Cold Costumes

Cold Halloween is a problem (at least for kids- and their mothers- who want to come up with fancy costumes to be worn for trick-or-treat) because all the hard work ends up being covered by a jacket or parka.

When my daughter Amy was a little girl, I used to love creating costumes for her. She usually wanted to dress up as some sort of animal, but since animal costumes are difficult to make, and since pretty little dresses are much more fun to create, I would routinely over-rule her.

The first time I dressed her up she was a toddler. I took pink satin and lace that I still had left over from making my wedding dress and designed a tiny evening gown for her. It was lovely. I still have it, in fact.

Then there was the year of the fairy. The sequined fabric nearly wrecked my sewing machine, and the wings proved difficult to get just right, but it looked fantastic. I hated the thought of her wearing a coat over the ensemble, and, it fact, that would not be possible with the wings, so I insisted that she wear thermal underwear under the costume. Maine is the only place that fairys wear thermal underwear.

Although she was too old for trick-or-treat last year, her church youth group had a costume party. Knowing my propensity to opt for making pretty dresses, she chose to be a 'beauty queen.' For being made in record time out of dirt cheap fabric, the dress came out really nice. I even made a little formal jacket to get with it, since I KNEW it was going to be cold outside.