Halloweeniness...
(pictures can be clicked for larger version)
I had meant to get started on Halloween stuff earlier, but then John got sick and had to go to the emergency room again, and I was kept hopping looking after him and everything else. I spent a good part of Sunday afternoon just digging around my room looking for the purple shorts I knew I had, that Gareth needed for his costume (Edd [Double D] of the cartoon Ed, Edd & Eddy - that's him in my icon). Then I pulled out my mom's sewing machine and found that one of the latches to the box was locked shut. I had no clue where the key was, so after after jiggling the lock with hairpins and whatnot, I resigned myself to jimmying it. However, the next time I tried the latch, it popped right open. After the pumpkin patch, I got busy on what I thought would be short work - sewing two white stripes on his black stocking hat. I plugged in the machine, then plugged in the foot pedal. You must understand it's been years since I played with this thing. Stepped on the pedal and the needle moved obligingly up and down at varying speeds. I had turned away for a moment to pick out some thread, when Gareth who's watching me intently says "What's that smell?" right about the same time the needle begins sewing on its own, faster and faster, and smoke starts coming out the back where the pedal is plugged in. I hurriedly unplug the whole thing. Well, that one needs to be serviced.
My own sewing machine, an ancient Singer my mom gave me when she acquired the previous one and probably at least thirty years old, was out in the garage. It hadn't been used in far longer, and I had my doubts as to whether it would even run. But I had John get it down off the shelf. Plugged it in, had to figure out the pedal (apparently designed for one toe, the button is so small, or else all women were assumed to have extremely small feet, as well as wearing very pointy shoes), and everything seemed to work properly, despite long disuse. I threaded the needle and the bobbin, put the edge of the hat under the foot and lowered it, then put my big toe on the pedal. The needle moved up and down, but now the fabric refused to advance even with the encouragement of pulling it, probably because it was thick knitted stuff. I tried turning the wheel by hand, and that seemed to work, so I continued doing that for both stripes. By the time I was done with both stripes, my shoulder ached a little. They looked a little crooked (ok, a lot crooked), but they're squiggly on Edd's cartoon hat, too, so I figured that was ok, and Gareth thought so too. He went to bed satisfied. (
Now to Angus's costume. I used the machine to sew a stripe of rickrack down the center of the wide gold ribbon that was to serve as wristbands and a belt; however, it decided to now show its age and would only sew a couple of stitches a second (very slowly). I gave up on it for any more sewing and turned to the glue gun. I had cut circle of felt for the collar and a narrow truncated triangle for the belt. Some more rickrack, some gold binding, glitter fabric paint, plastic jewels and glass beads did it. I had a minor accident with the original jewel that forms the bird's body; the glue gun was set on high, slightly less than the temperature of molten lava, and as I applied a bead of glue to back, it dripped down and stuck to my left middle finger. I yelped and grabbed the jewel with my other hand to yank it off, and managed to get it on my right thumb. Finally the thing went flying to gods know where - I still haven't found it - and I cooled my new blisters under the tap in the sink and selected a different jewel. This one cooperated. (non sequiter - And now I know - although it fascinates me and I'd really love to try it sometime, something tells me I'm not cut out for lampwork.)
I added the last of the gold ribbon to the top of the belt triangle, green ribbon from the ribbon scraps, the last of the rickrack and a couple more jewels, and viola! I managed to avoid any more burns this time.*
The lame' for the headdress I wound up just folding in quarters and securing with the circlet. Little Velcro circles held everything together, and since the sewing machines were kaput, I just stapled them on. They had some sticky on them so I stuck them to the circlet too, but they didn't stay very well there. All the pieces went over a large men's tshirt that came down to his knees. The sleeves were a bit long, but I rolled them up a couple of times and it looked fine.
I put a bit of eyeliner on his eyes; he kept squinching them shut very tightly so I couldn't, until I told him that millions of women do this every day without squinching. He added, "And millions of Egyptians did too!" And lo, the Pharaoh weareth kohl. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
(close-up here)
I feel a little guilty that Avalon's costume was so simple, but she seemed very happy with it. She'd had a pair of monarch wings for awhile, so I got her an orange tshirt and ironed on some flowers and butterflies. I found some orange and black floofy ponytail holders with beads, so she wore both of those and I attached some pipecleaner antennae to them. And a pair of black pants. At least it was warm and none of them had to wear jackets.
Just before we left on their candy collecting expedition, we heard a falsetto voice coming up the walk - "Trick or treat!" John opened the door and found a witch with a green face, feathered hat and long cape, who tried to come in the door. He blocked her way and was about to get angry, "Why are you coming in my house?!" when he noticed his grandmother behind her snickering. It was his mother - they'd come over to see the kid's costumes and give Gareth a birthday present. So we have the obligatory group shot...
I kept having to adjust Angus's headpiece while he was trick or treating; finally it came completely unfolded, so I just stuck it back on with the circlet over the top. It looked more Arabic than Egyptian then, but by that point we were almost done, and he was too tired to notice.
Everyone got about a pound and half of candy apiece (almost gone now, amazingly, although we did try to ration it out), and all were happy with their costumes. Gareth forget to take Mildred (a large plastic spider in a jar labeled "Mildred") with him, so he insists he wants to be Double D next year too. We'll see.
You Are a Little Scary
You've got a nice edge to you. Use it.
How Scary Are You?
*John tells me later - "whaddya mean, it burned you? I get that stuff on my fingers all the time and it doesn't hurt me!" Well, he's a chef - he can stick his fingers in boiling water and poke them with very sharp knives with little effect, he's got such thick calluses.
