to make the vest fit right.  So I just did the pockets and left it at that.

There's me in my costume (minus the holster).  Not bad for my first vest.  Not really a great picture, but not a bad vest. (In my defense, I just had a baby three months ago.  I'll lose the weight eventually.  Probably.  Maybe.)

Next week I'll show you pictures from the party.  I wasn't the hostess (my sister-in-law was), but it was pretty awesome and I wanted to share.

Memory Book Alternative

I told you in the last post how my husband's grandmother had me make a memory book for each of her grandchildren to hold all their letters, artwork, and pictures from over the years.  But one granddaughter had only sent her two things: a postcard and a small drawing.  Not enough to make a book.  So we had to come up with another idea for her.

Ta-da!

We decided to frame them, and I taped pictures of her all around the matte.  Grandma's personal letter is written on the bottom edge of the matte.  And, of course, there are a few stickers.

We used a frame that I already had (bought on clearance) that came with a matte.  I trimmed all the pictures to the right size and used double-sided tape to stick everything on.  This was way easier than making the covers for the memory books!