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Monday, November 2, 2009

Fabric, Pins, and Thread- Oh My!

For the week and half before Halloween, I was measuring, cutting, and sewing like a fiend. I could feel the sanity seeping away the closer Halloween got. I thought things were going swimmingly with two costumes done, and two costumes that only needed sewing by Wednesday night. Sewing is the easy part, after all. It's the cutting and measuring and pinning that'll drive ya crazy. Mostly the pinning. Eek!

Then it happened. My sewing machine is a 1960something Singer Zig-Zag 457. It's a very good, industrial strength little machine that would probably sew through your bone if your finger made it's way under the needle. Unfortunately, there is one little gear in these machines that are notorious for breaking because they are made of plastic. While I was winding the bobbin for my Bear's costume, I heard this loud crunching, shattering sound. The bobbin wheel would no longer spin for thread catching. My boyfriend opened up the machine, and we discovered tiny bits of translucent orange plastic shards littering the interior of my machine. I almost started crying. I did do some cussing. But, instead of throwing a tantrum, I grabbed Bear's fabric pieces, the thread spool, and a needle to begin channeling all the anger and frustration into the productivity of getting the project done. I had one shoulder to ankle seam done within less than 15 min, and straightly stitched even! Then I tapered down and only finished half the oppostie side seam that night before going to bed. I finished Bear's costume by Friday morning, thanks to other chores and school runs.

Jeremy's sister blessedly loaned us her machine. She said she'd never sewed anything with it anyway cause she didn't know how to use it. We got it home very late Friday night, thanks to the required Ellensburg drive. I threaded the machine, inserted a bobbin, and realized the thread wouldn't catch. Once Jeremy got home from his closing shift at Lowe's, we found out somebody had inserted the pieces that hold the bobbin casing in wrong at some point. Jeremy got things lined up right, and PRESTO! We were in business. His poor sister thought she just didn't know how to do it, but it's the machine's fault this whole time. Or rather, the previous owner's fault.

I finished the final costume, just in time for Trick-or-Treating Saturday night. So, here are the pics from our Halloween. Bug went as a demon. Pix went as a fairy. Bear went as a cow. Potato went as Boo from Monster's Inc. All costumes were created without patterns, and with much senility.

The night started off right at a buddy's house, who unloaded quite the bounty on my babies.
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This house had the entire front yard done up.
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We drove through Old Town on our way to a Halloween/Bday party. These people covered the majority of their porch with carved delights.
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RAAWWWRR!!
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Bug with our friend, Joey as a vampiress.
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Mom, stop putting my hood on!
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Our very good buddy Rory was there with his wife and two kids. He didn't dress up, but let's say he's a lumberjack, k?
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I made all six kids group together for a pic. I took several, and this is the best one. Kids, jeesh.
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I'm a COW!! Moooooo! *jingle jingle*
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Balloons. Who doesn't love them? If you don't, be quiet and rain elsewhere.
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This photo cracks me up! She's such a clown.
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Jeremy got cornered entertaining the drunks.
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Apparently the kitchen was the hot place to be. (Get it? Kitchen. Hot. haha) Potato was playing the Keeper of Cool by keeping out the riff raff.
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Bug found HUGE rice krispie treats, which even she was unable to finish.
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While I spent the day sewing up monsters, Jeremy and the kids worked on pumpkins. Jeremy and Bug get going on these witty backhand schpeels that make me just go AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! This of course happened while gutting pumpkins (not penguins like I originally typed. What the? Even messier than pumpkins.).

Pix designed this vampire pumpkin at Bear's request. She's so good.
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This kitty one, I took a minute to design for Pix after she made several attempts at great designs that just weren't carver friendly.
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Bug designed this one.
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Jeremy did this Jack Skellington inspired pumpkin.
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On that note of skeletons and varied faces, I leave you with shots of my makeup for the evening, and a disturbing photo of Jeremy in costume.
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I'm still creeped out by this one.
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1 comment:

Witchcrafted Life said...

You did a marvelous job with those costumes, they're just adorable! Thank you for sharing so many of your wonderful Halloween snaps, it really looks like you had a blast (amazing make-up jobs, wow!).


Tons of thanks for comments, honey, it's wonderful to meet you! :)
♥ Jessica