Jacket Into Pants

We got a late start on Halloween this year, deciding on kid costumes at the end of AUGUST. Fortunately, they don’t involve too many details and projects. Mr C decided on a Minecraft Creeper.

Last month our community had a multi-congregation free clothing exchange, with which Grandma Teri Porter, Aunt Niki, and many others helped immensely. Aunt Niki found a Creeper jacket for Mr C in his current, but nearly outgrown size, and a fantastic Pikachu hat/scarf/mitten combination. With the Mario pajama pants I found, he could fully outfit his fandoms.

We stopped as a family at the thrift store. (The other one in town had to close.😔) We wanted to find green pants to go with his jacket. Green pants we did not find, but another creeper jacket we did. This one was even the next size up, which is ideal for wearing more than a few months. I decided to go for it, and convert the jacket into pants.

Mr C gets attached to items very quickly, and was upset that I wanted to disassemble his first jacket. He thinks one of the boys from class donated it, so it was a special item. As the cuffs were already hitting above his wrists, though, it was worth being the mean mom and consoling my teary-eyed boy.

He brought me pairs of his sweatpants and and thermal pants as guides. I own thrifted patterns for boy pants, but since I kept the sleeves intact, I figured using a complete item would be an easier pattern this time.

I had a seam-ripping party at Grandma Porter’s house while Zak and Uncle Cohen built a shed roof. I made sure my travel sewing pouch contained a seam-ripper, but then used it. Thus, I carefully seam-ripped with my fabric scissors. Zipper salvaged and hood removed. I did wait to finish removing the jacket pouch pockets until I got home, because they had been seriously reinforced. Even with a seam ripper, they were still my downfall, and left a few holes in the fabric. I patched those by zigzagging over them. The ones in front I could hide behind the relocated pockets, but the ones in back are now intentional statement pieces.

The arms became the lower legs, with a bit of extra fabric added around the ankles. The back torso became one thigh piece, with a slice partway down the side for the pocket. The front got stitched up where the zipper had been after I placed the pocket. I should have compared the torso pieces a little better before this point, because I had to add a strip to one side to even them.

Besides the waistband being flipped and slightly shortened to add to the ankles, the remaining piece would be the wonky inner thigh pieces. The hood came into play. I chose to do it in two separate pieces so I could get the right crotch angle and curve. No sewing job is complete without stitching something incorrectly and unpicking it, so this was accomplished when I stitched the wonky bit in the former neck opening instead of the former shoulder opening. The pieces still didn't fit exactly. I distractedly watched movies on my phone while attempting to get them to fit right, before realizing first, I should switch to music, and second, that the straight flow of the leg on the outside was more important than perfectly fitting the wonky shape around its edges on the inside. It continues to be wonky, but works.

I did the one-leg-inside-of-the-other trick to stitch the two together. I added thick elastic and twill tape to the waistband so it could be tied and tightened if the elastic were not enough. The twill tape that shows is actually from the shoulders and neck of the jacket, with some sparkly blue twill tape lengthening it from the inside. I added buttonholes, made sure everything was inside the wide waistband, pinned, and stitched.

Scraps form a creepy bunny.

Mr C tried on one leg partway through the process, which is when I found out the waist was super high, and I could use part of that height for the side and ankles. It took me about a week, working mostly after the kiddos went to bed. I finished after they slept, and had to wait until morning to see if my completed project actually worked. Smiles. I don’t think he’s upset about it anymore. Thanks for trusting me, Mr C.

Good Grief, It’s Halloween

 

My friend, Elise, gave us one of her Peanuts dvds a while ago. The kids watched it a few times, and especially loved seeing Snoopy’s reunion with his brother and sister beagles. We found some Peanuts comics at out little local library, and watched the 2015 Peanuts movie. Their favorite character is, of course, Snoopy. 

