Halloween 2012 Costume Planning

I do realize it is barely the middle of August, it is still summer and very warm and sunny out, but I have been thinking of the next Halloween for a while now, so I believe it is time I shared my thoughts regarding the costumes I plan and wish to make. After all, I have no other costuming event in my near future and my brain needs a project to occupy itself with. Also, with the coming baby, I will most likely be out of service (sewing wise) for a good month, so I had better start working on costumes now if I hope to be ready. After all, by the end of October my youngest will be 1 1/2 month to 2 months old and will of course need a costume!

My original plan was to go for something like this:

Baby Fantasy Unicorn Costume - Pea In Pod Baby Costume - My Dark Maiden Dress

I thought my 3 1/2 years old daughter would be thrilled if I made her a unicorn costume; I’ve long loved the pea pod baby costume (how adorable is that), so now would be my chance to make it; and as for me, I would just wear my Dark Maiden Dress – a classic (with a drawstring neckline, the easier to breastfeed).

Since my daughter is so very much like me, at age 3, if she does not want to wear something, she simply does not – she has many t-shirts, pants and dresses which have never been worn because she simply refuses to (my parents would tell you there IS a God - to which I answer there are several – because I was exactly the same at her age).

So instead of picking her Halloween costume for her, I have decided to involve her in the choosing process. I Googled pictures of Unicorn costumes, but she never seemed very excited about them, finding them to be for babies (ah! to be 3 going on 13!). I started to look at costume patterns with her on the various commercial pattern websites (I used to do the same with my mom, except we had to go look at the books at the fabric store instead), and she said she became interested in Simplicity 1768, and she told me she wanted to be a pumpkin. More image Googling and this is what she has confirmed to me that she wants: a pumpkin tutu dress.

Halloween Pumpkin Tutu Dress

 

Why not! I’ve made her mascot type costumes complete with padded heads since she was born, if that is not what she wants this year, so be it. Besides, that dress looks easy! Of course, it sometimes snows up here in Québec on Halloween, so I agreed to make her a dress like the one pictured if she would wear it over her green fleece PJ (made for her to go trick-or-treating as a flower last year – it still fits!). I’ll have to figure some sort of hat as well.

Her choice of a pumpkin costume got me thinking about making them for the whole family. After all, I could easily make an orange Jack-o’-lantern fleece PJ for my baby.

Precious Pumpkin Baby Costume

What I will do is buy Simplicity “It’s so easy” 1753 and add the eyes and mouth, maybe even a padded green fleece peduncle at the top, or some leaves… Plus, baby will be comfortable to help me distribute candy.

I offered to make a Jack-o’-lantern t-shirt for my Sweetheart, but he did not seemed too thrilled, so we’ll see in time.

But what about me?

All this thinking about pumpkins reminded me of an orange fabric I have in my stash: it is “faux linen” (thickly woven polyester) which I bought years ago to make a medieval dress, only to decide afterwards that its name really didn’t fool anyone and I did not want to use it for its original purpose anymore.

It's in the stash: the orange "faux linen"

Since then, I have been looking for a way to use it, and now, I think I have found it: a Pumpkin Polonaise Dress. I’m thinking 18^th century Polonaise with a Jack-o’-lantern face on the stomacher. Maybe some ivy leaf trim. Something ridiculous, outrageous, and creative that makes no true sense historically but would be fun for Halloween. I have 6 metres of that fabric, so plenty for a Polonaise; all I would need is a walking skirt to go with it, maybe in black.

Let me sketch out some ideas and I will get back to you on this.