We like Star Wars. The girls have these great books that go through the three original movies with one word per page with an accompanying picture. We talk about the story and fill in the missing parts as we read it with them. (I also got them some other essential classics, like Pride and Prejudice too) It's a great way to introduce kids to quality classics.
The girls love it. We have also shown them clips of the movies and most recently actually watched some with them. Hooray! When we watched The Empire Strikes Back, Sophie had the book next to her the whole time and would check that what was happening on screen matched the book. It was hilarious.
So when Steve said his work was having an office party for May the 4th, it was a no brainier that he would take the girls, and that costumes would be required. The office party was organised on the Thursday, exactly one week and one day in advance of May the 4th. I had one week to come up with three costumes. Challenge accepted.
We bounced ideas around with the girls. Rachel instantly wanted to be Luke Skywalker. Done.
Sophie wanted to be Boba Fett, the bounty hunter. Somewhat more complicated, given the short time frame. (I've no idea why, but the girls just think Boba Fett is the most hilarious character, and they love that he falls down a hole and is eaten by a monster.... are we parenting wrong?) We looked at just ordering one, but there was no garuentee that it would come in time.
Luckily, Sophie was understanding when we explained this to her, and was swayed when I showed her
this R2D2 costume idea. She even started practising her R2D2 whistle.
Steve initially wanted to be an AT-AT, which again, I had to explain was just not going to happen, despite my love of cardboard, and the can of silver spray paint in the laundry. He ended up with a set of generic-looking Jedi robes, that could be Obi Wan or Qui Gon Jinn, depending on how you are feeling.
I took Hugo and Mia to Spotlight with me for material on the Friday exactly one week before the party. Surprisingly I didn't go too overboard with the fabric purchases (usually I panic about not having enough and end up with at least twice as much as needed). It was about $40 for the material, and I only had about a metre of the white left, while I used all the browns. I picked up a pair of grey leggings for Rachel for $2.50, $15 brown boots (both of which she'll be able to re-wear), a $2.50 white shirt for Sophie (again re-wearable), and then two $10 lightsabers. All up that's $80 for three costumes. Not bad, given that $20 of it is re-wearable wardrobe items. And let's face it, those lightsabers are kids toys: totally a tax deduction for someone running a Family Day Care.
I'm pretty happy with how things turned out, though sewing every night (and spare moment in between looking after four children) for a whole week was pretty mad. I loved it, and feel so accomplished, but it was mad. Next time, I need more notice.
Anyway, here is Steve, in full generic-Jedi glory. Lots of layers, though I cheated with the shirt, but simply sewing two collars on, rather than two actual shirts. I also cheated with the extra fabric that kind of hangs over and wraps around the waist. I didn't sew that at all, I just cut strips.
I feel totally ok about that though, because of the time constraint and also, I had no brown thread, so I had to do some tricky sewing to hide lots of seams on the cloak, and that took time.
The belt has a clip for the lightsaber (though Steve just stuck it through the band as well, for security), and also a little pouch on the side, for authenticity.
I used
this tutorial for reference making the Jedi cloak, which was very useful.
Rachel's belt was of the same design, and she loved having her lightsaber clipped on. So thankful I had those clips stashed away in my sewing cabinet. Not for nothing do I take apart every lanyard that Steve brings home and horde the hardware. She was really channelling her Luke Skywalker face.
I self drafted the pattern for both Rachel and Steve's shirts, though the first draft of Rachel's had the sleeves a little too tight around her arms. It would have been fine, but I did have time right at the end to take them off and put on some new ones. Just in time. Steve's cloak may not be hemmed, but at least Rachel could move her arms.
Sophie's R2D2 was actually the first thing I made, because of the great tutorial that I'd found online at
Make it Love it. That said, I had to make some modifications, because the tutorial suggested felt because it's "so inexpensive" which may be true for America, or everywhere else in the world, but not so for Australia, where it was three times more expensive than the material I ended up using.
Because of that change, I had to sew things on a little differently, use interfacing and make some compromises about the features that R2D2 got. Still, I think it turned out ok. Sophie loved how spin-y it was.
And that was that.
They got all dressed up and left me to work, looking after kids while they went to a party. They did win the best costume prize though. Winning.
