Sewing the costume
It probably wasn’t a good idea to make my daughter’s Halloween costume my first sewing project outside of the one class I took over ten years ago (where I learned how to sew a tote bag!), or to try to make it without using a pattern but instead just skimmed some DIY blogs and started sewing less than a week before Halloween, but I did it anyway. Did it come out perfect? No. Did it come out great? No. It came out ok – I did the best I could do in the time I had, with the resources available. Sounds a lot like first time parenting, doesn’t it?
The whole thing was a series of mistakes and re-dos. I felt like I was in a terrible sitcom because one bad thing happened after another, in progressing order. First, there was the materials. I made multiple trips to craft and fabric stores to piece together the plan in my mind (and Pinterest board). I haven’t totaled it up yet, but I think I spent more money than I would have if I bought the costume on Etsy. Next, I was sleep deprived. Because I was up past midnight several nights in a row, I was exhausted. I sewed and took apart the costume a few times, and finally on the last day (Halloween), when I was pushing the material through, my sewing machine broke. Somehow, my (middle) finger managed to get too close and got caught under the needle and broke it off. I was bleeding and started cursing, crying, and laughing. “Should I go to the doctor? When did I have my last tetanus shot?” where a few things going through my mind. “I need to finish this costume” was the adrenaline that helped me ignore the pain. I rinsed off my finger with hydrogen peroxide and wrapped it in gauze and medical tape and finished what I could by hand.
The costume came out looking decent, and I am glad I did it. There’s something about being a mom that brings out my inner Martha Stewart. I did it for myself, and used the holiday and my daughter as motivation to learn how to sew. After all, my 19 month old has no clue what Halloween is, and has no wardrobe preferences in general. I do plan on finishing it, or re-sewing a better version based on what I learned. Hopefully, I’ll still have all ten digits when I’m through! (Update: I went to the doctor yesterday, and my finger has no signs of infection. I am up-to-date on all my vaccines as well).
Trick-or-Treating with Friends
Last year, my new mom friend Melissa, invited a few other mom friends and their babies over on Halloween for an informal get-together. The babies were barely crawling, and all we had to worry about was them rolling too far. This year, we went trick-or-treating to a few houses and the husbands joined too! It was really cute to see all the kids together (when we could get them all together), especially in costume.
Handing out candy
I took a shift handing out candy at Melissa’s house. I haven’t handed out candy since I was in high school. I found it quite amusing. Most kids are used to just walking up and opening their bag and getting candy, so when I asked a few of them questions they were thrown off. I guessed some of the costumes out loud. When I didn’t know what one was, I asked. Some kids responded with “I DON’T KNOW.” Um, how can you not know what your costume is??? I told them if they were going to dress up and ask me for candy, they needed to have an answer. Haha. Then, I started to age myself. A kid came up dressed in dark rimmed glasses and pants up his waist. I said, “Urkel”. He looked at me quizzically and said, “Who?” I said “You don’t know who Urkel is? What are you dressed as?” He said, “A Nerd.” I told him, “Same difference!” Oy. And the only reason why I guessed all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes correctly is because I watched (and was a fan of) the original 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and cartoon series!
I think my daughter had more fun handing out candy than she did trick-or-treating. She sat on my lap and enthusiastically handed out candy and smiled at each person. One little boy cracked me up when he said, “Thank you tiny, baby!”
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