Ok, I know Halloween is over, and this post is late, but I still wanted to post a pic of my kids this year.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a blast making the kids' Halloween costumes. It's so much fun listening to the kids' ideas for what they want to be and then trying to figure out how to make that happen. It's not always easy, but I definitely learn a lot.
This year, we had a Pikmin and a princess.
For Baby Girl, I confess, I did nothing. She grabbed a dress from out of the play clothes pile, and we were done. (Totally lame, Mom.) However, I beg for leniency this year because my sewing machine was in the shop for some much needed TLC most of October. In fact, I sewed my son's Pikmin costume by hand because I wasn't sure Hester (my machine) would make it home in time. Thank goodness trick-or-treating is done in the dark because the stitching is pretty bad and very uneven.
For the costume, I used McCalls pattern M5508. Oddly enough, I also used the overalls part of this pattern several years ago for Mario and Luigi costumes. I guess this has been a great pattern for us!
I modified it a bit by omitting the pocket and adding a stem on the hood. The stem has a wire in it (cut from a coat hanger) and polyester filling to help it keep its shape. The weight of the stem kept pulling the hood off, so I also added a couple of snaps to help keep it on. Probably a light stretchy fabric with a hood fitted very closely around the face would've helped the stem stand straighter, but my son loved being cozy in his fleece on a chilly Halloween night.
Originally, I planned to do pants, too, but my fingers were too raw and sore to go on. If you look closely at the photo of it, you might notice that I didn't even bother hemming the bottom of the garment. My fingers had had enough!
Actually, as I stitched, all I could think of was my mom. When I was in high school, she made me a gorgeous dress once and hand-stitched hundreds of lovely flowers on the skirt of it. As much as I loved that dress then, I have sooooo much more appreciation for what she did now. It must have been a royal pain in the rear. She was a good mom.
Of course, nobody over the age of 10 knew what my son's costume was. At first, when asked, he would go through a long spiel about what pikmin are. (Pikmin are characters from a video game. There are various pikmin types that possess different abilities. He was a water pikmin... etc., etc.) After three or four houses, though, he boiled the speech down to, "A video character."
However, when we passed a large group of trick-or-treaters on the street, several seven-year-olds cried out, "Ooooh! Look! A pikmin!" This gratified my son to no end. I decided that seeing him so happy and proud of his costume was worth a little blood sacrifice.
P.S. For those who may be wondering, I do indeed have three children, though only two are pictured today. My eldest son has decided that he's "too old for baby stuff." No doubt, he's figured out that pounding the pavement for sweets is for chumps when he can sit in the comfort of his own home with dad -- right next to the candy bowl.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a blast making the kids' Halloween costumes. It's so much fun listening to the kids' ideas for what they want to be and then trying to figure out how to make that happen. It's not always easy, but I definitely learn a lot.
This year, we had a Pikmin and a princess.
For Baby Girl, I confess, I did nothing. She grabbed a dress from out of the play clothes pile, and we were done. (Totally lame, Mom.) However, I beg for leniency this year because my sewing machine was in the shop for some much needed TLC most of October. In fact, I sewed my son's Pikmin costume by hand because I wasn't sure Hester (my machine) would make it home in time. Thank goodness trick-or-treating is done in the dark because the stitching is pretty bad and very uneven.
For the costume, I used McCalls pattern M5508. Oddly enough, I also used the overalls part of this pattern several years ago for Mario and Luigi costumes. I guess this has been a great pattern for us!
I modified it a bit by omitting the pocket and adding a stem on the hood. The stem has a wire in it (cut from a coat hanger) and polyester filling to help it keep its shape. The weight of the stem kept pulling the hood off, so I also added a couple of snaps to help keep it on. Probably a light stretchy fabric with a hood fitted very closely around the face would've helped the stem stand straighter, but my son loved being cozy in his fleece on a chilly Halloween night.
Originally, I planned to do pants, too, but my fingers were too raw and sore to go on. If you look closely at the photo of it, you might notice that I didn't even bother hemming the bottom of the garment. My fingers had had enough!
Actually, as I stitched, all I could think of was my mom. When I was in high school, she made me a gorgeous dress once and hand-stitched hundreds of lovely flowers on the skirt of it. As much as I loved that dress then, I have sooooo much more appreciation for what she did now. It must have been a royal pain in the rear. She was a good mom.
Of course, nobody over the age of 10 knew what my son's costume was. At first, when asked, he would go through a long spiel about what pikmin are. (Pikmin are characters from a video game. There are various pikmin types that possess different abilities. He was a water pikmin... etc., etc.) After three or four houses, though, he boiled the speech down to, "A video character."
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| Image of pikmin from: http://pikmin.wikia.com/wiki/Pikmin_family |
However, when we passed a large group of trick-or-treaters on the street, several seven-year-olds cried out, "Ooooh! Look! A pikmin!" This gratified my son to no end. I decided that seeing him so happy and proud of his costume was worth a little blood sacrifice.
*****
P.S. For those who may be wondering, I do indeed have three children, though only two are pictured today. My eldest son has decided that he's "too old for baby stuff." No doubt, he's figured out that pounding the pavement for sweets is for chumps when he can sit in the comfort of his own home with dad -- right next to the candy bowl.
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