Halloween 2013

Hi again!

I really want to thank you for your wonderfully supportive comments and emails!

I had been planning to take today off of work to go to Stone Mountain to purchase supplies for challenge #7, as I didn't have the right materials in stash. After learning that I was out of the competition, I decided to take the day off, anyway!

For one thing, I really needed a day off! I have been in this competition for nearly two months and it's been grueling, especially since I also work full time. Not only was I flagging, but it feels like everyone is starting to flag a bit, including the judges, and my blog readers!

So I decided to go ahead with my plans. Though I hadn't started the next challenge, I had figured out what I wanted to make. This challenge is much more up my alley than the last one. Margy kindly overnight'ed me the pattern I wanted to use - all I needed was the fabric.

I rarely purchase fabric for a specific project, so this was fun! It was also fun to be in Stone Mountain on Halloween, when all of the employees are dressed up and in high spirits.

I just returned from my outing. (It was my first time driving over the new Bay Bridge and it is beautiful!) My fabrics are in the wash. I do plan to make the garment for challenge #7, but it will be on my time!

I am positively vibrating with happiness and mojo.

I feel like I've been pardoned from prison! :D

Halloween 2013

Now, you may remember that my friend Sue helps with the costumes for her three adorable grandchildren. I blogged about them last year. Well, she and her daughter made two costumes again this year and I received permission to share the pics.

Eldest grandson is a piece of sushi!

Specifically, he is a piece of salmon, avocado, and tamago (grilled egg) sushi. (His favorite kind.) I know that duct tape and Styrofoam packing peanuts featured prominently in the construction of his costume, which is truly clever. (Sue's daughter, the mother of said children, is a school teacher, and she is clever indeed when it comes to this sort of thing):

Youngest grandson is the Man in the Yellow Hat. My friend Sue made the hat! (But, then, she is Hatmaker Extraordinaire!) His polka dots were also achieved with duct tape!

And, not to be left out, granddaughter was a cheerleader. Sue and I think that she has acting potential!

If you celebrate Halloween, I hope it's a fun one!

Halloween 2012

My friend Sue sent me this picture about a week ago and I couldn't get over the awesomeness. Her granddaughter, Gracie, wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween. Look how happy she is with her grandma-made felted hat. Do you remember Strawberry Shortcake? From the 80s?

If that wasn't enough, Sue then made the SS dress. (I thought, at first, that it was a Strawberry-Shortcake-Joins-the-Brownies costume. :) )

Sue sent me these pics this morning. I am in love with the whole look!

This is probably the only kid in the U.S. wearing, for Halloween, a custom made felted hat worth $200 retail!

Sue didn't make her grandson's costume, but I thought that Jonah's mad scientist was fabulous. It looks like his goggles are made with painted eggshells, probably looted from the Easter decorations. Paired with a lab coat, and some hair gel, what a brilliant, easy, and effective costume.

Last, but not least, little brother Crosby is wearing a purchased costume and looking completely adorable. (All of these pics are posted with mom's permission.)

Excuse me while I go remind myself that my ovaries are closed for business.

This is how I'm going to the grocery store today. Do you think anyone will notice my monster companion?

I bought these glasses in the Castro and they fit right over my regular glasses.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2005

This is probably my last "blast from the past" Halloween post, unless I somehow unearth more pictures! (You can see all of my Halloween posts using this link.) It's too bad that most of my kids childhood occurred before I had a digital camera.

In 2005, my kids were in 6th and 8th grades. It was the last Halloween in grade school for my eldest, so this is the last year I did the "big" costumes and that we followed our usual traditions. The next year she entered high school and she was pretty much on her own for Halloween.

DD1 selected a design that was suggestive of the Elf Princess Arwen from the LOTR movies, though she had not seen those movies and was not aware of that. I decided not to point it out. She had some changes she wanted me to make from the pattern – she considered herself a "medieval princess".

DD2 was going through a lengthy obsession with Garfield that year. It seemed like I was making lasagna on a weekly basis for months, so of course her costume had to be Garfield. I managed to score an OOP Garfield pattern on ebay, though I really only used the head, feet, and tail pieces from the pattern. I used the body from a "pumpkin" pattern and modified it to get the shape I wanted. I then bought, on ebay, Garfield-yellow sweatpants and sweatshirt which, believe me, was not an easy color to find that year.

The first time she tried the head on. The black detail is painted on and notice the little embroidery floss whiskers up near the ears.

What happened to these costumes? Well, the princess costume was donated to the grade school costume closet (and has been much used). DD2 sold her Garfield costume on Craigslist. I think she got $35 for it. :)

Halloween 2004

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

2010 - This year's decorations

Here is another little blast from the past. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, so I really ran with it when the kids were little. :)

2004 - DD1 is a Christmas Tree!

In 2004, I made DD1 a Christmas Tree costume. I got the idea from one of those Halloween Magazines that are available that time of year – I can't remember which magazine.

I went further with the idea, though. For example, I found (on ebay) two sets of star-shaped Christmas tree lights that operated on a battery pack and had 8 flashing modes. They are strung around the costume, under the netting (my friend Renee helped with this and with the other tree decorations). The battery packs are hidden in pockets on the underside. As she was trick or treating, she was flashing up a storm.

