Tag Archives: homemade costumes

FIRST PANDEMIC HALLOWEEN

OCTOBER 22, 2020

The announcement from the Premier of Ontario says that Halloween is not possible this year. We are being asked to celebrate at home.

 

 

Families that celebrate Halloween have Halloween traditions. After  moving house five times over the years, we live in a neighbourhood with lots of young children. Even though our kids are grown there is never any question, we keep the lights on and shell out. Our outdoor decorations are set up weeks before and it is the same for indoors, with a little bit of a haunted house theme such as a shrieking bat that is motion sensitive, when activated it lets out a spooky dirge; bend-able skeletons, large and small; candle holders that have cut-off hands for the base, that kind of thing.

Our own ‘kids’ come over to help at the door and we each have one pumpkin to carve before dinner. The design and carving does turn into a friendly competition. Dinner is not elaborate, two large homemade pizzas, one veg and the other one meat.

Jim and I bought some top hats at Frankie Sez in Jordan Station and Beau Chapeau in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario a few years back, so we dress-up in the steam-punk fashion, all in black. Our dog wears a sweater with a squirrel on it, she doesn’t know it’s there but her favourite sport is running after squirrels.

Treats at the door are always small bags of chips and miniature candy, Mars, Twix and Snickers chocolate bars, Rockets, Tootsie Rolls and M&M’s. The piano bench, set up in the foyer is where a Grip-Stand 6 litre bowl, like the one my mother used to bake bread, holds the candy. We use to pre-package the treats, with individual bags before that became environmentally unfriendly.

Wine is poured for neighbours that we know, they walk along and sip with their friends while their kids run to the doors. The wine glasses make it back to us eventually.

Older children at our door wear costumes that demonstrate their  imaginative minds are on fire, expressed in their homemade costumes. It changes from year to year, but the tradition that  kids  ‘wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve’ is prevalent every year.

When I was a child, I did not feel the anticipation and excitement for Halloween.  I wore store bought vacuum-formed plastic masks, held to my face with an elastic stretched across the back of my head, and a bargain-store satin gown tied at the waist over a snow jacket. I think one year was an attempt at Snow White! There wasn’t any question as to what the weather would be like. Growing up in Ottawa, Halloween was a cold weather event. Trick or Treat was for kids; we definitely did not go out once we were teenagers.

My father, growing up poor in 1932 Montreal often recalled a Halloween experience from when was young. He walked up to a door. Someone was giving out pennies.  Heated pennies dropped in his palm and burnt his hands. We certainly do not go in for that kind of thing either.

Another tradition in our family was that I sewed Halloween costumes for my kids when they were small. I welcomed that yearly project. The first one was a clown costume for our daughter; she had not started nursery school and didn’t know what Halloween was. It was really our idea to get her started. I made the costume a little large, thinking that she could wear it the next year as well. Oh the ideas that come from young mothers! That didn’t happen, Halloween is a new opportunity for dress-up every year.

Her costume was practical; a one-piece step-in that was tied at the neck. She wouldn’t be inconvenienced by anything uncomfortable for the sake of drama. She dismissed the ruffled collar immediately.  The fabric was a paint drip and fluorescent white stars on cotton; there was room to layer her clothing underneath to stay warm, because the weather did fluctuate drastically from year to year in Southern Ontario.

Clown

 

Vintage McCall’s pattern

1986, chid size 2-6

 

 

 

 

 

*Rickrack trim is sewn to the hem of the sleeves and legs. The gathered neckline has elastic in a casing that ties at the back with bias tape ties. Narrow hems finish the two layers of the collar. A casing is created to run a braid through that gathers the collar. Pom-pons are made from scratch with lightweight cardboard. Pom-pon kits did not exist thirty years ago.

 

My experience is mostly Toronto based because that is when my kids were the right age for trick or treating. After they were grown and we first moved to our most recent home, ten years ago, there were two neighbouring houses that did a joint haunted house. It was a fundraiser for juvenile diabetes and people came from all over the city. In those years we shelled out for over four hundred kids each year.

Children learn about their world through play with toys that mirror their parent’s work. The range that includes miniature garden tools, toy cars, dishes and dolls, kitchen equipment and electronics is broad and striking.

Clothing construction for a child is a miniature version of adult clothing. The garments have the same hallmarks of clothing construction whether it’s zippers in jeans, collar and cuffs, tailoring features on shirts or pleated skirts. The difference, unless for a formal occasion, is that the fabric is geared towards prints that reflect their interests and easy care fabrics for everyday wear.

If you would like like to learn to sew, a child’s garment is a good place to start. The fitting is less complicated than for an adult and you will learn the same sewing skills. Children are not demanding customers. The have no expectation of perfectly turned collars or exacting measures, and will be proud to wear something that mum or dad, auntie or uncle, or some other teen or older friend made ‘just for them’.

The project carries less weight for success because smaller yardages are required; there isn’t the investment of expensive fabric that could be a barrier to learning because of the fear of failure. Children outgrow their clothing quickly while your sewing skills grow along with them.

To begin with you will learn about sewing-pattern instructions, fabric cutting layouts, yardages, suggested fabrics and notions, for the garment you are going to sew. A child’s costume is quite often rated Very Easy, so the project will be finished quickly. I don’t tend to do seam finishes for something that will have little wear.

