night of the soul stealer

Hallowe'en fell on our weekend to have the kids this year. This was actually fun. Well, I say that now that it's over anyway. A week ago, not so fun.

You see, along with having the kids for Hallowe'en meant that we were responsible for the kids' costumes. Truthfully, I think we were going to be responsible for them even if it wasn't our year—their mom doesn't sew and we both do. And this year, the girls wanted homemade costumes. Because Dec has done that for the Boy the last couple of years. Tomboy wanted to be an evil sorceress, and Princess wanted to be a protector of the throne. Fortunately, those are the same costume, just with different accessories.

Initially, Dec borrowed a dress that we were going to use for Tomboy, but he couldn't find one that fit right for Princess. So we bought material for her dress and both of their cloaks. It was all going to be grand. Until we didn't start sewing their costumes.

So, last Friday, I cut out cloaks and sewed them together. As will make the Momma proud, I stayed up until two in the morning. This was because I knew I had to spend Saturday working on the dress if we were going to get it sewed and fitted to Princess while we had them last weekend. And I was not looking forward to the fitting. Though others caution me otherwise, I still think it will be nice once the girls have hit puberty and we don't have to try and fit dresses to their oddly shaped prepubescent bodies. (Seriously, their waists are the same size as mine. So not fun.)

But that didn't happen according to plan, though I did have a dress put together by Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, too much time was spent helping Boy with his homework to figure out how best to fit said dress to Princess. However, with the initial fitting, I did discover that the dress actually hung on her in such a way as to hide the fact that she's got a round belly and no other curves.

So Monday morning, Dec and I went to the fabric store to get material for a dress for Tomboy. You see, I never liked the dress we borrowed for her. The navy of the dress clashed with the navy of the cloak, and since they were both velvetlike materials, eww. Plus, the clinginess of the dress made Tomboy look pregnant, and I just wasn't happy with the narrative we'd have to create to explain a ten-year-old, pregnant, evil sorceress.

Continuing on, then, Dec and I spent an hour and a half at the fabric store. The bulk of this time was spent arguing over material and color. FWIW, I won. Because I'm always right. He will claim compromise, but you must bear in mind that fuschia is more similar to plum than it is to navy. A good portion of our time there was also spent trying to find our pattern and fabric samples that we had left in our cart but that some domestic ho bag had decided to walk off with. Oh, and then there were the snarky comments made in reference to some women's capacity to mother children considering said woman was allowing her daughter to take every single spool of serger thread of the rack and play with them like dolls. And not chide her for her misbehavior. (What can I say? When the bitch comes out, the bitch comes out.)

I then spent the next two days sewing at my mom's, so that we could surprise Tomboy with her dress and figure out how to fit and finish Princess's dress.

In the end, it all rocked out. Their haul was good, even if, ultimately, it was insufficient to cover the candy tax for their costumes. :) And I'm even posting pictures to prove it.



Oh. You may be wondering about the Boy's costume. He didn't get one. You see, he's thirteen. And as I was raised, Thou Shalt Not Trick-or-Treat After Twelve. So I invoked said rule. He connived and manipulated himself around the rule by arranging a Hallowe'en sleepover with his friend ("We've been planning this for months") wherein they trick-or-treated anyway. Punishment will be forthcoming. When he least expects it. (Though I don't imagine I'll wait until next Hallowe'en to mete out said punishment like the Momma did with Lil Bro when he violated the Rule.)