Costume Party

Today was the day that Ben has been waiting for for months.  Costume day.  Yep.  We are finally getting around to making the costumes that we won't need for 25 more days.  I think he felt like we were cutting it a little too close.  So this morning we got started right away.  Ben has decided that he wants to be a fisherman.  Actually, he wanted to be a jet skier...with a jet ski.  Luckily, the boy is easily peer pressured (good for now, scary for high school) and I was able to convince him that a fisherman would be a much better costume.  Mostly because I could figure out how to make it.

So I bought some fabric, traced Abby's fluffy pink vest and got to work.  I had make some adjustments so that it was more "fishing" than "5-year-old girl" and it wouldn't be a project of mine if I didn't make some cuts in places that I shouldn't (I know I know.  Measure twice cut once.)  I'm more of a cut and then measure girl which tends to cause quite a bit of anxiety but usually works out in the end.  When I'm working on a project, my Type A comes out in that I just want to get it done.  As crazy as I am about a lot of things, I am NOT a perfectionist.  It's my coping mechanism for dealing with the fact that I am not actually that good being crafty.  Most of the things I make usually look better (and are a lot easier) in my head and this was no exception.  I had a few set backs but once the vest was together, I added some pockets and wah-la.  A fisherman! 

I still have to make his hat and add some details (and by details I mean tackle) to the vest but imagine this on my oh so handsome boy with some cargo pants and a flannel shirt and big rubber boots!  (Almost) just how I pictured it!  And of course he needed a knife.  How else would he gut the fish?

Since November first (you know...ten months ago), Abby has been telling me that she wanted to be Phyllis (our long gone cat) for Halloween and then one night as I was tucking her into bed she told me that she had changed her mind and wanted to be the granny from the napping house.

I have no idea where in the world she came up with that but the kindergarten teacher in me did a triple back flip!  I had plans to make her the nightgown and hat and all of the characters to connect to the nightgown.  I bought a pattern and some fabric and called my mom for some help.  She took one look at the pattern and went to the store to find a less complicated one.  Then she came over this morning to help me put it all together.  Thank goodness she did because I would have never gotten it all done.  While I sewed Ben's vest, she cut out and pinned the nightgown so it was ready for me to put together.  I am so glad that she was here because my biggest problem with sewing is that my brain cannot figure out the math and planning that it takes to put things together.  Me and my Master's degree cannot figure out how to piece things together.  It all looks good and then I end up having to take a sleeve off because I sewed it on inside out.  (I may or may not have done that today...).  My mom definitely saved me from a few more big oooopsies today.  And she gave me a much better idea of how to make the night cap.  I would have gotten it done but her way was much more streamlined.  Thanks, Mom!  After she left and once the kids were in bed, I finished the nightgown (except for the sleeves) and I couldn't wait to see what it would look like on Abby.  So I did what any good mom would do and woke her up!

The last thing I need to do is add some elastic to puff up the shoulders (because puffy shoulders are apparently the most important part of the ensemble) and make some booties that look like slippers to go over her tennis shoes while she is trick or treating.  Oh, and I have to make a wakeful flea, a slumbering mouse, a snoozing cat, a dozing dog and a dreaming child to make it authentic.  (If you're confused, you'll have to read the story!)

Thanks to my mom for a fun day that surely would have been a lot more frustrating if she were not here.  I'm happy to have what I'm hoping to be the major parts of the costumes behind me.  And now, my October weekends can be spent doing the things I love like going to pumpkin patches and celebrating my birthday!!