My Hallowe'en Costume! Part One

Hello, everyone! I promise that I have not abandoned this blog; I had a sick little boy, which sort of put everything else out of my head. He's fine now; in fact, it didn't seem to slow him down much at all, although I can't say the same for myself! After that little episode, I was kept very busy planning and executing (and cleaning up after!) my annual Hallowe'en bash. I'll share those pictures later, but I'm so excited about my costume that I just had to show it first! I decided to divide this into three separate posts; one to show the finished costume, and two subsequent posts to show the details of the coat and the jodhpurs. I actually stopped to take pictures while making the coat (don't get too excited; I took the pictures with my phone, so they're not great)! Here it is:


If only the Vintage Baroness and I could have attended the same party; take a look at her ridiculously awesome costume...wouldn't we have made a great pair?

Everyone thought that I was Amelia Earhart, although my original intention was to be Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The fact that a huge number of people had never heard of either woman and had no idea what my costume was supposed to represent was very disheartening. Darned American educational system! There were quite a few children, though, who yelled "Amelia Earhart!" at me, so they must still study her in school (and then forget all about her when they become adults)! Of course, my ever-complimentary husband decided that I looked like the creepy kid in "A Christmas Story"who stands beside Ralphie in line to see Santa.


I found the hat and the vintage welding goggles at a flea market a few weeks before Hallowe'en. I had been planning to make my own hat, but since I found this one, I took the faux leather that I had bought for the purpose and used it on the pants instead. It turned out to be a luckier find than I thought; the coat and jodhpurs took much longer than I had anticipated, so I wouldn't have had time to make the hat anyway!


The boots were a lucky ebay find; I had been looking for boots like these for months, and I finally found this pair, reasonably priced and only a little bit too big for me, a few weeks before I needed them. Fate! The scarf is made from white crepe, and the shirt is from Banana Republic via Goodwill.


And a good time was had by all! It just about killed me to get a store-bought costume for Henry; I actually have a child's pattern for jodhpurs and a little bomber jacket, and I was planning for us to be Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Alas, I ran out of time...maybe next year! He's really into Mickey Mouse right now, though, so he was pretty excited to wear this, as you can see!

Here is a photo of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. In addition to being a pioneer of women's aviation, she was also a well-published author.


Stay tuned for the details on the coat and jodhpurs, and for some pictures of my party!