Spring 2022 - Ian acquires a very cool light saber with money he has saved from gardening for his grandmother.
Monday- 7 days before Halloween...
Ian: Mom! I want to be a Jedi Knight for Halloween! All in black!
Me: OK. What do you need?
Ian: Any black karate Gi or bathrobe, whatever. I just want to be all black.
Me: Let's go thrift store shopping tomorrow.
(This does not happen)
Thursday - 4 days before Halloween...
Me: Ian, look for a costume online to order because time is really short to make you a costume.
Ian: Here's what I want on Amazon, but in black. Oh, bummer, delivery is Nov 4th. Can't you just make something really quick?!?
Me: Well...maybe I can. It's kind of a busy weekend. Let's print out a picture and I can go shopping tomorrow when you're at school. I'll see what I can find.
Friday - 3 days before Halloween...
I go to one thrift store and find it's pretty picked through for possible black clothes. I decide to make the costume. I have skills and an old bathrobe pattern. I think to myself, oh, this will be easy. Then I go to the fabric store. I find three black pieces of fabric that I think will look cool. Luckily Ian has black pants already.
Saturday - 2 days before Halloween...
Me: Ian, this is the fabric I got. Tell me how you want to use them in the costume.
We spend an hour discussing design. Then I throw the the fabric into the washer. I hate sewing on fabric that hasn't been washed. The day gets busy with life stuff after that.
Sunday - 1 day before Halloween...
We're at a rowing regatta ALL day.
Monday - Halloween Day
7:45am - Ian goes to school.
8:00am - I discover I have to redraft the pattern because Ian is no longer kid size.
10:00am - I start cutting. There are 5 major pieces that make up the costume.
12:30pm - I stop for lunch because I'm starving, having fasted since dinner the night before. Life stuff comes up.
2:00pm - I start sewing. Mad dash sewing. With lots of shortcuts. But not as many I could have taken, because, as a past professional costumer and seamstress, it's difficult for me to take too many shortcuts.
I love Original Star Wars. Even though this costume is a later version of Jedi Knight clothing, I am having fun making something cool for my son. I couldn't stop to take in-process pictures.
The only thing I wished for was an industrial sewing machine for all the straight seams. My home machine is really slow when I need to perform mad dash sewing.
4:30pm - Ian comes home from school, sees me sewing, gives me happy hug, then runs off to get a snack.
5:30pm - I finish the costume except for a fitting. We stop to eat dinner.
6:00pm - A quick fitting. I have to shorten the sleeves and add more velcro to the belt so it won't fall off. The robe is bulkier than anticipated.
6:30pm - a Round of impatient (on Ian's part) picture taking for Tony and I.
6:45pm - Ian goes to his first Halloween party with friends since moving to Portland (moving = no friends, Covid = no friends, 2022 back to in-person school = friends!). He left wearing rain coat and galoshes because it's Portland and it was pouring rain outside.
10:00pm - Ian comes home super happy. He LOVED his costume. His light saber made it back home in one piece too.
11:00pm - I'm passed out asleep in bed...
