V Hatches the Egg

It is 3 pm Halloween afternoon. V's costume, which I spent one weekend making, has already been put on, worn to school, taken off, thrown up on, brought home, washed, dried and is ready to go for Trick-or-Treating tonight. That's a lot of excitement for a costume only worn one day. This year she chose to be a robin, as a follow-up to last year's egg costume:

Here's a summary of its production:

First, make your plan,

take measurements of your subject,

cut out the body,

try it on with the preliminary hood,

add the red-breast,

paint the beak and feet,

make the wings and tail feathers,

put it on.

We decided to abandon the idea of wearing the feet at the zero hour. The tail didn't last long, as it kept tapping the back of her heels as she walked. One person thought she was a penguin. No one else bothered to comment. Oh well. She looked great, and felt great, despite the upset tummy in the morning and having to come home from school for fear she was actually ill. I told her the costume might smell a bit funny since I couldn't very well put the cardboard wings and tail through the washing machine. I did the best I could by hand. Overall a successful Halloween, and we even carved the pumpkin and toasted the seeds.