And now, it sounds like Caitlyn's Halloween costume was some amazing, intricate thing. She had been asking for a mermaid costume "with a real tail." She was apparently fully aware that this would prevent walking, since requests for such a costume would move on to descriptions of locomoting in roughly the style of an elephant seal. How this was supposed to work for trick or treating, I have no idea.
Anyway, I talked her out of the mermaid idea. And told her that two back-to-back fairy princess costumes wasn't an option.
Caitlyn vetoed witches, pirates, and storybook characters. We had a brief flirtation with a potential cat costume (an Everything Cat, which is rainbow colored and winged and probably prone to feats of magic) before settling on a Pioneer Girl outfit.
At the time, I thought the bit that convinced her was the possibility that, after Halloween, she could use the dress portion of the costume as a regular part of her wardrobe. Now, I'm wondering how much she was influenced by a friend of hers who scored a Little House outfit from her grandmother.
I used McCalls 9424 and Caitlyn helped pick out the fabric. I'm working with her to get past the "more is better" approach to fashion (eg, if 1 color is nice and 2 colors is better, then all the colors at once would be best!) and trying to help her recognize how some colors/fabrics coordinate well and others shouldn't be allowed near each other. Caitlyn approached the fabric selection with the idea that there were three pieces to the costume, so she should pick out three separate fabrics. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't think a brick red dress, a daffodil yellow pinafore and a turquoise bonnet would have worked out as well as she thought it would.
I was still sewing buttons on both the dress and the pinafore the day before Halloween. But it was done in time for trick or treating. We both received lots of compliments.
Caitlyn hasn't shown any sign of wanting to wear the dress to school, though.
So cute! I made Hazel a costume from McCall's 4547 (yay for Google remembering the pattern number I searched for!) in a white fabric with tiny blue flowers and it's sweet. It was for a school trip to a historic village here in Auckland, which was cancelled the day I finished the costume - naturally! I really should get her to put it on for photos and then she can carry on never wearing it again. She actually had it on the other day for fun but refused to wear the apron at waist-level and it really didn't look good at the modern-girl level of on the hips. And she point blank refused the bonnet. Luckily, with the way it's made, it'll actually fit her for years so might get some use sometime!
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