halloween prep
halloween is not my favorite holiday. i don't hate it or anything, but i never get super excited to line my front path with skull lights or make a tree of little white ghosts, either. nothing against skull lights or little white ghosts, but you know what i mean. my kids, however (and of course) love everything about halloween with fierce intensity. they've been talking about decorations, costume plans and trick-or-treat routes for at least two months. the costumes have gone through several different phases of sketching and planning, with my daughter finally deciding to be a particular life sized uglydoll. both my kids are huge uglydoll fans and love to draw them and make up stories about them. (my son was easier: he wanted to dress up as elvis costello, end of story.)
i told her i'd give the life sized uglydoll a try, but i couldn't promise excellent results. first, sewing is not really my thing. i can do it, but the way i do it is extremely unscientific/fly by the seat of my pants. it turned out much better than i'd hoped, though very much the aw, what a nice homemade costume kind of costume.
in case you're curious, here is what we did: we bought a couple of yards of gray fleece and a wee bit of yellow, black and cream colored fleece, a couple of yards of fusible interfacing (to give the costume a bit of stiffness,) yellow and cream colored embroidery floss, fabric glue and gray sewing thread. i had a coupon from joann's, so we spent a total of $22.50.
when we got home i laid her down on the interfacing and traced the general shape of babo around her. (ie, super unscientifically.) i cut out two identical pieces of interfacing and two pieces of fleece, then ironed the interfacing to the fleece (this part didn't work so well but it was passable - i was afraid to turn up the iron too much and melt the fleece or something else dumb i am often prone to do in these situations.) we planned it so the mouth would roughly line up with her eyes. i machine sewed the wrong sides together, leaving good sized openings for her arm holes. we flipped it right side out and added eyes with fabric glue. i stitched around the eyes with yellow embroidery floss. then i cut a large slit for the mouth and i machine stitched two long, thing pieces of black fleece on the top and bottom cuts, and we added two teeth with cream colored fleece and stitched around those with cream colored embroidery floss. i had her try it on three or four times during the process to make sure i was one the right track.
she can see through the mouth opening really well, which was a relief. i wasn't sure how that was all going to pan out. the costume comes down below her knees and she's going to wear it with a gray sweater underneath and gray tights for her legs.
she declared it 'the best costume ever' and said she'd 'never been so proud of me in her whole entire life'. dude, i never really thought about what hearing that would feel like - it's pretty excellent. it sort of even made me like halloween a little bit, though i still draw the line at any super crazy decorations. (and don't let the ones in the backround of the top photo fool you - my kids put them up by themselves. :)
Your son is my new hero for wanting to be Elvis Costello for Hallowe'en. That is way rad.
Congratulations on rockin' your supermom status!
Posted by: Melanie | October 26, 2008 at 02:42 PM
wow, compliments from your own children. That's brilliant! x
Posted by: Alice UK | October 26, 2008 at 02:59 PM
Great job on the Uglydoll costume! It's so cool! And, I agree with commenter Melanie...Elvis Costello...way, wayyyyy rad!
Posted by: Michelle | October 26, 2008 at 03:00 PM
Like the costume, love that your kids are planning their cotumes, too.
happy halloween :)
Posted by: Asiye | October 26, 2008 at 03:59 PM
Hooray! It came out awesome! I have been cursing over Sally's dress all afternoon--don't even get me started about fusible interfacing fiascos. Argh.
Posted by: Melissa Crowe | October 26, 2008 at 04:23 PM
I have no idea what an ugly doll is but that costume looks fantastic!
Something else for me to envy you for!
Posted by: KristiS | October 26, 2008 at 05:14 PM
I hope you are proud of yrself! Way to go with that costume!
Posted by: lala | October 26, 2008 at 06:06 PM
Never heard of an ugly doll, but that costume rocks. And it rocks even more that it made you Super Mama for the day - or the week. That should definitely stretch through the week. ;)
(And I'm with you on Halloween...I always drag on it. Maybe I should get some pumpkins this week? Hmn...)
Posted by: amanda | October 26, 2008 at 09:20 PM
This is so cool! Nice work. I'm not making anything this year. We actually have the costume my grandma made for me when I was three for Elise this year!
I want to see the Elvis Costello costume.
Posted by: amy h | October 26, 2008 at 10:09 PM
you get the coolest mom award.
dear me, this ugly doll is cute! and elvis costello?!?!?!
Posted by: laura dodson | October 26, 2008 at 10:28 PM
Best costume ever!
Posted by: Paintedbooklady | October 27, 2008 at 02:29 PM
Love it. That's a great costume and a very creative idea on her part. Mind you, I happen to think that Elvis Costello is also the best costume ever.
Posted by: elizabooth | October 27, 2008 at 03:12 PM
LOL...I love that costume!!!! I bet you'll get a lot of comments on it when your wondering the streets with the rest of the town's monsters.
Posted by: Gina | October 27, 2008 at 08:13 PM
i am not a big halloween fan either, but this is the greatest costume i have ever seen :)
Posted by: amisha | October 27, 2008 at 08:53 PM
OK. that is one super duper cool costume!
go jen go
Posted by: lisa s | October 28, 2008 at 12:05 AM
oh. my. goodness.
this is the best thing i have seen in a long time.
Posted by: Lori | October 28, 2008 at 12:34 AM
Oh this is so so so good. I know what it feels like to hear you kid tell you you are the best. It's wonderful and worth all the work. You are such a great mom. Most of the Mom's at our school just buy their costumes on the internet. I love homemade Halloween. Some very cool decorations are fun but I know what you mean. Memphis' room has been decked out for a month and a 1/2 now and I am ready for them to go but she just keeps making more and more all the time. What a fantastic costume....wow. Memphis' would LOVE it. xoxoxo
Posted by: Dawn | October 28, 2008 at 02:51 AM
simple, like a ghost, and yet...brilliant!
love it!!!!
Posted by: jess | October 28, 2008 at 07:37 AM
absolutely adorable. great job!!
Posted by: Pam | October 28, 2008 at 08:05 AM
I think it's so fun to help the kids decorate and dress up for Halloween. They're excited and it just sort of spills out over onto me. My kids are all teens, but they remember things I did with them when they were little that I never thought of much.
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Posted by: Total Transformation | October 28, 2008 at 10:54 PM
Wow..! I love that Halloween costume.
Posted by: Lorelei | November 01, 2008 at 06:57 AM
jen - you really outdid yourself. it is fantastic!
Posted by: erin | November 01, 2008 at 08:56 AM
This is the best costume...ever. I wouldn't mind an adult-size for me please.
Posted by: Jen | November 03, 2008 at 02:26 PM
This made me laugh out loud. Thanks for the giggle.
Posted by: kburklin | November 07, 2008 at 09:57 PM
This is so funny! I love that they wanted to be something other than power rangers or the cast of high school musical. (My kids don't know them, but we saw many this Halloween.) The complement is awesome. When I buttoned my daughter's coat today, she said, "Thanks, Mom. You're the best."
Anna
Posted by: Lasso the Moon | November 09, 2008 at 06:52 PM