Like a Lamb to the Slaughter

I admit it. I was a little cocky. I may or may not have even snickered a little at the expense of other mommies at my church when the Preschool Director arranged a special get-together for those moms who didn't know how to make the sheep costume. I had already given the instructions a cursory glance and saw the list of materials: bodysuit, cotton balls. So I would be gluing 500+ cotton balls to a body suit. How hard can that be? "It's just a craft," I said dramatically. So I missed the special get-together, and several hours after the get-together I decided to take a closer look at the instructions.

Upon such careful examination, I discovered that they want me to make a hood. And this is the pattern they provided me with:

HUH? Is this supposed to fit a cat or my three-year-old daughter? Thankfully, I have wonderfully crafty friends who possess a great amount of common sense. I called Martha, and she suggested I use an already made hood on one of the Princess' jackets as a pattern. Now why didn't I think of that? Instead of thinking of the obvious, I tend to sit and stress in very un-blissful ignorance when it comes to these things.

So now the only problem is that this seems to require sewing. And I do possess a sewing machine, believe it or not. It's a really fancy one--the Disney model--that my husband bought me; he thought I might monogram some towels or something (I think I hear some more snickering). However, I only use it for making (very simple) curtains and for stitching paper for scrapbooking. And since it's been ever so long since I've made curtains or tried to catch up on my babies' books, the sewing table under which the machine itself is stored is stacked with lots and lots of stuff. Then of course there's the manual. I don't usually read instruction manuals, but when you have to wind bobbins and thread thread through a thousand little loops and hooks, instructions are a good idea.

If I ever get this actually completed (and it's due Sunday), the trick will be to get my little Princess to don the costume and wear it for the 5 minutes she will appear on stage because, well...you tell me: does the little girl from the instruction page LOOK happy that she had to go house-to-house asking for candy dressed like that?

So I'm off to give this the ol' college try. I may have to use the jaws of life to extract the sewing machine, but I'll give it a try. If you need me, I'll have my nose in an instruction manual.