Halloween Costumes Past

As I related stories about my kids' Halloween to exbf, I thought I would share one Halloween. My son was about ten and daughter about eight. That made the baby three.

My son wanted to be the Fonz. If you remember, the Fonz wore a denim jacket at first. So, J wore his denim jacket and jeans and tshirt. The hair was important for the look, if you remember. So, at the last minute I just used Vaseline. As I was relating this to exbf, he moan, groaned, and laughed. The rest of the story I had not told him was that I washed my son's hair at least twice that night, once the next morning and several times a day for two weeks before it even looked like it might come out.

His moan, groan, and laugh puzzle me. But, he and a gang of guys did the same thing in college to attend some sort of musical revue from the same era. He said it took them all three weeks to get out the Vaseline. It appears I am not the only person to use Vaseline for hair pomade.

The daughter wanted to be Wonder Woman. The base for her costume was a red dance leotard. I made the gold wrist bands, head piece. and belt. She was thrilled. Since she had long dark hair, she made the perfect Wonder Woman!

I don't remember what the younger daughter wore! A dance costume would probably be my choice for her. It was so easy to put those costumes on and not have to worry about thinking up something. I probably put makeup on her.

The one other costume I remember was the year the younger was born on September 27, 1975. Kmart had a costume contest. One of the categories was the youngest Spook. I just knew I had this one won.
The baby had a soft, terry cloth sleeper--very pale pink. In my stash of fabric I found some pink fabric and made a bonnet with bunny ears. A pompom stuck on her behind transformed her into a bunny.

Since she was such a floppy/relaxed baby, she could sleep and still allow me to position her where the bunny ears and tail were visible. Her cute little face helped, I thought!

At KMart anxious parents gathered. Of course, the older children and I looked for the young babies. When it came time for judging, we all had big smiles, holding our babies, just knowing our own infant would win. My bunny won by about a week or two. She won a gorilla holding a yellow banana.

This gorilla/monkey holding the yellow banana sat in the corner of her baby bed for a long time. She loved it. Given the choice, she would choose something yellow when she was older. Then, she switched to pink.

My children were also a cowboy, cowgirl, a clown, a devil, ghost and Little Red Riding Hood. Yes, I made all those costumes. I think the older girl won a costume contest for her Wonder Woman costume.

When my daughter was married and living in NYC, she wanted a Wonder Woman costume again. I made all of it with her measurements. It fit perfectly! Whew! I have a picture somewhere, but not on my computer or I would share it.

Since I could sew and imagine, we never bought costumes, just gathered things from around the house or I sewed the costume.

Your turn
Did you ever sew costumes? Gather things from what you had? Buy costumes? Did your children ever win contests at Halloween?