R2D2 costume

Tom wanted to be Darth Vader and Anakin this Halloween, so we (I) decided Asher would be R2D2. Asher actually loved the idea, once he understood what I was talking about. We got the Darth Vader costume on sale at TJMaxx, and Tom's Nana provided the Anakin costume (which is actually what inspired Tom to be Anakin ... she'd bought it just as a dress-up thing).

But no way was I going to spend $30 for a toddler R2D2 costume.

First I needed a torso. I used his winter coat to make a sort of tank-top pattern, figuring that it would have to be able to fit over the coat in case we encountered a typical Minnesota Halloween. I made the torso out of white fleece.

The arms were also white fleece. I measured from the top of his shoulder to his wrist for height, then measured around his upper bicep and around his wrist for width. The photo below is sideways -- imagine his shoulder at the right, and his wrist at the left. It needs that funny two-humped curve for the shoulder. I fitted that middle section together and sewed it to create a curve to fit up and around the top of the shoulder.

A Velcro tab held the top of the arm to the torso at the shoulder, and some elastic held the forearm together with a toggle (I could never get Asher to hold still for a fitting, so I really had no idea how much elastic to use). You can see it fairly well below:

The hat was some stretchy silver stuff with a white fleece lining. By the time I got to the head, though, I was all out of wine and it was about midnight. So I just hot-glued on the details.

Halloween jellyfish costume

Make Magazine blog had a link to a guy's site. He'd made a jellyfish costume by bolting a skateboarding helmet to a very large plastic basin, then attached battery-powered LED rope lights. It was incredible.

And it sounded like a lot of work. So I went the lo-cal way -- I found 100 glowstick bracelets on eBay for $7, and got a plastic bowl that fit my head at the dollar store.

This is how it looked as I was setting it up. To make the bowl light up, I would snap several glowsticks, then hook them together with the included connectors. Then I spiraled it up and taped it into the bowl. The tentacles were just taped to the edges.



The bracelets were flexible when bent, but they weren't loosey goosey, which probably would have been much more comfortable, because the tentacles kept hitting my shoulders.

To keep the bowl on my head, I used packing tape to attach a circle of elastic in the middle. To put it on, I would pull the elastic apart and slide it onto my head. The elastic kept it more or less in place. After about 3 hours, the elastic had stretched out enough that it wasn't really secure on my head anymore. If I reuse it, I'll just reduce the diameter of that elastic loop.

This is how it looked in the dark, as modeled by my not-quite-able-to-hold-still toddler. It actually turned out really well.

And your little ruby slippers, too

My friend Karen loves the Wizard of Oz even more than I love Star Wars. For real. When Tom was born, she sent a very fancy edition of the book, referring to it in the enclosed note as "a service I provide for all new babies." I love her.

Anyhoo. Sometimes I think Karen decided to become a mother just so she would have someone to dress as Dorothy or the Tin Man. Last Halloween she had the BEST Dorothy costume EVER for her daughter (about 18 months old). But the red sparkly shoes at Target only started one size above her size. Tragedy! So I made these. They have a satin lining. No pattern, so I was delighted with how they turned out, and Karen said they fit perfectly. They actually looked much better in person, because the flash completely washes out the sparkliness.

Tom's birthday cake

Karyn's cake kicked ass!

$1.79 Stormtrooper mask

Tom really wanted a stormtrooper mask. Can't find them anywhere ... at least, not for under $40. Maybe when it gets closer to Halloween, but not in August, which is when we made this.

I found a photo of a stormtrooper helmet, then printed it out the size I wanted it. I used white foam (that Foamies stuff -- you get a big sheet of it for $.79 -- it's 2 or 3 mm thick) to make the background piece, then cut another to make the detail at the bottom and the forehead part. I used scrap black foam that I happened to have to make the black details. For the eyes, Tom and I went to a dollar store and got a pair of sunglasses. I trimmed one lens, to make it fit the pattern. If I had to do it over, I would have gotten the sunglasses first, then made the eye part of the pattern to accommodate the lenses. It's all hot-glued together.

There are two slits in the black nose piece because Tom specifically requested "breathing holes."

Then the back was just a scrap of elastic and two toggles. I reinforced the slot with another little square of foam, because this stuff isn't all that durable by itself.

The toggles let it be adjustable (it's got to be a bit more snug for Asher to have a turn). Plus, it's hard as hell to size an elastic headband on an active kid, so I didn't want to have to sew it.

Star Wars birthday party

Tom is turning four next week. When he was two, he was obsessed with trains, so we decided on a train party for him. When he was three, he liked race cars, but then a musician friend was able to come, so we had a music party. Now that he's four, we figure he can start being part of the decision-making process. Last month I asked Tom what kind of party he'd like.

He said, "A Star Wars party."

I didn't influence this in any way -- I swear to GOD.

The Star Wars stuff at the party store (and online) is mostly crap. Or expensive. I demand cheap crap! T-shirts were on sale at Michaels ($2 each), so I made another freezer paper stencil. Each guest gets a T-shirt.

The first stencil lasted for five shirts, which was just fantastic. Several of the smaller holes were closed up by all the paint, so I made a second stencil for the last two shirts. But it totally ripped to shreds while trying to iron it to the second one (I was in a hurry and not paying attention to how wet the paint still was). I didn't really want to make another stencil, so I fished the first one out of the recycling, and it agreed to one more shirt. I'm glad I didn't have to cut another one!

We're going to play games with lightsabers, so we needed, well, lightsabers. I used paper towel cardboard tubes, silver paint (which kept rubbing off, so I put a clear coat on top), and self-adhesive foam.

The blades are going to be those really long 2" balloons you can use to make animals with (which we had). This way they can pick out what color of blade they want, too. (Tom knows which character has which color -- a little spooky and totally makes me well up.) The balloons snug into these tubes perfectly. I know we'll have several pop over the course of the morning, but I've got a whole bag, so we should be okay.

Karyn is still deciding about cake. I'll post that when she's done.

X-wing fighter shoes

My son needed new tennis shoes. He really wanted some with Star Wars on them. But they haven't made those in years, and eBay has been really hit and miss (mostly miss) for me.

So I got these $6 shoes and made a freezer paper stencil, and this is what I ended up with.

I've only made a freezer paper stencil once before (for, um, an interesting T-shirt experiment), so I was pleased that careful cutting really did pay off here. The biggest problem is that it was difficult to center the stencil on the shoes; if I divided the stencil where I had originally wanted to, I would have created many unattached bits that would have been a nightmare to realign. Overall, though, it was pretty cool.

Tom's response: "Do they have lights?"