Anytime Halloween approaches and the kids show interest in characters I could dress Zak as without too much fuss on his part, I am there. Many of the Porters decided to join us to make our own Peanuts gang. Mr C went as lovable Snoopy, Miss V as the confident, pragmatic Lucy van Pelt, Zak as a perfect Charlie Brown, and I as a sweats-wearing Peppermint Patty. Mom, Niki, and Cohen fit right in with their Marcie, Sally, and Pig-Pen.

Miss V as Lucy Van Pelt and Mr C as Snoopy

Uncle Cohen as Pig Pen (properly dirtied at the diesel mechanic shop)

and Grandma Porter as Marci

Aunt Niki as Sally Brown

Uncle Christian and Aunt Carrie as Pokémon Trainers Ash Ketchum and Mallow, 

with their kid-favorite Pokemon-mobile.

My Peppermint Patty look

Zak as Good Ol' Charlie Brown

At the town trunk-or-treat we were delighted 

with the impressively authentic Mandalorian 

and Nacho Libre costumes.

Honorable Mention has to include Grandma and Grandpa Hooper, with the help of Aunt Trena, literally embodying "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus." Dad, you're looking impressive in your compression *coughs spandex* pants.

Harry Potter Halloween

 

Like many families during Covid-19 times, we decided to do some movie marathoning as a family over the last few months. The kids are still relatively young, so they haven't seen many of the movies Zak and I knew as kids.

Mr C and Miss V loved watching the Lego Star Wars shows on Disney+, so over two or three weeks we absorbed all nine of the Star Wars movies, as well as the Mandalorian. Over the summer, as I walked the kids to pickup the school lunch sacks, we would talk about Halloween costumes. Miss V was considering R2-D2, and Mr C was thinking Yoda. There was much usage of the Force throughout our house.

Next, we started Harry Potter. The kids had found some walk-throughs of the Lego Harry Potter video game, which cover books one to four. The video gamer guessed that the later books were dark enough that they chose not to do Lego games of those. As we watched the movies a little at a time, the kids began casting spells. I cannot count the number of times I have been disarmed with an "Expelliarmus!" spell. It also meant my chopsticks left the silverware drawer, and began appearing all over the house as wands. Halloween costumes switched to Harry Potter themes. As the movies got darker, I tried to explain the events to the kids. I noticed that rather than focusing on the movies, the kids were pretending to be wizards, and not exactly paying attention. I'm ok with that.

Miss V has told me for a couple of years now that she doesn't like chapter books, although we've read and listened to several together, including the Ramona Quimby books. She started reading the shorter, simpler chapter books, but didn't even want to touch anything that had too many words and not enough pictures. Enter in Harry Potter. I had purchased the first two books at a thrift store last year thinking they would't be touched for a few more years. Miss V decided she'd give them a go. She's already done with the first, and well on her way through the second book. When she couldn't find the Chamber of Secrets the other day, she decided to read "Sideways Stories from Wayside School," that I had tried to read with her last year. It's happened! She's willing to read chapter books on her own!

 

Mr C's response after finding out that Miss V wanted to be Harry definitely made me smile. He wanted to be with Harry, so he chose to be Harry's pet owl, Hedwig. I thought about buying wings and a hat, and then realized those would be about $45. JoAnn's it is. While perusing the store for solid white fleece or a feather-like pattern, I found some fuzzy, white, textured upholstery fabric with not much left on the bolt. I was able to get what I guessed I needed, and they threw in the last half-yard for free. 

Zak joked about buying a giant googly eye and going as Mad-Eye Moody, so I went with it. As the true villain of the Harry Potter series, I felt Dolores Umbridge must also be represented. Pink dresses for me were a little easier to find at the local thrift stores, but an appropriate and plus-sized trench coat for Zak was harder to locate. I ended up spending more on his, but let's just say that walking behind that handsome man in a dramatic trench was my pleasure. Seriously, he looks so cool!

