Puppets Transformed & 2/10 Done!

Last week the youth of our church led most of the service!!  It was great.  

The puppets performed 3 songs and one skit.  For one of the songs we needed 3 little girl puppets, and we only have one little girl.  They sang, "The Old Rugged Cross."  It was so adorable. 

*********Edit********Several people thought that I made these puppets, but I didn't.  I have made some animal puppets in the past (I'll post about them sometime.), but these are professionally made by Puppet Productions.  They are awesome. ********** 

But, back to the problem. I made yarn wigs for the 2 little boy puppets we do have and transformed them.  Folks in our church thought we had bought more new puppets.  Then, we needed the boys for our skit, so I made the wigs easy to remove.  I bought $4.50 little easy-to-remove elastic-topped baby dresses at Walmart.  They wore those over the little boy polo shirts that I also bought at Walmart for like $4.00 or so.  It looked like little jumpers over the shirts. 

After church we went to the nursing home where my mom is and performed along with our younger children who sang.  The residents LOVED the show!!  Better yet, the kids LOVED the residents and are already asking to go back!

I finished 2 of the 10 projects that I listed on my last blog. 

 My mom, as well as most elderly people, are always cold, especially their shoulders.  A regular afghan won't stay up around their shoulders, and if it is pulled up they can't use their arms, or if it's wrapped around from the back they are sitting on it, and that's not comfortable all day. 

 So, I came up with a wrap that would just go around the shoulders. This is the wrap I made for my mom, modeled by me and photographed in the mirror. 

 I  made the back shorter because my mom is in a wheel chair that's called a gerry chair.  It has a very high back and reclines.  

The wrap I made at Christmas was just a circle cut up the front and across the center for the neck.  I simply zigzagged around the edges.  It has worked well, but they would have to sit Mother up to get it behind her back, and then it would get wadded up and not be comfy, or they would just not put the back around her.  They would drape it on the back of the chair and bring the front around.  I hope this makes sense.  

Anyway, I thought the shorter back would work better. 

 Also, the underneath side of her arms rub the chair arm and her clothing, etc. . . and get irritated, so I made this one so that it would wrap underneath her arms. 

 Her favorite color is lavender, so that's why I chose this very soft, but not too heavy, fleece.  

I also added the ribbon around the neck and around to the front to tie.  The other one I made had no closure. 

 The aides really like the one I made before.  They may not like this one as much because it may be too complicated. (Ok, so you and I both know this is not complicated, but we don't have 10 - 20 elderly nursing home folks to dress every day.  Every little thing adds to their time and stress. ) 

 I've got to get Mother's name on it.  I am going to try to find a label maker that make cloth labels.  Does anyone know of such an item?

Now, for Emory's little purse to match her Easter dress.  I made this like you would a place mat purse.  Have you seen them?  

I made a rectangle by sewing the lavender fabric left over from her under dress and some stiff canvas type fabric for body together, then turned them. 

 I then sewed ribbon and the left over fabric on the short edges of the rectangle. 

 I then folded the rectangle in half, hamburger style and sewed up the sides. 

 Then, I mitered the points, turned it and ironed the creases on the corners.  

Then I stitched one of each of the colors of ribbon left over from her dress onto the top center tied them into a knot to make a fastener matched with a loop of ribbon sewn to the other side top center.  

Then I sewed ribbon on for straps.  

I have fabric cut for the other three girls' purses.  I decided to go ahead and get them made and try to get them mailed in time for Easter.  

One of my puppeteers, an 8th grader, asked me to make her a western style dress for a school play that is to be on April 23rd.  How can I turn her down?   I'm just trying to figure out if it should be a "Little House of the Prairie" type dress or more of an "Annie Oakley" style.  I texted her yesterday and didn't hear back.  I guess I'll have to call.  I'm shocked that she didn't reply because she's a BIG TIME texter, as all of the teens are these days.  I guess it isn't too cool to text an old woman, though.