Wednesday, December 17, 2008

She has a sheep costume now (such as it is).

My hood turned out beautifully. Turns out I still know how to work the sewing machine. Of course you can't see my handiwork THROUGH ALL OF THE COTTON BALLS. After my prideful How hard can it be?, it was the cotton balls and glue that got me. I ended up getting so involved with the sticky mess, I actually cotton-balled the front of the sleeves too. If you'll remember from the picture of the distressed Halloween-er, the sleeves are left alone. To save myself from having to glue the back, and to save my Little Lamb from standing out in the crowd (in a bad way, like Someone's mom didn't know what she was doing!), I cut the sleeves off and bought the Princess a new, long-sleeved black shirt to wear underneath. Which, turns out, is really how you're supposed to do it in the first place...this for those who actually read the instructions really carefully. In my defense, the instructions are sketchy at best about the detailed parts (like making a hood, for example), so my expectations of the instructions were set low to begin with.

In retrospect, had I actually read all of the instructions carefully, I would have bought a white leotard and gone with the same plan in cutting off the sleeves and putting a black shirt underneath. This would have kept the black from showing through the cotton balls when my Little Lamb stretched out the leotard fabric. I'll remember that next time. Wait! There won't be a next time because I am NEVER doing this again! Never will I glue on a thousand cotton balls to anything, especially with stringy, stinky Fabri-Tac. And if I try to pull off another Halloween Resolution next year, PLEASE, someone kindly remind me about the Great Sheep Debacle of 2008. I want nothing to do with costume making. Unless the costume is made of scrapping paper or cake frosting. Because those are the only two crafting materials with which I can work with some proficiency.

My proficiency with sheep costumes was somewhat dampened by my moral attitude at the time of the costume making. It didn't help that my little audience girl had much to say. After I cut out the black and white ears, she said, "Those are panda ears, Mommy! I'm not a panda!" She said that a few [hundred] times and then...followed up with a suggestion: "Maybe you have Daddy do this." I'm pretty sure she knows now what the expression If looks could kill means.

Back to me NEVER doing this again...that Fabri-Tac is some nasty stuff. Not only am I still floating from the fumes, but it also went all the way through the leotard and through the towel I was working on to leave a mark on my beautiful dining room table. So if you factor in all the materials--leotard, black shirt, tights, 3 bags cotton balls, 3 bottles Fabri-Tac, fleece for hood, black and white flannel for ears--and one dining room table, the cost of this costume my Little Lamb will wear for 5 minutes comes to
$1, 542.00.

If you need me, I'll be in my favorite chair sulking. And picking glue and cotton fibers off my fingers.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm laughing so hard right now Katy! Despite what you felt were set backs it looks wonderful. You did a terrific job. I'm still wondering if I just can't stuff my kid in some giant ball of pillow stuffing and claim my kid has an allergy to glue.

Kathleen said...

Am trusting you are laughing WITH me and not AT me! Ha. Ha.

CrossView said...

I'm sooo laughing at you! And if you're laughing, I'm laughing with you, too! =P

It turned out precious!

Of course, with your little lamb it can't help but look adorable!

Anonymous said...

With you. Really. At least you have a sense of humor about the whole thing. I'm sure that after I have completed this same project someone could write a song about my attitude called "The 12 Sins of Christmas".

dclouser said...

5AM is too early to laugh so hard! I hope you get lots of pictures of the Little Lambie in the pageant - I'm sure she'll look adorable as always.

Rebecca said...

HOOT!!! It's absolutely adorable!!! Next time, you might try spray foam. ;^) Sorry. That was baaaaad.

Bendiciones!!!
-- Rebecca