Ella has been talking about this Halloween since – oh…5 minutes after trick-or-treating last year. I finally started talking to her seriously about costumes at the beginning of September. I wanted her to be a peacock. She wanted to be a witch. Fine – so a few days later it was settled that we would be a coven of witches. With my JoAnn’s coupon in hand, I bought fabric, and after patiently waiting for the $1 pattern sale, had everything I needed to get sewing.
I think it was about two days after the supplies were gathered that I happened to put my hair into two braids. Ella looked at me and said, “Momma! You have Dorothy braids!” I guessed that yes, I did have Dorothy braids, and accommodated her wish to have her hair done the same way. All of a sudden, she was Dorothy. We had to call her Dorothy, or she wouldn’t answer, and she insisted her hair be in braids every. single. day.
I’m going to let you draw your own conclusion as to what happened to our coven of witches. She did inform me that I could most certainly (yes, those were her exact words) be the Wicked Witch. Sophie could be the good witch. What about the fabric I bought? We’ll just get more, Mom. Awesome. So helpful.
Of course I gave in. She’s been obsessed with The Wizard of Oz ever since we saw the play this Spring, and the fascination didn’t appear to be fading any time soon. We even finally rented the movie (which – it should be noted – was completely different from the play, which was based on the book – silver shoes, no singing, etc.) because there’s nothing like feeding a frenzy.
I definitely put the most effort into Ella’s costume. Sophie got a skirt, a wand, and a crown made – but no intense sewing – there was no way I was attempting those poofy sleeves from the movie. I did an elastic waist skirt for myself , out of the fabric we had purchased for the coven, and used store-bought items to finish it all off. Ella though – she had some red shoes already (I wasn’t invested enough in the look to go out and buy a separate, sparkly pair) and tights and a white turtle-neck – but she needed The Dress, and of course, a Toto.
I’m not confident enough to wing anything past an elastic-waist skirt, so I waited again for the pattern sale and picked up the appropriate look, knowing I could stick to just the jumper and ignore the shirt that looked way too complicated. Oh. Except there was this problem – the people who make patterns are NOT RIGHT IN THE HEAD. The amount of fabric they wanted me to use for the skirt would have been too big for me. Seriously.
So I used the piece for the top, and that was it. The rest was me winging it. Including lining it, because man was that fabric cheap! I guess the $3/yd price tag should have clued me in to the quality. Winging it, at least for me, tends to involve a lot of cursing and a lot of seam-ripping. I’d say it was kept to about a Medium level – so all in all, not bad. Of course, because of the way I sewed the ribbon on (the main source of the cursing and seam ripping) this baby is TIGHT. There’s no way it will fit her next year, because it is s-n-u-g. But man, is it cute.
I had a hell of a time finding a Toto. I finally ended up at the ghetto Toys-R-Us (it’s across the street from the prison) searching in the bins for any black dog, no matter what breed. And thank you, President Obama – there was a Webkinz Portuguese Water Dog. All because of Bo, the First Dog. Of course I had to get it (along with a mini version for Sophie). He’s party-colored (black and white) but I thought it was very appropriate that she have a Portie in her basket.
Maybe it’s because I miss my own Portie so much, or maybe it’s my need to have more projects on my plate than I can handle, but I went ahead and took the time to make him a blanket and embroider an ID tag.
Glinda was more than happy to guide Dorothy down the…um…gray-paved-road.
Glinda’s costume may have been less involved (although – that fabric had little rhinestones on it and was a bugger to sew), but we managed to lose Ella’s old pumpkin bucket that was to be Sophie’s for trick-or-treating. So I had to make something. And since she loves kitties, I figured a kitty-bucket would be perfect.
She liked it.
Oh – and then there was the witch…
Yeah. Tom made me pose like that.
The girls weren’t really interested in posing…they were much more interested in finding the Wizard candy. So off we went…
Well done, you! I’m sure you three were the hit of the Township!
You all look so great! Dorthy is awesome all around. And the dog and his basket are just the extra touch. Kitty bag is awesome. And you look great! Hope they had fun 🙂
I dont see Tom… Whats up with that?
I am surprised you didn’t take up blacksmithing to make Tom a Tin-Man Costume.
You guys have met Tom, right? He’s not really the costume kind of person – I had a hard enough time getting him to be “Jim” the mechanic. Although…I almost had him convinced that he could be Don Draper. I think he actually wants to BE him though, not just dress up like him.
Colt – you should check out the Robocop outfit Jim, from Sweet Juniper, made his son. He puts my crafting to shame. He used old jugs and random things from his house. Pretty awesome. http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2010/10/part-kid-part-machine-all-cop.html
BTW, somebody had to take the group photos and stay behind to pass out candy to the hordes of trick-or-treaters…
I’m not anti-halloween – I love the idea of dressing up to ward off the demons that are unleashed upon the earth once a year in an effort/hope to thwart their plans to possess our souls. If Dorothy were a vampire slayer, it would all make perfect sense.
And in my mind, I already dress and present myself with the confidence of Don Draper every day – even in my pajamas. Dressing like him on Halloween would ultimately be a betrayal to myself.
Britta, so adorable, as always 🙂 Great job!
While I too walk with the air of brooding confidence of DD on a daily basis, actually having the pack of Lucky Strikes and the perfectly folded pocket square was a pretty epic feeling. Though I kind of wish I could have been Roger.
I was going to say that I really think you should have gone as Roger and Joan. Maggie can definitely pull off Joan, and Roger is just awesome – in a bit of a sad/funny way….
I hope you wore your hat a jaunty angle.
Colt – I need to see a pic of you with the brill cream.
I wore the hat on Friday night to a party. Angles are attitude, I always have an angle. Saturday night I was not willing to wear my Setson fedora to the Rocky Horror Picture Show and subject it to rice, toast, water guns, buckets of water etc, so I was brill creamed to the max and even trimmed my beloved sideburns.
I’m sure that Tom was daunting enough at the door, but the three ladies look awesome! Britta that babe, Dorothy the doll, and Glinda the gorgeous. I love the costumes and that cat bag is to die for. You rock!
Such cute outfits… That witch is H-O-T-T, hot!