Hi. My name is Jennifer and I do not sew. Nor do I garden. I wish I did both of these things, sewing and gardening, but I don’t. Maybe when I’m 70 and I’m taking classes in that “when I’m old I shall wear purple” type way, I’ll take a class on gardening or sewing. Until then, I’ll make do with the big, fake gerber daisies in the pot outside my front door and lots and lots of Liquid-Stitch.
Despite being unable to sew, I somehow manage to make my kids’ Halloween costumes, excepting the Halloween we all went as Star Wars characters, which I will let slide because the cherry on top of all the store-bought costumes that year was getting to dress Rosie the Dog as Darth Vader. But other than that year, I somehow pull off the costume-assembling. I think what I lack in any skill whatsoever, I make up for in my willingness to search the hobby and fabric stores until I find something that will work. Also, the costumes tend to fall apart over the course of the evening so that by the time the kids are really getting into trick-or-treating, I’m holding various parts, sometimes a mask or a pair of felt ears or rubber claws attached to gloves or the top of an umbrella cut in half to serve as bat wings ANYWAY you get the idea. Of course, by then they have candycandycandycandycandy and they no longer care whether their costumes make any artistic sense.
So. Sometime in the next few days, I will turn the following into not one but two owl costumes, one for me and one for Sophie:
And I will spend time making the costumes. A lot of time. So much time that I will wonder repeatedly why I didn’t just shell out $80.00 for the incredibly adorable owl costume sold by Pottery Barn Kids this year. So here’s hoping that I can turn everything on that table up there into something really, really great for us to wear on Sunday. And by me, I mean me and my lots-and-lots-of-Liquid-Stitch. Plus glitter and feathers and googly-eyes and really cheap fabric. How hard could it be?
Yeah – I don’t make my kids’ costumes. For the first time ever, I’ve bought them cheap-o ones from the store instead of sending them into their dress-up bins for whatever they can scrounge together.
Color me stupid impressed.
I cannot do either one of those things, either. I just learned how to sew a button on not too long ago. And although I bought my daughter a costume, I did have to add some elastic to the hat so it stays. For some, it would have been a breeze. But for me, a few Sharpie marks and practice holes later, I finally got it.
Have a great Halloween!
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