Introducing Captain Dolphin...

... terror of the 897 seas, apparently. Jonathan did this.

How to make a Judge's Wig

Thomas is studying Law. Just at high school, that is, but it seems the teacher is keeping it pretty interesting. They are finishing the term with a mock trial, and Thomas gets to be the judge! So, with a couple of days notice, we needed to come up with a judges wig.

Obviously, a simple costume is just fine for cases like this, and I never feel we should get too stressed about the things, we should focus on the experience. But then again, a chance to try making something you've never made is an experience too. So Thomas and I agreed to make a wig.

First, we do a little research. The University of Tasmania provides us with this, a very clear photo of what a real wig looks like. Thanks, UTas!

The Department of Justice of Queensland provide us with this cardboard cutout, so if it all goes to pieces, there's our fallback. Thanks, DoJ!

Rosie at Pondicherry Cottage has made some cool wigs, and shown them on her blog. Her material of choice was quilt batting - now, that sounds good!

Squidoo has step by step directions to create a similar wig. We are well on the way.

We bought a piece of cheap quilt batting - at our local Spotlight, $7.99 got us 1m x 1.22m, which was more than we needed. We also found a knitted beanie nobody was wearing.

Here is the shape we cut out. The height of the batting shape is enough to fold down over the beanie and touch the bottom edge. The "tails" will droop over the judge's shoulders.

I sewed the batting to the edge of the beanie, trying to tuck the rounded shape around the beanie - it was rather gathered at the back.

Here we are with the beanie fully sewn. That's the end of the sewing! Good thing too. I freely admit, my workmanship is not that great here.

Here's what we are going to use instead of sewing from here on. Split pins, available from the stationery shop. These are quite big - you could manage with slightly smaller ones, but not with tiny ones.

Get to cutting some rectangles. About 14cm long, and the width to match the width of the "tails" on your wig. How many? Depends on how long the tails are.

Now, we attach rolls to the tails. Roll up one of your rectangles (letting the start and end overlap). Hold the overlapped part of the little cylinder against the bottom edge of one tail of the wig. Wiggle a split pin into the middle of the roll, about two centimeters from the outer edge, and push its legs out through all three layers of batting.

Open out the legs of the split pin. Repeat with a second split pin at the other end of this roll.

By the way, we tried using a hole cutter to make holes, but it turned out unnecessary for this material.

And repeat all the way up the tail of the wig, until it looks like enough!













This is the inside view of one of the tails.













Justice Thomas will hear your case now.

This project took about an hour from getting home from Spotlight, to posing for photos, so I think we can say it was a success.

And it turns out, in the mock trial, the defendant was found guilty of manslaughter. The judge was reasonably tough in his sentencing decision. But I think we were expecting that.

Happy Birthday, Thomas and Jonathan

Happy birthday to the new 15 year olds! This is the cake I made. It was exhausting. Not to make, that was easy, but eating your way through a whole sliver, whoa, that required a nap and a walk around the block in the middle!

Kit Kat cake, look it up, it's a big hit with people that think they can take large amounts of chocolate.

And here's Thomas (left) and Jonathan (right) with their new ... um, whatever they are. Catriona put a lot of work into sewing them some very cool Pokemon characters. I could see that she represented them very accurately. Apart from that,  I have no idea if this is a good thing. The guys liked them a lot though!

And since we all like science here, here's a scientific mystery to solve. When left to itself in the fridge, how does it happen than the Kit Kats dissolve away from the cake so comprehensively? The M&Ms, also, were showing signs of evaporating. I finally finished the last sliver of cake today, which, as luck would have it, was completely confectionery free.

Court Jester Catriona

Just to show how annoyingly talented my daughter is, here she is in her hand made Court Jester costume. SHE hand made it all, bought the fabric with her pocket money, everything.

Bleah. I was supposed to be the talented one.

Oh well, nice work, I suppose, Catriona.

Ten Little Mice

Well, fifteen years of hard work have paid off. My daughter is finally interesting enough to have her own blog. Catriona's been making softies (those are cool stuffed toys, with the emphasis on COOL), and had decided to showcase them. Her blog's called "Ten Little Mice", and you should go there and admire her quirky things. Her sewing is improving by leaps and bounds, which you will be sure to notice if you stick around.

This is one of my favourites of hers - Mr Pursival. I took her out shopping for the fleecy fabric, and I think the fur fabric was a handy reclaimed find. We got to shop for a zip too (first time in years I've about bought a zip).

Catriona made a cake!

I love it when the kids get good at baking. Mmm, cake.

So I was particularly pleased when Catriona presented Jeff with a perfect little cake as a birthday present.

But then it turned out she had been sewing, not baking! Bah! Oh well, now we have a talented needlewoman in the house. Also, we need more stuffing.