Written by Casey Ashenhurst
One year when I was little, my mom took me out trick-or-treating and it was the first time that we went around the whole neighborhood, not just to the people we knew. I knew she was going to let me stay up “really late,” (9pm) so I could be out the whole time trick-or-treating was happening. My mom told me that on the way home, my eyelids drooping, my little witch’s hat slightly askew, I looked up at her and said, “Mommy, I love Halloween. It is my favorite holiday, even more than Christmas!”
“Even more than Christmas!” my mom said. “Why is that?”
“Because at Christmas it is your family who gives you presents and stuff, but on Halloween everyone is nice and gives you candy just for knocking on their door!” I replied. “Plus you get to dress up.”
I’ve always loved Halloween, and I still do. Part of it is that I love that time in the middle of fall: when the leaves have all changed colors but aren’t quite off the trees, when people start selling fresh apple cider, and when the days are crisp, cool, and sunny. Part of it is that I like the Halloween spirit: spooky things and mystery, full of fun and mischief. Another part of it is that I’ve always liked dressing up and playing pretend, and it seems like Halloween is one of the few acceptable times for adults to do this unless they’re an actor or some other profession that requires it.
But as I’ve gotten older, my favorite thing about Halloween has become the joy and creative satisfaction I get from making my Halloween costume happen. When I was little, my mom always made my costumes, and eventually I got old enough to help. If anything, we might buy parts, and then make the rest or alter the parts somehow. Once I got to the age where I became responsible for getting my costume ready by myself, it hardly even occurred to me to go out and buy one, because figuring out how to put one together had always been part of the Halloween fun. Plus, while I’ve never been the best drawer or painter, I love being inventive and artistic through crafting, and I like to think putting together my own costumes helped nurture my crafty side from early on.
So, when we decided to do a Costume Creations Workshop, I was really excited to help cultivate the DIY spirit in the next generation of crafters. Lindsay, my partner in crime, is also an experienced homemade costume maker, and we started brainstorming as soon as girls started signing up. We wanted to know what everyone wanted to be, and what they wanted to make, so that we would have some ideas for the girls’ projects when they came to the workshop. We knew we’d only have three hours, so it was important to be prepared so we could be as efficient as possible.
The workshop itself was structured like a 3-hour work session. Each girl came knowing what they wanted to be, and had ideas for what they wanted to make, so as soon as they came in, Lindsay and I gave them a mini-tour of where all the supplies were, quickly came up with a few ideas for starting points together, and then they were off! Most girls started by gathering the materials they needed, which is an essential first step when embarking on any crafting endeavor.
While we have a lot of different materials at the office, there were a few different limitations the girls had to work with: first, no sewing machine. Lindsay and I wanted the workshop to stay DIY, and most of the girls weren’t at the age where they could use a sewing machine by themselves, so hand-stitching, adhesive Velcro, safety pins, staples, and hot glue had to suffice for attaching things. The other limitation was that, though we have a ton of stuff, we aren’t a fabric store, or a craft store, and we don’t have everything. So when one girl insisted that she needed 50 green pipe cleaners to make vines, we had to work together to find a different solution, because we didn’t have 50 green pipe cleaners.
Materials limitations in a project can be either stifling or inspirational, depending on how you look at it, but at Curious Jane we like to think of it positively. One just has to figure out a way to “make it work,” as the great Tim Gunn says. During the three hour workshop, there were a few different times Lindsay or I had to quickly brainstorm with girls to think of alternatives, either because we didn’t have enough of what they wanted to use, like the 50 green pipe cleaners, or because the original idea didn’t work out as well as we thought it would. Either way it forced the girls (and us) to problem-solve creatively.
One girl, Rose, was making a sandwich costume, and she was using large pieces of cushion foam to make the bread slices. Lindsay and I had thought it would be no problem to cover the edges of the foam with brown duct tape to make the crust, but after about 20 minutes of trying, we had to admit that the duct tape was just not going to stick, not by itself or with any of the glue we had. It was one of the few times in my crafting life that hot glue completely failed me. Lindsay and Rose had a quick powwow, and decided the quickest way to get brown crust with the materials on hand was to paint it, so Rose put on a makeshift smock and got down to it! The crust turned out looking great.
Another important thing Lindsay and I wanted to keep in mind when DIYing with these budding crafters is to help them manage their expectations. Sometimes a girl will be very comfortable with a rougher, homemade look, and is able to dive into a project hands first and just see what comes out. But other times girls go into a project with a very specific idea of how they want it to look, and can get frustrated when their skills or materials limitations can’t make their project match the picture in their head. We found that by confronting these frustrations head on, each girl eventually got over that hump, let the materials be their guide, and their creativity soared.
All in all, I was really happy with how the workshop turned out. Each girl went home with something they could be proud of, and that will look great when they go out trick-or-treating this Halloween. And who knows? Maybe some of them caught the crafting bug and this DIY costume is only the first of many! I know that’s how it was for me…
