Halloween 2006

Finally, after weeks of pondering our Halloween costumes (or at least having it cross our minds every now and then), we came up with the ambitious idea of being Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. That may not sound too ambitious to you, but having thought of the idea less than 48 hours before we were to make our first appearance is where the challenge comes in.

We looked at local thrift stores in hopes of finding the perfect Alice dress, but to no avail. Mike had some luck in finding a handsome pair of plaid pajama pants for his costume, though.

With twenty-four hours left on our countdown clock, we made a trip to the store for fabric and a dress pattern. Mike got out a calculator and his drafting tools to begin constructing his most important accessory. I cut out the dress and got part of the bodice done before we finally retired at 3am. I brought the sewing instructions to school so I could study them while my students took their tests. Did I mention that I have never attempted a dress without my mom being there to advise me and take out my stitches when I mess up? I did have to make a few phone calls to Ohio to learn the meaning of some of the words in the instructions. The instructions assumed that I knew more than I did.

When I got home from work, I had three and a half hours before the party where we would debut our garb. Five and a half hours later, Mike is safety pinning me into my dress (I didn't even attempt the zipper). We made our first appearance with my sleeves pinned in, the back pinned up, and the bottom unhemmed. My students were all excited to see Mike and me. We felt like celebrities. I am awaiting copies of some of their pictures, as we forgot our camera in the madness.

In the hours before our next event the following day, I was able to hem the dress, finish the back seams, and put velcro in as the primary fastener. Mike made a few adjustments on his hat.

The third time was really the charm. Finally it was Halloween proper, and we sported these outfits that we had invested so much in. Mike spent a few hours revamping the internal structure of his hat, which turned out much better than the first two attempts. I sewed him a much-requested vest out of the shiny material that he picked out. I hope to never sew anything from such a material again. It was horrendous to work with! His hat band and bow tie which he had cut from the same material began to unravel as fast as he cut them, so I finished the edges. We also added accessories this time. I found Mike a nice teapot for 75 cents at a thrift store and I carried a cup and saucer. We were a total hit at the church halloween party. Kids told us they knew us from Disneyland or asked us where the cat was. The icing was probably when we were picking up some real food, well fast food, on the way home from the party (which just had desserts) and a lady in front of us asked us where we rented our costumes! For all the work that went into them, you may just find the Mad Hatter and Alice around again next year, but more than likely we will get ambitious again next year and try something new.