Monday, November 12, 2007

Trick Or Treat

The whole 'choosing a Halloween costume' experience was a little less than smooth for us this year. Bekah decided that she wanted to be Fairytale Dora and Noah decided on Scooby Doo. So, I went online to discount costume warehouses and started comparison shopping.

The first problem arose when I found out that the Fairytale Dora costume had been discontinued. Any website that listed it in their inventory was followed by a notice of 'currently unavailable'. Each time I would get my hopes up, and then they would be dashed! Why don't they just take it off the site entirely?! It is no longer being produced....it isn't like they are going to get more in stock!

Upon a suggestion from my friend, Audra, I decided to buy a Belle costume and try to alter it. I am not enough of a seamstress that I could tackle making a costume from scratch, and although my Mom was coming for a visit, she was looking after our kids for four days (while we went to Vegas) and I didn't want to burden her with making a costume too!

Well, the costumes arrived and I was sorely disappointed. They were flimsy and cheaply made. I investigated returning them, but the shipping costs to do so just didn't make it worth while.

The Scooby Doo was supposed to be a size 6, and it barely fit Noah is is wearing a size 4-5. The Belle was the same deal....barely able to fit a small 2 year old, despite the fact that it was a size 4!

So, Belle got tossed into the costume trunk to play with....when it wouldn't have to fit over outerwear and we decided to make due with the Skimpy Scooby.

Now, what to do about Dora?!

Mom to the rescue...she decided to make one. We bought the fabrics for an affordable price and Nana went to work. Complications arose (no surprise there...considering how things were already going!) and Nana didn't finish the costume and had to take it back to Canada with her. Kevin picked it up there when he visited about 2 weeks later. Dora ended up with lace sleeves instead of fabric, because some ripping apart and re-sewing ended up causing a shortage of fabric. Sigh......

Well, all in all Dora turned out wonderfully, and Bekah was thrilled!



Here is the Skimpy Scooby....it actually looks kind of cute in the photo. Too bad it wasn't as good in person! It already has come apart on a seam!

This is Fairytale Dora. The hat caused another whole drama. I made the hat out of foam covered in fabric. The hair is made of pipe cleaners that I rolled around a shot glass to give them the look of loose curls. It looked really cute, but it was SO heavy with the weight of the pipe cleaners that it wouldn't stay on her head!

You can see in this picture that Scooby is holding Dora's hat in place so it doesn't fall off! The hat only lasted as long at it took to take these photos. It didn't even make it out of the house..... I quickly did a swap and put a pink cone hat on Dora. It was one that was in the afore mentioned costume trunk. It was cute, but it didn't have any hair on it. That one lasted for half of our street and then I ended up carrying it.
The sad thing is, my kids probably won't even remember how hard I tried!

3 comments:

Patti said...

That is hilarious. I love how Noah is still trying to pose while holding up that massive hat :)

Mom said...

That hat is unbelievable! It is half the size of Bekah. . .it is at least one-half again bigger than the cute pink one from Vegas. I think we can do better when you come. Bring some scraps of yellow when you come; and, of course, I have a ton of lace left from my sewing projects for my children . . . surprise, surprise!!

Mom said...

Thanks for cleaning up my comments!Kathy is here and is laughing hysterically at the "small" hat! She said she thinks "Bekah could live in it!"
Love reading your 'stuff', hope I now have the hang of this commenting situation.