and so the torch passes

I don't remember every Christmas morning we celebrated when I was growing up, or every first day of school or even every family vacation. But I do remember every Halloween costume my mom sewed up for me. Every October (and then again at Easter) my mom turned into a sewing superhero - staying up until who-knows-when stitching up costumes for her four girls. Admittedly I grew up dreaming of sewing costumes for my own children. I would have to say that it became part of my very definition of motherhood. As my sewing skills grow a little each year the costuming has become more fun and more laborious.

here are this year's efforts.

Aang, from the show, Avatar. That's the answer to the question you are all asking right now. And to answer your other question, yes, we did shave his head just for Halloween. For some reason that seemed to shock a lot of people. We didn't even give it a second thought, I mean it grows back, right? In a previous post I referred to this project as a fiasco and here's why. I had such a confidence crisis in my own clothes-sewing skills and I tried so hard to make this in the easiest possible way. I had it in my head that all I needed to do was alter some sweatpants, a sweatshirt and a turtleneck shirt. As I scoured (and scoured and scoured - ugh!) the city for those things in the right colors and sizes and came up empty handed I knew what I needed to do - start from scratch and without even a pattern to guide me.

I was terrified.

But for some reason, it all worked out. Call it crafting karma, call it the power of love, call it the Halloween spirit. Whatever it was, it was guiding my sewing machine as it probably guided my mother's all those late October nights.

Don't worry everyone, Adam's turn is coming soon too. One day I'll be fretting and sewing and fretting and sewing for TWO little trick or treaters. But this year he got a costume from the Goodwill. And boy was he cute!