Meet The Flintstones!

Halloween around here means I get to sew costumes! My oldest is turning 10 and I have sewn their costumes every year but 1 ( I know, it is hard for me to talk about it. Husband was gone for a couple months and I was 6 months pregnant with 4th baby) I'll admit I am a costume snob. I really don't care what anyone else wears but I have said before "I would rather my kids go naked than buy a costume in a store." Snobby, I know. Sorry.

The year I didn't sew they wore outfits Lee sent when he was in Afghanistan. They did look really cool, I have to say. We called them gypsies

This was the first year I sewed for all 4 and as you can see we went with a theme, as I usually try to do. They were adorable. I am really happy with how the costumes turned out. No actual patterns, just eyeballing and tweaking. You can see it was all simple lines. Found the really cool wigs at Wal-Mart ( yes I shop at Wal-Mart. As my sister would say, I am too poor to shop with a conscience! Besides, Where can you find a $6 red wig?) Betty has a blue bow that you can't see in the pic. Bam-Bam hated the strap over his chest but he loved to hit with the bat. Wilma wore that heavy necklace ALL day! Pebbles wanted to wear a bone in her hair the rest of the week! She really got into Halloween.

Our fun family project was creating the necklaces and bones from Sculpey Light (also from Wal-Mart) Betty's necklace and the bones were very light. I made a spot in the back of Betty's to run the ribbon through which I sewed velcro to. Wilma's beads stayed heavy and turned a little brown since they baked much longer being so thick. Husband painted them white for me. I ran skinny elastic through but it was still very heavy, so I also ran white ribbon.

I put holes in the bones and sewed Bam-Bam's on like a button. I wired Pebbles' bone to a pony tail holder. I could say it was all a breeze except I misplaced the bones! So the day of Halloween I bought more Sculpey and baked new bones. Right after I pulled them out I found the bones on top of the dryer! Of course! Typical! I went in to change the clothes over and set them down on my way upstairs to finish the costumes! So I was stitching bones as Trick-0r-Treaters were ringing the door and we were tryingto get out to go to our church party.

It all worked out though and the kids loved their costumes.

Ok, a few words about costumes, especially to new parents:

If you always pick your kids costumes they won't really know they could have a choice. Several years my oldest has asked "Mom, what are we going to be?" Last year was the first that my mind was blank and the little ones wore hand-me-downs (cool ones of course, made by me) and the big ones picked what they wanted. So new parents, force your kids to be what you want as long as you can to save alot of frustartion finding the one they want. (My sister really thinks this idea is crazy, but it has worked for me! LOL And my kids really have fun because I include them and they give me so many ideas as we are making them.)

My last word is this. In the movie Ratatouille, the Chef says "There will always be food for those who can cook" Well, I would like to say, "There will always be costumes for those who can sew." I am so grateful I know how to sew. A bonus, is I spent less than $40 for 4 costumes. The most expensive part was almost $10 for Sculpey Light and $12 for the 2 wigs. The fabric was only about $10. (Ahem, I am not counting buying another package of Sculpey though) It helps we live in Hawaii, but you can still make it inexpensive with warmer fabrics.

Wonder what next year will bring...