Two Boring Engineers Have a Creative Day

Brian and Ben made balloon animals together. Brian tried to make a skeleton and a spider for our room decorations for the church trick-or-treat party. They ended up looking pretty good, though they didn't glow in the black light like we had hoped. The skeleton was the pink panther's skeleton. Brian taught Ben how to twist the balloons and the intricacies of how much you fill the balloons and why you leave a tail on the end of them. He ended up pretty happy with what he made, even if a few tears were shed in the process when some of his attempts popped.

I sewed our annual family theme costumes. This year I chose the Wizard of Oz. Okay, actually, I chose that theme last year. I just didn't finish the costume sewing in time. I was getting pretty close but the clock was quickly ticking down to zero. I had to close the back of my Dorothy dress and attach the skirt to the bodice. Totally within reason. I had Brian cut his own Tin Man pants from my version of a "pattern" which is just an old pair of pajama pants. I trace one side along the edge, meticulously roll the fabric, making sure it doesn't shift and then trace and cut the other edge. Brian followed my directions the best he could while I frantically sewed my dress. He gave me the fabric to whip out his pants. I zoomed around the crotch and down the legs and held them up in total shock and disbelief. The waist line was approximately 10 inches wide. My skinniest girlfriends could not have gotten into those shiny pants.

I resigned to the fact that I had lost the fight for 2007. We pulled out some old costumes from our Houston days, the Flintstones, grabbed our dinosaur costumes for each of the kids and went to the party as Fred, Wilma, Dino and a green dinosaur. Bummer, but still really cute.

On to this year. I still tried my very best to push things right to the wire by procrastinating, but finished just in time. One major complicating factor was the Dorothy dress...I wasn't pregnant when I first started sewing it and I don't really know a great way to alter a dress to make it a 7 month pregnant maternity dress. I got it figured out enough to pass though. I had to put in about 8 extra inches of fabric across the back just to get it to fit me. I didn't put in a zipper at all, I just sewed it shut and slipped it on and intend to alter it when I can to make it fit a normal person. Ah, the adventures in my annual sewing extravaganza.

Other sewing adventures include:

**Using a form fitting woman's shirt as a "pattern" for our Winnie the Pooh costumes. Brian ended up with an Eeyore costume he could barely squeeze into, but had plenty of, well room in the bust...sorry Bri. It might be time for me to buy a real legitimate pattern for Brian's costumes.

**Ben's Potsy match footsie pajamas for his birthday that I sewed the one foot on backwards