In general there are repeating clothing construction techniques that appear in more than one costume shown here.

Raglan sleeve: clown, bird and bat

Bias tape casings: a channel for ¼ inch elastic at wrists and legs: clown, bird, dinosaur, ladybug, and bat

Rompers long length: clown, dinosaur

Rompers short length: ladybug, bat

Front zip: bird, dinosaur

Hoods: (sewing a straight piece of fabric to a curved piece) bird, dinosaur, ladybug, bat, Grim Reaper and Batman

Velcro® tape for shoulder closure: ladybug, bat

Appliqué: Donatello, dinosaur, ladybug, ninja and Batman

Cotton fabric: clown, bird, Donatello, dinosaur, ladybug, and bat

Satin fabric: Ninja, Grim Reaper and Batman

Where the costumes details are unique, it is mentioned below the pictures for each costume and marked with an asterisk.

The Bird

 

Vintage McCalls pattern

1988, child size 5-6

 

 

 

 

 

I did not design their costumes.

They are finicky and time consuming to sew without starting from scratch with pattern making.

 

 

 

 

*The hood has a “beak” visor with three narrow tucks, button eyes, and a felt three-colour comb. The structure comes from a loop of pipe cleaner stitched in a channel of the comb.

The scalloped felt-wings are sewn to the costume at the neckline and raglan sleeve seam line.

 

Donatello

 

Vintage Butterick pattern

1990, child size Small

 

 

 

 

 

*Elbow, wrist and kneepads are filled with polyester fiberfill; there is quilting detail and 1¼ inch elastic is enclosed in fabric bands. Felt belt with belt loop.

 

The Dinosaur

Vintage McCall’s pattern

1987, child size 6X

 

 

 

 

 

I learned that there is the risk that young children will change their minds about their costume several times. It only takes a slight critical comment or a facial grimace, from another child to ravel a decision for the sake of fitting in or approval from a best friend. One solution is to involve your child in the process, choosing fabric and notions; and a hand at the sewing, so they can say “we made it” together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*A length of fabric stitched and turned for the tail. Felt “feet” shoe covers have elastic at the ankle and zigzag cut edge. The sleeve cuffs are felt with a cut zigzag hem. The sleeve is a drop shoulder style, sewn with the same technique as a kimono sleeve.

 

The Ladybug 

Vintage Butterick Pattern

1990, child size 5-6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*For the wings, interfacing is fused to the fabric to create stiffness. The wings are stitched on a curve, trimmed and clipped before turning right side out.

 

The Bat

 

Vintage Butterick pattern

1990, child size 6-7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*The bat wings with four curved edges for each one are enclosed in the sleeve under arm and side seam. Ears are enclosed in the darts on the hood.

 

The Ninja

Vintage Simplicity Pattern

1993, child size 5-6

 

 

 

 

 

 

*The satin tunic has a neckline facing, a slash in the back neckline that ties with satin twill tape and satin rope tie belt.

 

The Grim Reaper 

 

Vintage Simplicity Pattern

1993, child size 10-12

 

 

 

 

 

 

*The collar is felt with a cut zigzag hem and a red satin ribbon for the ties. The satin hood pulls over the head and has a cut zigzag hem. The leg wraps have HeatnBond® to stiffen the fabric and satin twill tape for the ties.

 

Batman 

 

all ages, all sizes

 

 

 

 

 

 

*The ninja, Grim Reaper and Batman are sewn with satin, a slippery fabric. It requires more advance sewing skills to keep the seams lined up and even as the fabric is run through the sewing machine.

While the response to a handmade costume was supportive from some friends and parents to sewing things like this for children, there were an equal amount of derogative jabs made towards me for choosing to ded-icate time to these projects. The unoriginal term, Suzy Homemaker, drawn from 1960s children’s household toys comes to mind. It is an infantilizing, dismissive and derisive reference to any woman (but never made to men) with habits linked to domestic activities where women traditionally do the work. The SH term is a cutt-ing remark, just as it was intended. At the very least seamstress, tailor or stitcher would have been nice to hear. I had the years of design training.

I wonder about the motive to put someone down. In part it came from jealousy or regret, for choices made in how to spend ones working hours that negates time put to other uses. Time, like a pumpkin pie can only be sliced into so many pieces before the slices are just too thin to be of any use.

My mother-in-law used to say, “We all have different ways of earning a living and different ways to spend it.”

Once we realized Covid-19 had gelled across the world, it had become nearly impossible to buy a sewing machine. The wait lists are long for all price points. People are returning to traditional projects, brushing up on sewing skills or learning to stitch for the first time. Some have the fantasy, from watching TV shows about The Making of Things, that they can become the next best sewist (new word combination of sewing and artist) and assume their idea is scalable without learning the breadth of construction that fills volumes.

The only adult size costume, an original design, that I have made was a Cookie Monster costume for my husband when we were in university in Kingston. I have never made a costume for myself.  On revisiting my work here I find the Clown costume is holding a lot of appeal. Next year Pierrot in a top hat might be shelling out at my door.

Happy Halloween everyone!