And the winner is…

Us! Erin and I won the Best Couple Costume at the  party last night. They did turn out great if I say so myself. I’m so proud of them that I entered two online sewing/costume contests this morning. One on SewingPatternReview.com and another on Craftster.org.

		Halloween 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The cleverness and creativity displayed by everyone was pretty amazing. My two favorites were Cathy as Tippy Hedren in The Birds and Linda as a Tea Bag (there is an inside joke here that I just can’t explain. You have to know Linda and her funny story!) The inside jokes among our group of friends were well represented in costume form. As well as the metaphors (Law Suit, NBA Lockout) and plays on words (Purple Mountains Majesty). One of the (many) great things about hanging out with theater people is that we take our costumes pretty seriously and we tend to get into total character. Even the non-actors among us got into it. Steve passed out many shots of “Tiger Blood” (Hot Damn) and was heard saying, “WINNING!” all night long. I don’t have a picture of little Johnny dressed as Charlie Brown but he took it all the way by telling us repeatedly that all he got was a rock and he even had the Charlie Brown shirt on under his ghost costume so he could stay in costume even when he wasn’t in costume.

What time is it??? Adventure Time!!!

Emma got home from school and we got right to work on her costume. We already had the Finn Hat from an earlier Adventure Time sewing session together. She just made longer ears and put wire inside them to make them stand up and be more pose-able. I found the sweater at Old Navy today but it was long and roomy, more of a “boyfriend sweater” style. So I fired up the serger and took it in and took about 6 inches off the bottom. The skirt is just some cotton interlock from Joann sewn in a tube with a little waist shaping. Then I serged some wide elastic around the waist, turned it under and cover-stitched it down. The hem is just turned and cover-stitched.

The back pack is just wool/acrylic felt sewn into a pouch shape with the bottom corners gussetted. The flat is a piece of craft felt with the bottom corners rounded off and sewn onto the back of the pouch. Straps are 4.5” wide pieces of both colors of felt sewn together then folded into thirds and top stitched. The tops of the straps were attached with the flap and the bottoms were sewn along the bottom of the bag. All she needs now is a pink sword.

She’s 14 and in High School now. I keep thinking “this is the last year she’ll want me to do this stuff for her.” But then we finish something like this and she says, “I love it. I’m never taking it off.” Just like she did when she was 2.

 

 

 

 

I love that she is so free spirited and willing to be silly and have fun. Because I certainly have fun being silly and creative with her.

Now to go find some Tiger Blood and a cigar for my long lost Sheen brother…

That Time of the Year

My favorite time of the year is coming to an end. From September 23 (our anniversary) to Halloween has all the things I love. The heat and humidity of summer are over. The girls have gotten into the swing of their new school year. The colors of the sky (October Blue Sky may be my favorite color after purple), the leaves, and all the late season flowers. Also in there (October 2nd) is my oldest daughter’s birthday. She turned 18 this year. I “wrote” a few posts about this landmark event in my head but never made it to the keyboard with any clarity to record them here.

Of course it all wraps up with my favorite holiday, Halloween. It might be the actress in me that loves the costumes and make believe of it all. Or maybe it is the latent Pagan that feels like this is really the dawn of the New Year. Whatever it is I love all of it. This year is no exception. I’ve been making costumes for myself and my friend for our annual party. Three guess who we are going as, and the first two don’t count. Unless of course you’ve never watched any old classic television. I’ll  have photos of us in our costumes after Sunday’s party. These were pretty simple to construct. I used McCalls 5052 for the tops, adding the dark grey cuffs. The skirts and aprons are just simple rectangles, elastic waists in the skirts. The chefs hats (hard to see in this photo) were the most fun, and impressive, parts to make. I just cut large circles, gathered and attached them to wide, interfaced bands with velcro in the back. I kind of wanted to make my husband dress as “Poppin’ Fresh” the Pillsbury Dough Boy just so I could make another one!

 

I also popped the embroidery module on my machine and stitched up these fun kitchen towels. The designs are from Urban Threads.  If you are looking for some unique and modern embroidery designs this is the place for you. Just check out this: The Clockwork Natura Gown – Embroidery & Handmade Fashion That just makes me want to lose 50# and run away to a Ren Faire.

Now I need to finish this up and get a few last minute things put together for the youngest daughter. She decided at the last minute that she needs a costume. She wants to be “Fiona from Adventure Time”. If you have never caught an episode of this crazy cartoon I suggest you make yourself a cocktail and enjoy the weirdness. The main characters are “Jake and Finn” but there is one episode where they are their female counterpoints, Fiona and Cake. It is really too weird to explain further. Just watch it.

Happy Sewing and Joyous Halloween.