Trefoil Pattern to print

Ok! In preparation for potentially making more cookie costumes I sat down today and made a printable pattern for the Trefoil costume! It takes many sheets of paper, so make sure your printer is stocked!

The Inner Detail patter:

And the Outline:

First, right click on the picture, save image as, save wherever you would like. Open the picture up in whatever program you like, when you print make sure you are printing the actual size, not stretching it to fit a page. The files are roughly 8X10 so they should take up the better part of a 8.5X11 paper.  Print out all of these patterns. 

Now get ready to tape!

For the inner details, cut each piece out and tape it together. Each page will overlap the next one but 1/2 an inch or so, to help ensure that the design lines up a bit. You can cut out the inner detail first or after you get the whole thing taped together.  I waited to cut out the inner detail until it was all taped together. 

For the outline, this will be the base that you will sew the inner design onto. 

I didn't bother making a middle template, because it would just be a solid piece of paper. So just grab an empty sheet of printer paper to fill in the middle of the trefoil. 

The outline is only half of the trefoil, because you can cut on the fold of the fabric to insure that the outline is symmetric.

 Once you have the paper patterns cut out, pin it to the fabric and CAREFULLY cut them out. The details in the face are quite tricky to cut out, just take your time.

You should end up with two pieces, like this.

Cut out 4 full size big trefoil designs. Put the straight edge of the pattern on the fold and cut.

Then Pin the design cut out on top of the background. If you cut everything right, you should have approx an inch of a border between the edge of the design and the edge of the background. 

Sometimes there isn't an inch, so I trim the design to make sure that there is. It is important to have as close to an inch, all the way around. 

Sew around the very edge of each piece, very slowly. I always start on the easy side and work my way around to the face details. When you get to the face details, you will need to do a lot of stopping with the needle in the fabric, and pivoting. To get around one turn I use 5+ pivots to make sure the stitching looks round. 

Once that is done that hard part is over! 

The rest is just assembling the costume, like the other costumes!

 One last pointer: When you are sewing around the border, make sure that the back of the front piece is on top as you sew. Use the edge of the seam you made while sewing the design on as your guide. Keep the left edge of the presser foot even with that seam. This will make it look MUCH better when you turn it inside out!

Before you turn it inside out, make sure to cut a notch in all of the inward points or it will not turn out pretty at all.

 This is what you should end up with. Now go back to the tutorial and make the rest of them!

Girl Scout Cookie Costumes

 Sitting at a cookie booth outside of a local grocery store, a fellow Girl Scout mom and myself were inspired by the little cookie characters on the cookie boxes. We thought it would be great to have costumes for the girls to wear when we sell cookies. As an after thought we realized how cute it would be for them to dress up as cookies in the upcoming "Do Dah" parade. I definitely didn't know what I was getting myself into when I said I would do it. I was the only sewing momma in the group so I was on my own. I did enlist my mom for some help on cutting and design ideas. She was so helpful. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, there are a few minor things that bug me, but I'm sure no one else will notice, so I won't point them out :) 

Before we used the cookies again I decided to add a little sash with the names on the Tagalong and Thin Mint. It was a quick 1 hour project to make the 2 sashes and I think they make the cookies a lot more recognizable. The sash and letters are made out of felt. I printed out letter stencils online, traced them on the felt, cut the letters out, and hot glue them onto the sash.

Next on the craft list is Tutus with all of the color of the daisy pedals. That is an easy craft and I'm teaching the other moms how to make them as well. It should be fun!

I have finally written out a tutorial for this project! http://projectbonbon.blogspot.com/2013/02/girl-scout-cookie-costume-tutorial.html