A Totoro Birthday Party!

So the Little Miss turned 4 recently and picked her favorite movie as her party theme :)

I am pretty sure that she was the only kid there who understood any of the movie references, but everyone had fun. I of course took this opportunity to make as many impractical Totoro themed things as time would allow. (The soot sprites were made by holding 3 strands of yarn, an eyelash yarn, a feather-y yarn and some regular black worsted, together and crocheting a ball.)

Sophie asking for a Totoro dress was probably the high lite for me though. I had a sketch book page full of adorable options for her to choose from, and she picked the simplest one on the page, which is so her. "Green, Mommy." was the other condition.

So the applique is just jersey knit and some fabric markers. (Not loving the Crayola ones. May have to invest in another type.) It's all (badly) hand stitched but cute from wearing distance.

I modified the dress pattern from the donut shirt, mostly just making it thinner since this was obviously made from a t-shirt and using the existing neck opening. The original drawing was sleeveless but this dress needed something to save it from being deathly boring. It's actually too big for her and if I could just cut it at chest level, take a chunk out of the middle, gather it and re-sew it to the bodice it would be cute and fit. I don't think cutting her birthday dress in half would go over well though...

For our final performance, allow me to introduce you to the Catbus! There are hypothetically nice pictures of this out in the sunlight on party day, minus the sidewalk chalk makeover but none of them are on my camera seeing as I was busy actually hosting the party. So you get the post-party Catbus.

I was actually planning on painting a refrigerator box and cutting out a few windows but it turns out those things are tricky to find! This was the result of last-minute, night before the party improvisation. I cut the shapes out of that thick styrofoam in the middle poster board from the dollar store and stuck the whole thing together with about a roll and a half of packing tape.

I also threw a few movie inspired props like Mei's hat and flowers and some giant leaves (that they planted in the garden lol!) and drew a slightly creepy looking Totoro on her cake. (No regrets that I don't have a picture of that yet!) She was so excited to have a Totoro party and the other kids just had fun playing, the reason certain things were out doesn't really concern the under 5 set.

P.S. Why it's a miracle that I manage to take photos at all, even mediocre ones:

Deacon likes to stomp or sit on anything I lay out on the floor. This time he also stole it, then ran away and hid. Good thing he's so cute! (And a bad hider! lol)