This was not a good year for Halloween for me.
Limited vacation time
Due to some work issues, I was not able to take as long as a vacation like I normally do. I normally take a week off in September then the last two weeks of October. This year I was only able to take the last week of October off from work. So in September and October I tried to getting things done on the weekends. I did get a few things done but I was not as much as I needed to.
Costume issue
The costume plan this year was to make a Dr Horrible/Steampunk Mad Scientist costume. I did a lot of research looking for a pattern for a Dr Horrible costume. I finally found one I liked. it was a modification of the Simplicity's Matrix costume (5386. I found this web site that shows how to modify the pattern into a Dr Horrible pattern.
It took several days just to modify Matrix pattern. I then cut out the front, back and inner flap and one sleeve from an old sheet and sewed them togther. I ws not happy with the result. I cut the fabric on the Medium size guide lines but when I sewed it together it was too big. So I re-sewed it to the approxomated Small sewing lines. The size flelt better. But the inter flap needs to be wider and the arm holes do not feel right. I think they will need to be made bigger. I was not sure I could make this pattern work in the time I had left.
Time to move on to plan B for this years costume. Plan B was to make a generic Steampunk costume. I made a green double breasted vest which took me two and a half days to make. It has been over 15 years since I made a fully lined garment. I did not even fully finsih the vest. I did not have time to make button holes. So I sewed some hook and eye fasteners on to keep the vest closed.
I wore a white long sleave shirt under the vest and wore black slacks.
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| Kristina and Me (she is my god daughter) |
I bought a black hat that I Steampunked up. It was the best part of my cotume and the easiest to make. I also had a pocket watch, but my vest did not have any pockets.
Power issues
The evening before Halloween, the electrical service to our house went wild and burnt out our two wireless access points, our internet router, two cable TV adapters, the oven controller, the furnace, the refrigerator, the microwave and many light bulbs.
We have been having problems with our electricity. The lights would dim when the furnace or washer and dryer came on. Also the microwave would not heat very well. Then the night before Halloween it started raining and we started getting power surges, and light bulbs burning out. I started turning things off and called the electric company. They came out, turned the power off and took a look. The neutral wire had broken in two places which was causing the house to pull from the other two wire which was giving us 220v instead of the 110v. We did not get power back until about 11:30pm.
Over the next few days we had the furnace repaired for $200, the refrigerator for another $200. We bought a new microwave and the oven needs still needs replaced. I was able to fix the wireless access points, internet router, and tv adapters. That could have been another $300-$400 dollars.
Weather issues.
It rained the day before Halloween and Halloween night. And I kew it was coming so I did not put out as many of my Halloween decorations as usual. I waled up part of our porch and make it into "The Crypt" as I do each year. This year I planned on making the Crypt in to a Mad Scientist Lab. Since I knew it was going to rain I focused my remaining time on the Lab. It was not very convincing as a lab but it work well enough.
Since it was raining Halloween night we did not have very many kids this year. Only around 40. We usually have 80 - 90 kids. I decided to open again the day after Halloween. It was very cold. Only one kid showed up. But she and the mother were very grateful.
Some pictures from Halloween day. More later in other posts.