The candy canes are real. I made her (non-functional) Christmas tree light earrings. I made the star topper using lots of glitter and two thicknesses of the card stock - the tip of the tree is sandwiched in between and held with lots of sticky tape. The bottom of the costume is supported by a small hula hoop. She is also ornamented with real jingle bells, so she provided an auditory and visual experience. She designed the giant stocking-shaped goody bag. It has straps (so it can be worn), which were tucked in for the photos below. She has fewer decorations on her back, so I told her she was designed to be placed against a wall. ;)

2004 - DD2 is an "Elvish Avenger"

DD2 wanted to be a warrior, in particular an "Elvish Avenger". For her costume I made the pants, tunic, cape, quiver, knife sheath, dagger sheath, and (not shown) the goody bag that she designed.

More pictures. :)

The Elf chops down a tree!

When I was taking these photos, which was on Halloween or maybe the day before, I grabbed an Santa hat from the Christmas decorations, wrapped an empty gift, and had DD2 dress in holiday colors. I then took some photos to use for our Christmas card. I just couldn't pass up this opportunity. :) It was probably the last year I made a photo Christmas card and it was certainly the earliest I had been prepared!

Our 2004 Christmas Card!

On the sewing front, I am making progress very slowly! But I hope to get some done today. :)

Halloween 2002

It's hard to believe that it is only 10 days to Halloween. You see, Halloween was always a huge holiday for my family, at least when my kids were little. My Halloween fever would begin in August when I started pestering my kids about what they wanted to be, costume-wise. Usually DD1 would have decided long before, but DD2 would keep me guessing until the last possible second.

I don't know where all my photos are, but I found these low-resolution photos from Halloween 2002. That was the year that DD1 (then almost 10), and her best friend wanted to be "The Girls That Didn't Want to Go to Sleep." And of course they needed matching costumes and they wanted matching teddy bears. So I laid in a supply of flannel from eQuilter.com.

Since DD1 loved to dance, and wanted her costume to twirl, I drafted a nightgown with a circle skirt. Also, since their teddy bears were different sizes, I had to draft a different pattern for each. They also wanted sleeping caps, so I got out my knitting needles and some Encore yarn (an inexpensive acrylic) and knitted each of them (and each of their bears) a sleeping cap.

They wore sheepskin slippers and their bears had matching slippers purchased by H's mom. These were little booties intended for infants and they worked perfectly on the bears.

(They were about to attend a Halloween event at the Academy of Sciences, a week or so before October 31st. DD2's costume wasn't finished, so she went as a cat.)

(Twirling, with H, in the courtyard at the Academy of Sciences.)

(H's bear on the left and DD1's bear on the right.)

Obsessive? Did I hear you call me obsessive? Well, maybe a bit. lol

Then, there was DD2 (age 7 at the time). She always made me crazy when it came to costumes. She was quick with the concept costume that would be impossible to execute well. When she was 3 years old, and I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, she immediately responded, "an eyeball." When I asked her again, she just as quickly answered, "a dirty sock." Even at 3 she was a jolly joker.

This particular year she wanted to be (in her words): "An Alien Robot from the Moon." She soundly rejected any robot suggestions that involved boxes and dryer hose. She wanted to have a round head and a silver body suit, cause she wasn't just a robot, but an "alien robot from the Moon, mooom."

One day I was in ToysRUs and noticed the playground balls. I realized that a Scooby Doo playground ball could be perfect for her helmet. I cut it into the right shape to fit over her head and neck and spray painted it silver.

She also wanted a control panel with "working" buttons on her costume. (Well, who wouldn't?) I spent ages in hardware and craft stores looking for suitable buttons and couldn't find any, so I concocted ten of them by gluing plastic curtain rings together, wrapping them with metallic silver thread, and gluing clear circles of plastic on top. My daughter labeled them using a Sharpie. I attached these to her silver lame "control panel". I had a string of clear lights intended for a wreath, so I inserted one of the lights into each button, from behind, through a small slit. I then created a little silver box to hold the battery pack for the lights. When she wanted to, she could turn on the battery pack and her buttons would flash. That was about as operational as it would get.

Besides her silver pants and shirt, which were very easy to sew up, I also made some spats because she didn't want anything to show that wasn't silver. Finally, I made her a silver trick or treat bag (which you see hanging from her waist in the first photo below). The costume was a hit. When she returned home from school, I had to re-glue some buttons and bolts because she was over-fondled by the other children. (Yes, because she was a robot, she had bolts glued to her knees and elbows.) She turned heads as she was trick or treating, buttons flashing in the dark.

(The requisite silly shot just before heading out for trick or treating.)

(You can just make out the 3D pocket for the battery pack under her control panel.)

(Even Alien Moon Robots have to take piano lessons when they occur on Halloween.)

I'll never forget how she told me right after Halloween that next year she wanted to be a keyboard, with keys that actually played notes when you touched them. Nope, that one never happened – I told her when she was older she could design and engineer that herself.

Should I admit that these costumes were long ago given to Goodwill? Yup. We don't generally keep these things forever and I like to think other little girls are enjoying them.

These days, I have nothing to do with costumes. My Halloween duties pretty much begin and end with hosting a sleepover and buying lots of candy. :)

(And sorry my pictures aren't better, but this was before I had gone digital and I came across these old scans. I don't know where the original photos are. Hopefully safely tucked away in some box.)