I had meant to get started on Halloween stuff earlier, but then John got sick and had to go to the emergency room again, and I was kept hopping looking after him and everything else. I spent a good part of Sunday afternoon just digging around my room looking for the purple shorts I knew I had, that Gareth needed for his costume (Edd [Double D] of the cartoon Ed, Edd & Eddy - that's him in my icon). Then I pulled out my mom's sewing machine and found that one of the latches to the box was locked shut. I had no clue where the key was, so after after jiggling the lock with hairpins and whatnot, I resigned myself to jimmying it. However, the next time I tried the latch, it popped right open. After the pumpkin patch, I got busy on what I thought would be short work - sewing two white stripes on his black stocking hat. I plugged in the machine, then plugged in the foot pedal. You must understand it's been years since I played with this thing. Stepped on the pedal and the needle moved obligingly up and down at varying speeds. I had turned away for a moment to pick out some thread, when Gareth who's watching me intently says "What's that smell?" right about the same time the needle begins sewing on its own, faster and faster, and smoke starts coming out the back where the pedal is plugged in. I hurriedly unplug the whole thing. Well, that one needs to be serviced.
My own sewing machine, an ancient Singer my mom gave me when she acquired the previous one and probably at least thirty years old, was out in the garage. It hadn't been used in far longer, and I had my doubts as to whether it would even run. But I had John get it down off the shelf. Plugged it in, had to figure out the pedal (apparently designed for one toe, the button is so small, or else all women were assumed to have extremely small feet, as well as wearing very pointy shoes), and everything seemed to work properly, despite long disuse. I threaded the needle and the bobbin, put the edge of the hat under the foot and lowered it, then put my big toe on the pedal. The needle moved up and down, but now the fabric refused to advance even with the encouragement of pulling it, probably because it was thick knitted stuff. I tried turning the wheel by hand, and that seemed to work, so I continued doing that for both stripes. By the time I was done with both stripes, my shoulder ached a little. They looked a little crooked (ok, a lot crooked), but they're squiggly on Edd's cartoon hat, too, so I figured that was ok, and Gareth thought so too. He went to bed satisfied. (
Now to Angus's costume. I used the machine to sew a stripe of rickrack down the center of the wide gold ribbon that was to serve as wristbands and a belt; however, it decided to now show its age and would only sew a couple of stitches a second (very slowly). I gave up on it for any more sewing and turned to the glue gun. I had cut circle of felt for the collar and a narrow truncated triangle for the belt. Some more rickrack, some gold binding, glitter fabric paint, plastic jewels and glass beads did it. I had a minor accident with the original jewel that forms the bird's body; the glue gun was set on high, slightly less than the temperature of molten lava, and as I applied a bead of glue to back, it dripped down and stuck to my left middle finger. I yelped and grabbed the jewel with my other hand to yank it off, and managed to get it on my right thumb. Finally the thing went flying to gods know where - I still haven't found it - and I cooled my new blisters under the tap in the sink and selected a different jewel. This one cooperated. (non sequiter - And now I know - although it fascinates me and I'd really love to try it sometime, something tells me I'm not cut out for lampwork.)
I added the last of the gold ribbon to the top of the belt triangle, green ribbon from the ribbon scraps, the last of the rickrack and a couple more jewels, and viola! I managed to avoid any more burns this time.*
The lame' for the headdress I wound up just folding in quarters and securing with the circlet. Little Velcro circles held everything together, and since the sewing machines were kaput, I just stapled them on. They had some sticky on them so I stuck them to the circlet too, but they didn't stay very well there. All the pieces went over a large men's tshirt that came down to his knees. The sleeves were a bit long, but I rolled them up a couple of times and it looked fine.
I put a bit of eyeliner on his eyes; he kept squinching them shut very tightly so I couldn't, until I told him that millions of women do this every day without squinching. He added, "And millions of Egyptians did too!" And lo, the Pharaoh weareth kohl. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
(close-up here)
I feel a little guilty that Avalon's costume was so simple, but she seemed very happy with it. She'd had a pair of monarch wings for awhile, so I got her an orange tshirt and ironed on some flowers and butterflies. I found some orange and black floofy ponytail holders with beads, so she wore both of those and I attached some pipecleaner antennae to them. And a pair of black pants. At least it was warm and none of them had to wear jackets.
Just before we left on their candy collecting expedition, we heard a falsetto voice coming up the walk - "Trick or treat!" John opened the door and found a witch with a green face, feathered hat and long cape, who tried to come in the door. He blocked her way and was about to get angry, "Why are you coming in my house?!" when he noticed his grandmother behind her snickering. It was his mother - they'd come over to see the kid's costumes and give Gareth a birthday present. So we have the obligatory group shot...
I kept having to adjust Angus's headpiece while he was trick or treating; finally it came completely unfolded, so I just stuck it back on with the circlet over the top. It looked more Arabic than Egyptian then, but by that point we were almost done, and he was too tired to notice.
Everyone got about a pound and half of candy apiece (almost gone now, amazingly, although we did try to ration it out), and all were happy with their costumes. Gareth forget to take Mildred (a large plastic spider in a jar labeled "Mildred") with him, so he insists he wants to be Double D next year too. We'll see.
You Are a Little Scary
You've got a nice edge to you. Use it.
How Scary Are You?
*John tells me later - "whaddya mean, it burned you? I get that stuff on my fingers all the time and it doesn't hurt me!" Well, he's a chef - he can stick his fingers in boiling water and poke them with very sharp knives with little effect, he's got such thick calluses.