Halloween is almost here . . .

I went to a Halloween party on Saturday, at the home of a friend from high school. This is a man who sets a high bar for costumes, having once attended a Hawaiian-themed dance dressed as a pineapple.

What with my jet set lifestyle and the all-consuming Sock Wars, I didn't have much time to plan or make a costume. I was hoping to find the pattern for the crayon costume that I wore in high school, but alas it has vanished. When I went to Jo-Ann fabrics and checked out the clearance section, I came across fur. 60-inch wide blue fur, for only $5 a yard. Add to this an animal suit pattern (McCall's 8953), a couple of Styrofoam balls, and you get this:

This was a very quick costume to sew, it took maybe four hours total. I love working with fabrics that don't fray--no need to finish the raw edges!!! The hood was improvised by Mom, she didn't like the three-piece hood pattern that came with the suit. It did take a long time to cut the pattern out, and I had to buy a new vacuum cleaner to deal with the blue fur that is ALL OVER THE HOUSE. Here's a close-up of the eyeballs:

Hard to tell where the face ends and the body begins, isn't it? The eyeballs are Styrofoam balls, I levelled off one side and hot-glued them to the hood. If you see my mom, don't say anything if her hair looks a little thinner than usual--the hood ended up partially glued to her hair. The pupils are black self-stick felt, and are positioned to look a little googley. At the end of the party, they may have looked a little drunk, too, but that was sheer coincidence.

Before going to the party, I stopped to show my costume to my little friend J____, and to check out her skunk outfit. She wasn't quite sure what to think about it. Once we were both dressed up, she spent a fair amount of time just staring . . . . staring . . . . staring. In some quarters, this might be considered rude, but in this case it was somewhat justified. At least she didn't openly taunt me, as did several passersby as I walked from my parking space to the party on Capitol Hill. It's been a long time since men hooted at me from a car, and it's still not particularly satisfying.



In the end, J_____ came to accept her furry blue friend, even though I brought her no cookies, and probably transferred a fair amount of fur to her skunk costume. I've seriously inhaled a ton of that fur in the last couple of days. I'm looking forward to startling the children who come trick-or-treating on Tuesday.