Saturday, October 25, 2008

Costumes

A few years back I decided to try to make Halloween less commercial.  I know it's hard to do especially when there really is no substance to Halloween.  It's not like Christmas where you can focus on Christ or Thanksgiving where our focus is on all our many blessings or Easter where we are grateful for the resurrection of our Savior.  Since I really didn't want to delve into why Halloween started I just took the traditions of today and made them a little more homey. 

I have tried making at least one Halloween costume each year for the past few years.  Here they are:

Kyle as Anakin Skywalker.  I'm pretty sure my mom made most if not all of this.  Since Lana was born about 1 month before this I doubt I had anything to contribute.  My mom made the tunic and tied a brown sash around Kyle's waist.  He already had some tan pants and a light saber so he was all set.

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Kyle as an astronaut.  I got the idea from one of Martha Stewart's birthday party ideas.  I got Kyle a disposable painters suit and colored duct tape.  Ronnie helped me find some patches on the computer to decorate Kyle's costume with.  I also put Ronnie in charge of the box thing and helmet.  The best part of all...no sewing!

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Lana as a monarch butterfly.  I got this idea from Pottery Barn.  Pottery Barn's costume was so cute and I would have just bought if I had lost my mind and somehow thought that spending $100 on a costume was logical.  Luckily my mind is still functioning and I decided to try to make it instead.  Lana had a black sweat suit and I made the wings with felt.  I used a really strong stabilizer in between the wings to make them stand up instead of flop down.  I made the pattern with felt also and I decorated both sides so you could tell what she was coming and going.  Then I put some grommets in the wings and laced  black string through them so Lana could wear the wings like a backpack. 

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Kyle as Link from Zelda.  I really didn't want to try to take on such a hard costume so I actually look online to buy a costume...but no one made them.  So them I turned to the Internet again for directions on how to make one and bingo I found some directions that made it seem actually doable.  I learned a lot about Link in trying to make this costume, for example who knew that in each Zelda game Link's costume was different?  Well then I had to ask Kyle witch costume he wanted and he said Link in Twilight Princess.  So then I got started.  Here's a blog I wrote last year about the day when I was making this costume.  The costume didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but at least I pushed on and finished it.

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This year Lana is going to be an Indian.  She started out wanting to be a ladybug, then she wanted to be an Indian.  As I was at the store getting her Indian costume fabric she started saying she wanted to be a princess.  I didn't give in.  The people around the cutting table thought it was quite amusing that my darling daughter was crying and telling me over and over that she wanted to be a princess while I was buying her stuff to be an Indian.  It was never going to end, if I had caved and said ok you can be a princess the next day she would want to be something else.  So I looked at her and said ok how about you can be an Indian princess and then all was right with the world.  Everyone around the fabric table got a good chuckle and then I high tailed it out of there before anymore costume ideas came to her.

I used one of her dresses and traced around it on newspaper for a pattern.  Then I added a few trimmings.  I had some left over fabric so I made some mock moccasin boots.  Mock because they really don't cover her feet , just her legs.  On Halloween she will have a fluffy pink headband with a pink feather in the back. 

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Here is a picture of me in an Indian costume my mom made....so the tradition continues.  See my feather...it was a peacock feather form our very own peacock...how cool is that! 

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5 comments:

Nutty Hamster Chick said...

Oh my goodness I don't even know where to start commenting on this.

First of all good job on not spending the $100.

Second of all good job on the Indian princess thing. I score that a 9.9 in the old gymnastics rating system, with 10 being the highest score possible.

And third, how cute were/are you? And real peacock feather, how cool is that. And can I touch you the next time I see you?

Anonymous said...

cute costumes! Last year we painted noahs eyes black and pinned the letter "p" all over his sweat suit...he was a black-eyed pea! he still talks about it...

Smart Helm said...

I am awestruck... AWESTRUCK!
I am so awestruck I am speechless....

..... awestruck! So way impressed!

Eliza said...

I can't believe that Melanie is speechless. I didn't think that was possible! I guess you know that you have a good post.

I too am WAY impressed. You are amazing and adorable! I love that Lana was crying and you ignored, I totally do that all the time!

WAY TO GO!!!

Smart Helm said...

Eliza... u are a smarty pants. Being my the wonderful VTer that u are has given u way to much amunition. I better be careful!

Shawna - I linked to this post on the post I just posted so ... now u know I really do think ur post is posting awesome. :-)