DEBORAH CROMBIE: As much as I hate to admit it, I am a dreadful failure at Halloween. Not only can I not sew, but I have absolutely NO CREATIVE IDEAS FOR COSTUMES! Neither did my mom, although she sewed, so I was always the poor kid dressed in some awful store-bought costume. I would begin to think this was genetic, except that my daughter (who also can't sew) is pretty creative with costumes--at least once she got old enough to make her own. When she was little, she was the poor tyke wrapped in the ghost bed sheet...
Of course, now there's Pinterest, and I did find a board called HALLOWEEN IDEAS FOR LAZY GIRLS, so maybe if someone would invite me to a party....
Reds, are you costume whizzes? (I know you New Englanders have done some great things at Crimebake.) If you are, tell us where you get your ideas! And if not, join the Halloween Help Line Crew.
And tell us what you're doing for Halloween!
I think we're going to have a perfect crisp, cool night here in north Texas. I'm planning to sit on my front porch and hope for trick-or-treaters. I know I will have at least one!! Wren will be a little ghost, in tights and silver tutu, with a GHOST t-shirt made by a friend of her mom's. Her mom's t-shirt will say "Mummy" and her dad's "Deady." I can't wait!
And although she's not getting candy, I have a little raven finger puppet I saved for her from Bouchercon:-)
RHYS BOWEN: Debs, my kids WANTED store-bought costumes as soon as they went to school and there was peer pressure! But I remember Clare was once a tree! Now that was a challenge. John and I have been to various Halloween parties over the years. One year he had a dark beard and went as the devil with small red horns protruding from his head and upturned eyebrows. He looked very scary and when we stopped to ask directions of some kids they stared at us with big eyes. I was a fallen angel with black wings. One year I was Lady Georgie and John a 1930s aged seducer! I'm amused that my sophisticated teenage granddaughters still like to do Halloween, even though they don't even eat candy. I suppose it's the fun of dressing up.
HALLIE EPHRON: I'm no help at all when it comes to Halloween. Our kids had to make their own costumes... which they tell me was traumatic, showing up at pre-K in a homemade Superman when another kid had on the glossy plastic "real" thing. They have grown up to be fabulous Halloween celebrators and costume makers. Last year my younger daughter made a her one-year-old son a spider; and here's my two girls ready to trick or treat a few years ago. When I look at the picture it cracks me up!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: In the long ago before Youngest was born, I still had my sewing machine set up in our "guest room." I wasn't great - I didn't try complicated princess dresses or stuffed dinosaur tails. But I could competently execute the leopard costume, a witch dress, royal cloaks and tabards, etc. On the grown-up front, I made a spiffy Robin Hood/Maid Marian get-up for me and Ross.
Then things started to slide...the sewing machine got tucked out of the way, I had three kids, and October became a crazy whirl of baking stuff for the class parties, decorating the car for "Trunk or Treat" and dealing with ever-changing and excruciating specific requests from the kids ("I want to be a dinosaur princess!") I started buying good-quality costumes (like Disney princess rigs and dress-ups from the expensive indy toy store) when they were heavily marked down after Christmas. Between those and my collection of old costumes/ old dresses, scarves and hats/ plastic wands and swords I wound up with a couple huge bins the children could plunder at will. I've passed along the child-sized costumes at this point, but the bins are still well-filled with adult outfits and accessories. The Hugo-Vidals stand ready for a Fancy Dress Party at a moment's notice.
INGRID THOFT: Julia, what is trunk or treat?
The only Halloween costume from my youth I can remember is that a Madonna-esque girl during the eighties. Think a miniskirt with funky tights, loads of black rubber bracelets, and lots of glittery makeup. A few years ago, we were invited to a Halloween party, and I wracked my brain trying to come up with costumes that would be easy to assemble yet memorable. I decided on Hugh Hefner and an age-appropriate girlfriend. The hubby wore fancy pajamas with slippers and a pipe. Glasses, gray hair, a house dress, and support hose transformed me into a woman in her late eighties. A caricature, yes, since women in their eighties come in all varieties, but the point was made, and the costumes were a hit.
JENN McKINLAY: I sew and yet it never occurred to me to make the Hooligans' costumes because they always wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, Thomas the Tank Engine, Batman, or Spiderman. All way beyond my skill set. The teen years have been a bit more irreverent as they either wear rubber horse head masks or my personal fave was the year they went as Death and the Crash Test Dummy. As for me, I was the youngest of six. It was always a sheet with eye holes or whatever my mom could cobble together twenty minutes (plaid flannel shirt + straw = scarecrow) before it was time to go and a grocery bag for candy.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, as a kid all I wanted to be--depending on the year--was a princess or a cowboy. The princess outfit was a fabulous piece of silver cardboard stapled into a pointy hat with a pink scarf coming out the top. Which I LOVED. Accessorized by a pink plastic shower curtain cape. Very flowy. I wore it for weeks afterward! Nothing like a pointy hat with a scarf coming out the top to give you confidence, not to mention the cape.
As an adult, I love thinking of costumes. One of my faves was a teabag: In brown leotard and tights,I just stepped into a clear plastic dry cleaning bag, filled it up with torn brown and orange construction paper, and then tied it at the neck. I'd made a Constant Comment tag to hang from the string. A few years ago, Jonathan and I were The Arcs: I was Joan, he was Noah. At CrimeBake, we've been Nick and Nora, and Sam Spade & Bridget O'Shaughnessy, and Harriet Vane & Lord Peter Wimsey. One of my faves was a few years ago: as you see in this photo, we were Albus Dumbledore and Bellatrix Lestrange.
LUCY BURDETTE: having seen Hank’s costumes at crIme bake, I have to say she is a master! And Hallie is no slouch either. I love Halloween and costumes, which is a good thing in Key West where costumes rule, especially if they involve tutus! (See yesterday's post for photos from this past weekend.) Some of my best costumes appeared during my graduate school days, where I suppose we needed to blow off steam. I sewed a very elaborate Kermit the frog – the problem was no one had any idea who was under the frog head so it wasn’t good at a party! Here was my favorite from those days – Lucy as wonder woman.
DEBS: Oh, my gosh, you are all fabulous!!! Rhys, so elegant!!! Hallie, your girls are adorable, and how cute to dress Jody as a spider! (Wren was a chicken. Here she is wearing last year's costume at her gym class last week.)
Lucy, you are the most adorable Wonder Woman, and Hank!!!! You and Jonathan take the cake. Who would have thought Beatriz Lestrange could look so glamorous?
READERS, what about you? Are you fancy dress whizzes? And if so, what's your secret??? And how are you spending Halloween?
Oh, and, Julia, do tell. What is "trunk or treat"?
