Playing Dress-Up

I loved the yearly tradition of dressing up for Halloween when I was a kid.  My mom made our costumes every year - EVERY year.  We four kids not ONCE had a costume that came from a store.  Sometimes we'd be in KMart and I'd inspect the costumes they had there, but even as a child I knew that they were really poor quality.  Back then, the major feature of a costume from the store was the plastic mask.  The mask was usually accompanied by a lightweight, non-washable, most likely flammable, slip of a costume, that looked as though it was fashioned from a bag - with armholes.  But those were not for us.  Our family was lucky to have a mom who sewed!

Usually my mom made the decision as to the THEME of our costumes - we ALWAYS had a theme.  Depending upon our age, we could then choose what we wanted from there.  My brother and I were clowns one year, we were an angel & devil another year.  My sister came on the scene and we were: witch, skeleton, ghost.  There was the Star Wars theme, and the year we were all "circus folk" - the clown costumes came back out for my younger siblings.  There was the year we were all Saints - Joan of Arc was one of the few women saints who could be counted on for an exciting costume!  One year the four of us were crayons.  I don't know if we were all happy about that - but we got to choose our colors!  For a few years in one of the schools we attended, the SCHOOL had a theme.  It was a parochial school, I think they were trying to keep the scary out of Halloween.  There was a circus theme that year - so as a family we were on our third circus theme.  This time I chose Cotton Candy, and one of my brothers was one of only two boxes of popcorn in the school.  The following year we had a Cartoon theme - my mom's subtheme was Disney cartoons - so we were Cinderella, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell and Mickey Mouse.  This was probably my last year of dressing up for a while - I was in 8th grade.

I had some moments of dressing up in college - the costume parties for Halloween - and one Vernal Equinox party......which was just an odd moment in college memory.  We were told to dress as something in nature or something from the periodic table of elements.....after much work went into the costumes - I was Autumn, a friend was Gold, another friend a Wood Nymph - we arrived at the party to find a great deal of people were in regular clothes and the one guy that came with us in some sort of Roman Soldier costume (depicting what, I don't know), slipped into a bathroom with a duffel bag and quickly changed - leaving the rest of us in costume - it was an odd night.  The hostess, dressed as Coal was delighted we were in costume, but we three were only joined by some strange guy in some sort of a sho gun outfit, complete with the sandals the hostess got from her pedicure - ewww!

Our Little Ladybug

Now, I'm a mom, and I was eager to flex my creative muscle and create some great costumes for my girlie....then girlies.  My first daughter, Ballerina, came to us on Halloween.  Her first Halloween was not Halloween at all - it was Family Day- a day that would become an annual celebration for all of us.  The first Halloween my Ballerina spent in the U.S.A was a special one in that we were celebrating one year with her, and as a nod to the "good luck" symbol of China adoption, I made Ballerina a Ladybug costume.  She was beautiful and happy - and we loved that day :-)

After Ballerina zipped around like a Ladybug - she was mostly content not to dress-up during playtime.  Each year she would request a costume for me to create, and I would jump right in and work it out.  I have a sewing machine, and I've made some things on it - but making a mermaid costume with some sheer fabric was quite a challenge!  She often asked for costumes that were not on anyone else's radar - Word Girl anyone?!  There was also Kim Possible, an Astronaut and Violet from The Incredibles.


Will the real Word Girl please stand up!

And when we added Songbird to the family she would ask for costumes that showed how much Girly-Girl she really was!  She wore the Ladybug Costume the first year, and then a string of Tinkerbell, Angelina Ballerina, and Rapunzel followed.  


Renaissance JuneBug, Angelina Ballerina Songbird
and "Incredible" Ballerina

Our Astronaut and Tinkerbelle

Big Sister JuneBug was slightly bewildered about the whole Halloween dress-up, but had no problem donning a Renaissance costume her Nana found for her.  In fact, since SongBird hasn't grown in size, she wore that two years in a row.  Songbird is particularly enamored with the long brown felt and sparkly gold trim on that costume - she's tried it on every time it comes out!

This year my girls have put me to the challenge once again!  I have put together a Cake Boss costume for JuneBug - the only part I had to make was the cake - all the girls helped on that one - we made a clay two-tier cake and it was a lot of fun! 



Rapunzel, "Winter" and Kim Possible

Songbird typically comes up with some fantastical ideas before she settles on something that I might be able to concoct.  This year, after toying with the idea of being RICE, she settled on Ice Cream.  I almost had her convinced to be a Rainbow, but she had other ideas.  That costume was an improvised, figure-it-out as you go type of outfit.  The three scoops of ice cream are pretty much blended into one and its lop-sided on the side, but she's pretty darn cute, and laughs merrily each time I put it over her head.

Our Little Mermaid

My final challenge is my Ballerina.  She, typically, has chosen a costume, that most girls are not contemplating this year.  She wants to be a Pioneer Girl - not just any pioneer girl mind you, Mary Ingalls.  That's right - NOT Laura Ingalls, the central character in the Little House series.  She identifies more with Mary, Laura's older sister, who is much more of a rules girl.  This is the costume I've put off until the last since I need to consult a pattern, which strikes fear in me - I must admit.  When I made that Ariel costume when Ballerina was three, I struggled so much and had to call the pattern company so a kind lady in their headquarters could interpret the directions from "sewer speak" to regular English an amateur sewer could understand.



My Little Doctor

I have less than a week to make this costume.  Ballerina already had a Halloween party to attend and we quickly threw together a costume for her - she already has a lab coat (a birthday gift from years past) and I made her a badge.  Together with my Guy's stethoscope she was a thorasic surgeon.  She was the cutest little doctor in her get-up.  But now its serious business.  This is not a concoction out of felt or using duct tape (which, in all seriousness is AWESOME to use for costumes - I undervalued its use prior to the Astronaut costume.)  So, blogging done, costume procrastination over - on to the pattern cutting!