[meleliza]

Bo peep and little lambs! I am prepared to be overcome with cuteness. Mine are in fact preparing for next year when I stupidly gave them the idea to be Jedi knights and princess Leah. Not the gold bikini, mind, the big white robe. 🙂

[meleliza]

Just remembered that Clever Charlotte did butterfly wings one Halloween. They we lovely! I did huge sparkly fairy wings for tinkerbell last year and they weren’t so hard, the store bought ones were tiny and Tink’s wings should be huge. Kitty looked like a Mummer, her wings were so big. (Oh bother, no one will know what a Mummer is. Sigh.)

[scgoble]

I couldn’t tell you what a Mummer is, exactly, but I have heard of them! Does that count?!

[aprilshowers]

I know what a Mummer is! You must be from near Philly?

I’m making a giant orange M&M out of felt. I got the logo on last night – it looks so cute! But I do have a question regarding construction. I’ve got a big brown felt circle for the inside layer and a slightly larger orange one for the outside layer. I was going to sew them together and stuff with poly-fil so that the brown stays flat and the orange puffs out. Identical pieces for the other half, shoulder straps and she can wear it like a sandwich board. My question is, though, that if the circumference of the circles is different, how should I ease in the orange felt? I am not at all an expert so would love some advice from those of you more experienced than I am!

My other daughter is going to be a dragon with a tutu. The skirt and tail have been made but I need to figure out the wings. She wants them out of this shiny silky fabric which is going to be a challenge. Thankfully there is still plenty of time!

[Sarvi]

I only know mummers (lowercase) as actors. I think there’s also an R.E.M. album called Mummer? But you’re capitalizing, so I’m guessing it’s some specific thing you have in mind.

I’m not sure I’m visualizing the M&M construction correctly, but could you do it like the pockets on the Puppet Show shorts? Sew a basting line and gather it a bit to fit?

[Lightning McStitch]

That little M&M sounds adorable. I’d suggest some really thick interfacing like pellon for the side you want to stay flat. and then as Sarvi said use two rows of gathering stitches to ease the larger orange circle onto the brown one all the way round. Cute!

[lattemama]

Yes Sarvi – reading Game of Thrones introduced me to the mummers = actors.

I’m guessing it’s some kind of moth?

We don’t do Halloween much. Although it has grown a lot here in the last few years.

My girls have asked to go trick-or-treating in the neighbourhood, but since there is complete anarchy in when you go trick-or-treating here (three or four consecutive days is not unusual) I don’t want them to because they’ll only encounter grumpy neighbours. I know I am one when a group of kids show up on November 4th begging for candy. Some of them aren’t even dressed up. They just stick out their bag and expect me to give them candy.

We do All-Hallow’s Read instead and go visit my grandfather’s grave site to light a candle for him. They do get a little bit more Saturday night candy instead on All Hallow’s Eve.

Haha – I sound like the grumpiest Mum ever!

[meleliza]

I’m not sure you all really want to know, but I’ll sum it up quickly. Mummers are a distinctly Philly tradition. They are clubs of amateur string bands and other brigades who practice all year long culminating in a huge parade on New Years Day. It’s thought to derive from some folk festival brought here by German immigrants (the word Mumme is German for mask, so probably there is some root in the word as actors too) and has evolved into a very Philadelphia specific street festival. Living as close to Broad St in the center of town, we get a lot of it. Anyway, they were these outrageously elaborate costumes characterized by immense and very heavy back boards. Kitty’s Tinkerbell wings from last year were so big, she looked like a little Mummer. http://www.phillymummers.com/#

Trickor treating here has changes a lot from when I was a kid. There’s so much worry about what is safe. Small towns in the suburbs usually designate a specific time window for kids to be out. Here in the city, a few of the fancy neighborhoods host events centered on a park and its surrounding streets. We travel to a nicer part of town where we have friends for trick or treating. Our neighborhood isn’t very family friendly. But my kids get a long weekend for Halloween (All Saints is a Holy Day and they’re in Catholic school) so we can really party.

[juliamom2009]

So, my child has decided to be a volcano for Halloween. I actually think this is one I can pull off! I don’t imagine there will be a lot of little girl volcanoes trick-or-treating, so I admire her creativity!

[needlewoman]

Goodness, where on earth did Julia get that idea? And the fact that you feel confident about making ‘a volcano’ is even more astonishing. How do you plan to tackle it?

[needlewoman]

PS; yes, I do think you can be pretty confident that she will be the only girl-volcano LOL. What an original child!

[meleliza]

That is seriously original!

[juliamom2009]

She got the idea because she is obsessed with two things right now – volcanoes and bees (not related to each other). We watch videos of both volcanoes erupting and bee hives on Youtube. I don’t know how she got obsessed with volcanoes, but the bee obsession is because she got stung a few weeks ago.

I’m going to use the bubble dress pattern – I’m going to make it big, and maybe put a layer of fleece in to give it some body. I plan to make it about calf-length. The “lava” will be erupting from the neckline, oozing down the bodice. I’m going to make some type of headgear with some “flames” coming out of the top. We’ll see how it works out!

[Robin]

Would love to make an Annie Hall costume out of the art museum vest and trousers. No sure my 7 year old would get it.

[Mama_Knowles]

So clever on the volcano costume! I would have never though of it.