Over the last several years, I have been amazed at how the popularity of the holiday Halloween has grown. It used to be just kids putting together clever costumes and trick-or-treating, young adults assembling witty costumes and going to parties, and the rest of us doling out goodies to cute little munchkins at our door.
The day has mushroomed into something much larger. At the same time there is such a trend towards entertainment that explores The Dark Side: Harry Potter, The Addams Family, Twilight Trilogy & Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the hugely popular Broadway play Wicked. (based on the Wizard of Oz) …and the list goes on…I won't list them all!
That is not even including the popularity of Day of the Dead, and the trend of skull motifs on all kinds of fashion.
We used to joke about fabric companies that would ship new Halloween fabrics starting November 1st. (We'd rather they start shipping in the summertime.) The truth is, Halloween fans want Halloween themed fabrics year round. Go figure.
Now that people are starting to sew fashion again, I can only hope that they will start to sew creative and fun costumes again too. Personally I dread going into those seasonal Halloween stores full of slimy slinky poly knit cheap costumes that fall apart after one night on the neighborhood beat. I'd rather see the kind of costumes you see at the Renaissance Faire or the Celtic Festivals!
Our first year of business we got an order for 27 yards of black crocodile-embossed pleather. What on earth was this woman making? I had to ask. She responded that she was making a Baroness gown for the Renaissance Faire. Well of course – what *else* could it be used for?! *snort*
We've sold velvet and tulle and fake fur to movie studios and costume departments over the years, and we've had our share of Halloween and local theater costume makers as well. Folkwear patterns are often used for high-quality costumes, and Medieval capes are fashioned from great swaths of solid black cotton. Minkee plush makes great onesie bunny suits and lion costumes for babies, by the way!
The other side of Halloween is just good old fashioned dressup fun… I mean….who does't like to dress up and go to a party?
Give a seamstress or tailor several yards of sparkling tulle just before Halloween, and I guarantee they'll be itching to whip up a magical costume!
Even humble blue gingham can make one of the most beloved costumes – Dorothy's jumper from Wizard of Oz.
Are you making a costume for yourself or someone else this month?
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Every year I try to make better costumes for my kids than the year before, although some years the younger ones choose to wear one that the oldest has worn in years past. My girls both wore a clown costume that my grandmother made for me back in 1973 or 74. When my oldest was 3, I made her a “Blue” costume (from Blue’s Clues) and her younger sister wore it 2 years ago. Last year the girls were pirates, with the older one in a red velvet coat as captain and the younger one as first mate. They wore colorful taffeta tiered skirts and white shirts; the older one had a brocade vest, tricorn hat, striped tights and boots while the younger one had a black vest trimmed with silver braid and buttons, bandanna, eyepatch and parrot (sewn to the shoulder of the vest). They both had wooden swords. My 2 year-old son was a lion.
This year the oldest will be an 18th century lady vampire in a red and black gown, while the younger one is wearing the Cinderella costume I made the older one for Halloween 7 years ago. The boy will be an elephant; I found a fantastic faux-suede that has a coating on it to look like skin. It really looks like elephant skin.
As for me, I love to dress up, especially for Renn Faires, and will most likely wear my autumn fairy costume, complete with wings. And in our house, planning for Halloween generally begins on Nov. 1st. 🙂
I’m waiting for my kids to make their requests for costumes this year. Three of my “kids” are in their 20’s and one is in her 40’s. Over the years the requests have changed from childrens cartoon characters to anime characters (adult cartoons). I have made many costumes from baby bats,pumpkin patchkids, ghostbusters, the Cat in the Hat,Princesses of all kinds, good and bad witches, Captain Hook with Peter Pan,and a lady pirate from the Caribbean, Tinkerbell, Belle,the Genie and Jasmine from Aladdin, belly dancers, indians, Tigger, Star Wars characters, a tiger sea slug(look that one up!),Ferngully fairies,Link from the Zelda game,Sailor Moon, Rennaisance ladies and gentlemen and others I can’t even remember.Most of these were made with no pattern that you could buy for that character. I often mixed pattern pieces from various patterns or just made the whole thing up because at the time there were no patterns available for the characters they wanted.
Anime characters are a real challenge.That is usually what they want now.There are no patterns for them as far as I know. All I have to look at is a picture from the internet with various views of the costume they want.
However, the character I loved making the most was a My Little Pony for my daughter when she was about 6. It was a unicorn.It was made from pink cotton and pink lame. It zipped up the front and had long sleeves. The hood on it had a mane made of various colors of pastel netting that was gathered in layers and went down the middle of the hood from front to back. The horn was made of lame. It stood up about a foot high and the tail was made of the same netting. It had blue beads and bows adorning it to make it cute. She was so proud of her different costume. She knew no one else had one like it. I found a picture of her in it standing by the front door waiting to trick or treat people. She had that pixie grin of hers on her face.
My kids loved everyone of these costumes and were proud that they didn’t come out of a package and were unique. The last costumes I made were for an anime convention. My daughters were proud to wear what I had made again. They knew they would be recognized as the character they were portraying and often had their pictures taken by fans of these stories.
It is always fun to dress up like someone other than yourself and step out of your own character into someone elses even for the fun of getting candy and being recognized as someone special that people can identify. I’m still waiting for a request. Halloween is fun if it isn’t taken too seriously.