Success!

I have blogged before about how being a mom has made more evident my weaknesses but I have learned that it has also brought out many strengths, some I didn't even know I had.  I have learned this as I have been getting Caleb's first Halloween costume together.  I had originally imagined we would do something store bought and easy.  When I ventured into Dad-land and asked Wes if he had ideas of what Caleb should be for Halloween, he chose very quickly Frodo Baggins.  For those of you out there who are not a junior high boy, don't know a junior high boy, or someone who was a junior high boy at some point; Frodo is the main character in Lord of the Rings, a hobbit. (This is a special set of movies for Wes individually and also for us as a couple, it was the first major movie watching series for us when we were dating.)

As any normal, not particularly crafty mom would do, I began searching the internet for a costume just Caleb's size that I could purchase.  Not only did I not find any for smaller than child size, they were all also over $40.  So, I decided to attempt to make this very important first costume.

My first stop was at JoAnn's Fabrics, the remnants section.  I got a great deal on some dark green fleece for the cloak and a mustard yellow fabric(I know, it's not the same color as the picture above but it worked) for the vest; they were also 50% off!  I knew Caleb already had some brown shorts/pants and white dress shirt.  I found a leaf button for the Leaf of Lorien for the cloak, some brown trimming ribbon and brown buttons to add to the vest.  I already I had a plain gold ring and chain from a play I was in and Wes found a small toy sword.

To make the vest, I used a sweater vest of Caleb's as a template and traced on paper the shape for both the front and the back of the vest.  The hood of the cloak was a little trickier, I again used a piece of clothing as a model for how to create the hood and how to attach it to the cloak.  After only about an hour on my mother-in-laws sewing machine, a stomach bug, and about 10 minutes worth of button sewing I was able to transform this...

                                
                                    into this...

Add a few accessories and an 11 month old and you have this...

As a solute to my hard work and complete success at this first Halloween project, we took Caleb to JCP for some portraits in his costume.  At first the photographer, Wes, and I were excited and having fun as Caleb was his super cute self and wandering around babbling and getting into things (particularly the plastic prop pumpkins).  By the end of this short photo shoot Wes and I felt like this...

After chasing Caleb and desperately trying to get him to stand still for enough seconds for the picture to be taken.  It didn't help that our photographer didn't seem to understand that he was not going to stand still and to be ready to snap away the second we let go of him.  Despite the craziness we did manage to get a few good pictures.  All this to say, as a mom you just might find a dormant skill/talent you didn't even realize you had.

Happy Halloween!!