Dino-corn

Apparently, I can’t just finish old projects without starting new ones. My daughter had Spirit Week at school this week and Thursday was “Comfy Pajama Day.” Earlier in the week, she decided she wanted to be Pickle the green dinosaur (a character created by artist and YouTuber Moriah Elizabeth). The dinosaur onesie costume was sold out, so I had the brilliant idea to modify an existing onesie.

Zoe has a pink unicorn onesie, complete with mane and tail, that she got years ago. It had been quite big on her, so we ended up tacking up parts of the legs and shoulders so it wasn’t quite so bulky. Tuesday evening, we made a trip to Wal-Mart for some green fabric dye and colored fabric. She wanted to help with the project, so I told her we could work on it together the following evening but that I had to start parts of it while she was at school. Since I had that next day off, I was able to cut and sew a green tail (complete with stuffing) and green spikes (also filled with stuffing) to go down the dinosaur’s spine. Then I removed the felt eyes (so as not to dye the white part).

Once she got home from school, we boiled some water, poured in the green dye, and added dishwashing liquid (not included). I gently stuffed in the pink horse (I had removed the unicorn horn two years ago at her request) but realized I couldn’t completely submerge it without making the water overflow. But close enough. Since the direction said to “stir continuously,” I made sure to move the fabric so that different sections of the horse-turning-dinosaur took turns being out of the water. During this time, Zoe was busy cutting out random blob shapes because Pickle the Dinosaur has colored speckles on his bum. After the minimum half hour of dying the fabric, we decided that the color was close enough. I had to rinse the dino-horse until the water ran clear. Then I rinsed it in the washing machine and dried it.

By this time it was getting late, but I let Zoe stay up because she wanted to help sew everything together. Did I mention I had to seam rip most of the spine area to attach the tail and scales? Luckily, Zoe remembered how to use the sewing machine from our quilting project and it didn’t take too long to sew on the additions, although I had stuffed them generously so they were a little awkward fitting on the sewing machine, but we managed. Then I had her try on her new dinosaur costume…and it was too small. Luckily, after I un-tacked the parts that we had scrunched up years earlier, it fit, but just barely. She has evidently grown several inches since she last tried it on. But we weren’t quite finished. I then had to sew on the eyes and different colored polka-dot-patches to the hind quarters. In the interest of time, our version of Pickle has only three spots.

Finally finished, it was then time for bed. The next day I remembered that the dinosaur was intended for the Pajama Day and wasn’t even going to be her Halloween costume. Luckily, since she has decided to be Nymphadora Tonks (from the Harry Potter franchise) for Halloween, that costume will be complete with a black robe and a purple wig. So, with this week’s adventure, one projected has been both added and crossed off the ever-changing “To Do” list.