“This is where the fun begins.” – Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith
Padawan Learner has picked his costume out for Halloween and he is going to be Neo from The Matrix. I just finished cutting out the material for the duster coat and will, hopefully, begin sewing it up tomorrow. I found a heavy cotton blend fabric so it should sway nicely as he strides from house to house hitting up strangers for high fructose corn syrup-based sweets.
I love making Halloween costumes, probably since it’s my favorite holiday. My (much adored) mother’s idea of a Halloween costume was whatever she could fashion out of a black trash bag 15 minutes before sundown on Halloween night. So, perhaps, I overcompensate a bit. My guys don’t seem to mind. The costumes that I’ve made in the past have been hits and I’m hoping for a repeat performance this year.
The first costume I made PL was a road costume when he was three. He wanted to be a road. Seriously. When I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween, his little sweet voice said, “A road,” and then he gave me a big smile and looked at me so trustingly with large, round eyes. What else could I do? I made him a road costume. He wore black sweatpants and a black sweatshirt and I used yellow and white electrical tape to draw the solid and striped lines of the road down the middle of his chest. Then I got some cardboard and turned it into a tube that fit his head. Black construction paper when around and over the tube to make an upside down open tin can shape. Red, yellow and green circles went onto the black tube in the pattern of a traffic light. He wore this as a hat. It was unbelievable adorable.
One year Padawan Learner wanted a fully reversible Harry Potter cloak with a matte black exterior and a shiny black lining (Simplicity 9372/4462) to go over a Griffindor student outfit (complete with tie and a knitted scarf, of course) with a complementing Dumbledore costume (McCall’s 3339) for Dad Windu. I made it as requested and for a while I almost feared that the kid would wear that cloak out, he wore it so much. You know the drill: to the movies, doing his lessons, playing Legos in the basement, going to the grocery store… Sadly, he outgrew the cloak and it is now in his treasure chest, waiting for some other kid to love it to death. Dad Windu wore his costume on Halloween night and then hung it in the closet. He did not wear his to the grocery store.
A couple of years ago, I made Star Wars outfits for both Padawan Learner and Dad Windu. DW went as Obi-Wan Kenobi (Simplicity 4450) and even grew his beard out to play the role. PL went as Anakin Skywalker (Simplicity 4426), “just as he goes over to the dark side”. Many lightsaber battles were had that night between my guys.
Now I’m making yet another cloak. The pattern I’m using has Velcro squares instead of buttons to hold the duster together. As if! That’s so cheesy. So I’ll be altering it a bit there and probably fitting it more than the pattern suggests because he’s so tall but slim. I’m glad he still likes dressing up for Halloween and having me make him costumes. And I hope that he has me make Halloween costumes for his kids someday, too.
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