An Old Dog's 2 Cents on Trick-or-Treat Costumes

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Yesterday I mentioned that I'd talk about costumes today. I hope you didn't come by expecting great ideas. I'm afraid I'm an old dog, and the only thing you're going to get here today is advice. I speak from experience here.

And my advice is, don't knock yourself out.

When I was a young mother, I loved Halloween. I would start planning in September, and by the 30th of that month I would have stacks of fabric and patterns, and I would begin sewing. And I would work, on and off, sewing late at night, making sure my seams were straight and my stitches perfect, adding trim, planning accessories, and picturing my little darlings all dressed up for trick-or-treat. I enjoyed doing it, but I didn't do all that work because I enjoyed it. I did it because I had somehow set up my children's costumes as a measuring stick for motherhood. Would they be the cutest little trick-or-treaters on the street? Would other mothers recognize how much I loved my children by their precious costumes?

I submit to you, as evidence of my insanity, photograph A. It's not a great image, it's a picture of a picture, but if you look carefully, you can see those straight stitches. Those little pirates have on homemade blouses. I wouldn't even sew a blouse for myself, but by goodness, I sewed those blouses, and pants, and vests, and sashes, and bandannas. And they were the cutest little pirates you ever saw.



But, experience finally taught me that no one, but me, cared that I spent hours, and hours, and hours, creating their trick-or-treat costumes. Certainly not my children, or my husband, cared if my stitches were straight or my ruffles were perfect. I began realizing that no one would even believe I had actually made these costumes. Not that they were so perfect, but no one made costumes any more. Most children trick-or-treating barely had a costume. Sometimes all they had was a pillow case filled with goodies, and maybe a hat, or an athletic jersey.

And so, several years ago, I gave up knocking myself out. I can't tell you what a relief it has been. My stomach no longer clenches at the thought of Halloween and I can glide into the last week of October with no anxiety whatsoever. The biggest project on my calendar this week was carving pumpkins -- easy breezy.

I have three trick-or-treaters this year, and between the three of them, I pulled pieces of costumes out of storage, spent under $20 at the Halloween store, and sewed one demin vest -- and I didn't even finish the edges. I spent so little time on it, I didn't even sit to sew. I just set that machine on my kitchen counter and stood to sew three seams and four pieces of ric rac. My daughter proclaimed it the best vest she ever saw and it looks perfect on her little cowgirl self -- even if it is a little too big and the ric rac a little frayed. Who cares? Not me! I'm enjoying the fun -- no work involved. Life's too short, ladies.

Live, and love.




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