06 October, 2010

The Halloween Purist

1982 - Me, in my Grandma's curtains.

Let's take a vote. Halloween costumes: handmade or store bought?

I'm not trying to be a snob, but I feel very deeply that a Halloween costume MUST be homemade. It doesn't have to be fancy, it can be done up with duct tape, permanent marker, and cardboard. But what is the fun of buying a costume?

I remember my days at Colene Hoose Elementary School in Normal, Illinois. Every year the Halloween parade was one of those days you looked forward to. And I mean you really looked forward to it. Until I came across these pictures, store bought costumes had no place in my memory of those days, but now that I look closer I see a lot of flimsy plastic masks.

Brian Bastion - 1982

Gail, Stacie - 1982



















(Do you see that awesome green station wagon behind the clown? That's ours. And the red-leafed tree at the end of the driveway? I still remember the smell of rotten crabapples.)

Maybe I'm a purist. Maybe I'm a martyr. Or maybe I just feel I need to prove to everyone I'm a good Mom, even if in my wake I cause a lot of suffering and misery.

Mae will be Dorothy this year and Bela will be the Good Witch Glinda. Not that they have ever seen The Wizard of Oz, but they somehow know through cultural osmosis that these women are, in fact, important. And they want to be them.

That leaves open the Wicked Witch of the West for me (appropriate). Chris, instead of the obvious choice of The Wizard himself, would prefer to be my wicked companion.

We will be using dress E for Mae (bottom left) and dress B (center) for Bela:
Butterick B4320


Which means......I'd better get sewing. 

What are you going to be for Halloween?????

5 comments:

  1. Harper shared her list of ideas with me today; a piece of cheese, a vending machine (candy of course), or a scarcrow. I will keep you posted as to what I have to make=)

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  2. I think Chris should go as one of the witch's flying monkeys. "Fly my pretties, fly!"

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  3. Which grandma's curtains? I thought I just bought them. What I really liked were your false eyelashes. It was a wonder that you could even open your eyes.

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  4. I thought those were grandma ellis' curtains. Or did she just assemble the outfit? Or was she not involved at all? You're ruining my story!

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  5. I made that costume. I'm sure if Grandma E made it she would have inserted pockets for "tissues and change" and would have been a keepsake. Since I have so little talent sewing-wise, I'm grabbing credit whenever I can. ;>)

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