Blogtober 22 - Costume Redux

I think I have mentioned (and Dearest Sister has, more than once...) that my mother was an extraordinary seamstress. She could make anything from nothing. She could duplicate a garment by making brown paper sack patterns that she could alter for a perfect fit. She made all the 'special occasion' dresses (and the ordinary occasion ones) when DS and I were little, and for my older sisters until they could sew for themselves.

She made this dress...

...but not for me, originally.

It was a formal for sister V when she was in high school. Later, Mama reduced it for me to wear when I was five or six. It is not a dress made from the fabric of the previous garment. It is the same dress, altered from a misses size 8 or so, to fit a five year old! The exact same dress, down to the details of the rosettes in the net skirt!

It wasn't strictly a Halloween costume, but it was for dress up. (I really didn't have any formal occasions at age five!) I never asked her about what made her decide to do it. I believe DS had a similar 'formal'. I guess Mama just thought it would be fun for little girls to have a really cool dress up dresses!

This is Ms A in the dress, 25 years later, age four. Of course, it is all about the accessories with Ms A! The hat and wand are from the renaissance festival and the gloves and jewelry were from my early days of vintage collecting.

Halloween the year that she wore the dress, was a very cold and misty evening, temps were probably in the 40's. She went out wrapped in a warm shawl, but just before ringing the bell and announcing 'trick or treat', the shawl would be handed over for me to hold, so that no one would be denied seeing the effect of the whole ensemble!

When I was in elementary school, I always wanted (and never got) a store bought costume from the dime store. They always 'looked like' something. I wanted a plastic face mask - (the see-thru kind that looked so creepy!) I always envied the kids who got to trick or treat as the latest 'character'. But I doubt that many of those costumes survived for future generations!

(of course, if they had, they would be worth a lot of money on eBay...)