Most of our weekends lately have been spent at Mom Porter's house, and we were relieved to trick-or-treat in the small town rather than the city with ever-increasing viral cases. We looped around the wrap-around porch, knocking on the front, back, and bedroom doors since we only planned to go to a few other houses. Zak's brother, Cohen, dressed up as Star Lord from "Guardians of the Galaxy," and joined to for our brief trick-or-treating adventure. Since Great-Grandma Manwill wills two lots east of Grandma Porter, we got to see her waddle in her "I'm a Penguin," costume, which we all loved.

Bake Me a Halloween Cupcake 2019

Miss V, Mr C, Zak, and Nicole A H Porter as cupcakes and bakers

Miss V told us she wanted to be a cupcake for Halloween, so I asked Mr C if he wanted to be a donut or another treat. He likes to do what his big sister does, so he wanted to be a cupcake, too. With a puppy on top.  With a dragon tail.  I told him, "Let's stick with the first two for now." We found dog ears and mittens, and got some face paint for a nose, if he decides to actually go with the "puppy decoration on top of the cupcake" costume on Halloween night.

I decided to be a baker to go along with their costumes. Zak thought for a moment about the baker look and wanted to go with The Muppet's Swedish Chef. That is, until he tried on the fake eyebrows and mustache I bought for him and he started inhaling fake wafts of hair. Just bakers.

I found small laundry baskets at the dollar store, and bought flannel solid fabric to pleat for the wrapper. They had some really soft non-pilling white fleece, so I chose that for the frosting. The kids helped me cut some felt strips for the sprinkles. I used some of the extra strips of white fleece to make suspenders attached to the laundry baskets, and then hand-stitched the white fleece onto the top. I sewed the top of the frosting, leaving holes for heads and arms. They do have to slip into the costumes from the top, but I'm glad they are outerwear-friendly costumes this year, because we will be wearing lots of layers as we trudge through snow from house to house. They'll earn their candy this year. Mwhahaha.

Thanks, Brother Todd Glad, for taking professional level pictures at our neighborhood Halloween party. They are fantastic!

Puppy dog nose

Our Swedish Chef. For about 3 minutes.

Ghostly Halloween

For a few months Miss V has insisted on being a ghost for Halloween. I figured we wouldn't be able to do the put-a-sheet-over-your-head look since at most schools and parties you can't wear a mask. One of the other kindergarten moms suggested buying a thrift store shirt or sweater, and going from there. My friend, Carrie, produced a ghost dress that fit Miss V perfectly, so I used the thermal shirt I found to make Mr C's costume. The kids loved the look with some white face paint and my dark eyeshadow (which spilled years ago, so I just keep it in a ziplock bag now). I tried finding white gloves and beanies, but I guess those looks are not in at Walmart and Dollar Tree right now. Miss V spent all of October "ooohing" adults and kids alike in preparation for her ghostly persona.

Zak has suggested the Uncle Fester Addams costume for a few years, so I figured now would be a good time to make the most versatile Halloween costume I could: Uncle Fester, the Grim Reaper, wizard dress robes, und so weiter. It does pull a bit in the front, but I was pretty pleased with myself upon completing the costume from scratch. I even added pockets!

With both ghosts and the Addams family in mind, I shopped at Deseret Industries for my costume. I found a white dress that was long-sleeved, big, and loose on me for a ghost costume, but I couldn't do it. I could tell it had been someone's religious ceremonial dress, and I didn't want to be disrespectful. I bought a black sweater and white collared shirt for my Wednesday Addams look, because I'm not quite confident in pulling off the Morticia Addams look. Since my Wednesday costume looks like me in a dress without Zak in costume, we went as the Addams to a trunk-or-treat on Friday night, and I just wore my NASA jumpsuit from a couple of years ago when I went to the school's parade and trick-or-treated on Halloween.

Waiting before school starts on Halloween

Glowstick necklaces from Uncle Aaron!

Nicole A H Porter and Zak as Wednesday and Uncle Fester Addams

Ghosts at trunk-or-treat

Playing with leaves during our walk home

Nicole A H Porter sewing Uncle Fester's outfit

Playing around with the costume before trimming the sleeves.