For my latest project, I feel I should set the stage (literally). Sara and Kelly simply loved the movie “Epic”.  It is a visual storm of color and nature, so for a child like Sara, who swears her future career is “to live outside”, this movie was indeed…epic. Interestingly enough, as I mentioned earlier in the week, Sara did not want to be the main character, exactly (Queen Tara, played by Beyonce, and pictured above).

Nor did she want to be her favorite character, Marigold Girl, exactly (little girl, pictured above). She wanted to be the moment Queen Tara flies by Marigold, and Marigold yells out, “You’re totally my HERO!” For Halloween, Sara asked me to capture a moment: the juxtaposition of Marigold realizing she wants to grow up to be the Queen while the Queen flies by knowing Marigold will actually grow up to take her place.  Sara wanted to dress a spectacular feeling a girl has when she realizes she has hopes of growing up and becoming her hero.  Again, an epic feeling for sure.

To put it in less heady terms, Sara wanted to be a fairy, but at the ripe old age of 8, she no longer believes in fairies…exactly. How does one, at the senior citizen age of 8, hold onto the precious dreams of a 5 year old, while she spends her days dreaming of becoming a Middle Schooler? Tough position. After some brainstorming and a few sleeps, my best idea hit: Silk Scapes.  YES. The prettiest silk flower store in Indianapolis is Silk Scapes.  I’ve shopped there for almost a decade, and they are the NICEST people, plus, their store very closely resembles the Epic sets.  You may remember how beautifully they decorated Max when he won the Kentucky Derby. You may recall the wildest and tallest Witch Hat on the planet I made many years ago, and wear every year?  Yep…my supplies came from Silk Scapes. I know what you’re thinking, and while they sold me many things on my fall mantel, they are not responsible for that madness.  That is ALL me.  Their designers have actual talent.  Oh Lordy, I can hear Jim, the owner, in my head, if he saw my mantel, “Oh LORI.  Tell me you DIDN’T.” Oh yes Jim…oh yes I did.

And knowing the nice, classy people over at Silk Scapes, I did what any equally classy, crafty, brain-storming Momma would do: I asked if I could have their trash.  Jim just laughed (he gets my sense of humor), grabbed a huge clear bag, and started opening drawers.  The center of their store is a cutting and design table, which is surrounded by drawers where the clippings are dropped.  Precious, precious clippings.  With Christmas designing in full swing, the summer clippings can’t be used.  When I saw what they had, I squealed, jumped up and down, and made Jim hug me…twice. The world’s most perfect costume of a feeling was about to come to life.

Using a green dress fabric remnant from the clearance aisle of JoAnn’s, I designed a leaf.  Do you know how hard it is to get a leaf to be the same on each side?  Imagine you’re challenged in the art department, as I am.

A-HA! Fold it, trace one side onto the other and trim.  Voila! Perfectly shaped leaf.  Pin it to fabric and cut 10. Make a band. It gets crazy from here.

After sewing the leaves onto the waistband, I bought 2 yards of white organza.  It’s so yummy, I want to renew my vows just to wear it again. I folded it, gathered it, and sewed it opposite the leaves (which are turned over). Just fold in half, sew along the top, and you have a leaf skirt lying on top of a poofy, organza bag. Perfect.

Fill it up with flowers and sew up the back.  Well, I mean, have your child try the skirt on about 100x, adjust the velcro closure twice, reinforce the waistband, fiddle with the flowers until you lose your mind, and THEN sew up the open sides of organza.

SO, hmm…skirts need tops. Remember the Rainbow Fairies?  That was such a grand year of sewing.  I swore I’d never make another Halloween costume after the Rainbow Fairies.  Ah…the best laid plans.  I’m ridiculous.  OF COURSE I was going to make more costumes. The top was too short and the sleeves were too tight, but it has held up beautifully, and fit Sara otherwise.  The key piece? It has a zipper.  One less sewing step is a decision-maker when you have only a moment to create a costume which represents a moment.

 

I took off the sleeves, covered the original in green fabric, while making it longer with cute plackets. I then replaced the original sleeves with tubes of organza stuffed with flowers, and added touches of flowers to make it mesh with the skirt.

I added a crystal-studded wrap (mostly so it would tie in the decor on the top, leftover from the original costume), which was the sash from Sara’s Rainbow Fairy Costume.  Sara has been saving a flower head band for this very costume for quite some time. That left the wand, which was not to be a wand.  Wands are for little girls, not girls standing on the edge of being big. Or bigger at least, because she’s not ready for prime time at 8! (Please don’t tell her I said so.)

I have NO idea why I have leftover silver stalks.  They remind me of some amazing thing I must have made years ago.  OH WAIT!  I remember!  These are the leftover pieces from Kelly’s Angel Fish Mask!  These ARE awesome. I took a sleeve that didn’t pan out, wrapped it around the bottom, and then wrapped a leaf I forgot to add to the skirt.  Hot glue on a flower to match the dress, and voila! The “I’m too old to have a wand, but I want a wand” problem is solved.  Just as the sash solved the “I’m too old to wear wings, but I want something shooz-y on my back” problem.

So, to answer the million dollar question: does this costume bring Sara’s feeling to life?  Her answer is a resounding: YES!! It’s more of a screaming in my ear, “MOMMY!! MOMMMMYYY!!! THIS IS THE GREATEST COSTUME EVER IN THE HISTORY OF COSTUMES! I LOVE IT!  IT’S SO BETTER THAN PERFECT!!!! I LOVE YOU, LOVE YOU, LOVE YOU!!”

Oh, my sweet baby Ducky.  I think it fits my feeling of you perfectly too.  Momma loves you, and even when you can only speak in movie lines, Momma knows, Momma knows. Happy Halloween Sweet Girl. You don’t need to dream of being a Queen.  You already are one.

Tune in tomorrow when we cover Costume #2: My Little Bridezilla.

*Per FTC disclosure guidelines, no goods or services were exchanged for this post. Jim didn’t even know I had a blog when he gave me that bag of flowers.  He’s just a super nice guy, and is used to me popping in and asking crazy questions.  I wish you could have seen his face the day I ran in with a picture of a 3-tiered Martha Stewart wedding cake and told him I had to recreate it, I needed deep maroon calla lilies (he had them, of course), and it needed to withstand a 90 degree wedding day…outside. That cake leaned like the leaning tower of Pisa, just as Jim predicted it would.  But the flowers were lovely!*