somewhere over the rainbow

While I do let Mae choose her own Halloween costumes, I confess to steering her towards costumes that I think will be fun to make and wear! One of her favorite books this year has been The Wizard of Oz (Great Illustrated Classics version), and she loved the movie. So, when she asked about being Dorothy for Halloween, I jumped on the idea! Plus, Wizard of Oz is a great family theme.

I spent the most time on Mae’s costume. I modified the Caroline Party Dress pattern, (used previously for Mae’s Easter dresses) to add the bias waistband, skirt detail, and straps. I cut a size 4T with a 5T length for the bodice and skirt. She wore a long sleeved shirt and tights underneath for warmth. Doesn’t she look so sweet?

Of course no Dorothy costume is complete without the ruby slippers. When she was tired at the end of trick or treating, she just clicked her heels and magically transported herself back home. Convenient.

Colin was the most adorable Cowardly Lion. This costume is what I would call... semi-homemade. I bought the hooded onesie but added the mane myself. I can’t believe my luck finding this multicolored Bernat Blanket yarn at JoAnn. Isn’t it perfect for a lion mane? This costume was so quick and easy. I just cut a bunch of pieces of the chenille yarn, lined them up on the hood, and used the sewing machine to zig-zag stitch right across the middle of the yarn pieces. Then I fluffed it up and gave it a little “hair cut” to even up the ends!

I can’t get over the mane. It’s so... voluminous. I did have to push it back from his face a few times, but he didn’t complain since it was very soft. Mae and Colin won the street costume contest for “Best Sibling Costumes.” She was so excited!

I used up all my creativity on the kids, so our costumes were a bit less involved. Dan’s Tin Man was assembled from a couple sheets of silver poster board and an old kitchen funnel. Everything was held together with binder clips, which made it easily adjustable and removable! Of course we were working on this at 10pm last night.

For myself, I bought a kit that included a felt hat and straw ties for my limbs. I sewed my shirt, but just as a regular shirt... not specifically as a costume. Mae was a bit critical of my decision to wear a plaid shirt instead of a tunic like the scarecrow from the movie, but I defended my right to creative license. I also made myself a mask with an embroidered scarecrow mouth. I got several questions about how I matched Mae’s mask to her dress. That was the biggest benefit to sewing my own costumes this year: custom coordinated masks!

Speaking of masks, people did a great job with safety precautions. We had a costume parade and pumpkin decorating on our street this afternoon, and I think it was 100% mask coverage on everyone except the littlest kids. For trick or treating, almost everyone was in masks, and almost every house had their candy set outside on a table to avoid any close contact. One house even rigged up a long candy chute, which Mae got a kick out of!

It was a full day of fun! I’m really glad Halloween was on a Saturday this year. We’ve had to skip so many of our favorite fall activities this year, that I’m glad I had a whole day to indulge in Halloween fun. We carved pumpkins (Mae helped by supervising and regularly reporting on how gross the inside of the pumpkin was), roasted pumpkin seeds, baked an apple pie, took costume photos, marched in a parade, decorated pumpkins (big thank you to the organizing parent who provided stickers instead of paint!), trick or treated, and chatted with neighbors. GranE and Batman are visiting this week, so we even had extra helping hands to take photos and watch Colin while we took Mae out for candy. Otherwise we couldn’t have crammed so much into one Saturday! It was a beautiful, happy, exhausting day!