How to Make an Astronaut Costume

I was in a mad rush to get things finished last week.  When you rush, you make mistakes.  I dropped the bobbin case to my long arm and apparently bent it.  The bobbin itself fits in, but the thread will not pull through.  No more quilting for me.

I ordered a new case and also one of Jamie Wallen's dewarpers, which my husband informs me is called a swedge in the machining world.  I have received and used the dewarper.  There is something else going on with the case since the thread still won't pull.  I have not yet received the new bobbin case.  Still no quilting for me.

I also had to prepare my son's astronaut costume for his grade's wax museum project.  We ordered a white paint coverall on Amazon since the local stores did not sell one small enough.  I still had to trim quite a bit from the legs and a decent amount from the arms.  I ran a channel on the sleeves for elastic since the sleeves were quite wide without it.  I just hemmed the legs.  The fabric will not fray, so need to worry about overcasting or otherwise finishing the edges.  The Amazon suit had a collar.  I just rolled it to the inside to cover up the factory seam, stitched it down, and trimmed off the excess.  Again, no need to worry about fraying.

Since the suit we were trying to replicate was from the 60s, we just did our best.  I ordered a NASA meatball patch from the NASA store in Texas.  They were out of the smaller size, so I got the large. And it was quite large!  I got the mission patch from our somewhat local Gus Grissom museum, but you can find replicas by Googling.  The flag patch on the sleeve was quite big on the actual spacesuit.  We used a cloth flag on a stick, removing the stick, of course.  That left the name badge.  I embroidered out "V. I. GRISSOM" on some black Kona cotton and then just ironed under the edges.  I sewed on all the patches we used.  The real patches are iron-on, but I was worried that either the suit would melt or the patches would fall off at school.  And it's very easy to stitch down patches.  Plus you can reuse them if you want.  :)

We also made the yellow harness belt with nylon webbing and a buckle from JoAnn.  Even though I measured it on my son, it somehow ended up really huge.  Oh well.  Did you know that you can use a lighter to melt the cut edges of the webbing so that it doesn't fray?  This works on ribbon as well.

There were also some ports on the actual space suit.  We used plumbing pieces and just pinched the fabric between them.  This helped with the bagginess on the front of the coverall too.

My son really wanted the metal piece that is where the helmet would attach.  We ended up buying a 9" wooden embroidery hoop, spray painting it silver, and then just pinching the costume into it. Since the yellow straps were drooping, we pinched those in between the hoops to keep it in place too.  We left off the bottom zipper per my son's request. The costume was a big hit amongst the adults and my son was really pleased too.

Image courtesy of NASA.  You can easily find this on Google.


In other news, I did finish a cross stitch piece.  My first Christmas gift for this year is now complete!  The pattern is Deck the Halls by JBW Designs.  I bought a kit that contained the fabric and embellishments at the local cross stitch store.  It's hard to tell, but there are seed beads here and there.  Its finished size is 3-3/4" x 4-1/2".

We seemed to have only about a week and a half of spring and have now moved right into summer. It's been in the 90s for almost a week now.  The vegetables are doing great except for the lettuce. Probably a bit too hot too fast for it.  My irises are going crazy!  My favorite Crater Lake Blues have started to open.  My son and I watched a Caesar's Brother Siberian iris unfurl right before us yesterday morning.  I've never seen a flower blossoming before my eyes in real life before.  Totally amazing!

Crater Lake Blue iris
I am participating in a Polaroid Greeting Swap again this year.  Here's part of my stack of fabrics (I had to order a few I did not have for specific requests).  This is such a fun, easy swap.  If anyone ever wants to trade a few blocks with me, shoot me an email.  The contact button is to the right.  Or you can message me on Instagram too.
Have a great week!
P.S.--I'm super excited that we ordered a replacement lens for my camera.  I can't wait till it arrives!

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