(Mostly) Sewing My Own Halloween Costume

I knew when I bought my Halloween costume pattern last July that I was in for a challenge. My only other experience sewing clothing was a pair of simple drawstring pajama pants, and this was a 24-piece, 61-step pattern requiring zippers, stay-stitching, gathering, boning, yolks, and ruffles. Plus something called a "sleeve flange."

But I went into it confident that when I got in too far over my head my mother would bail me out. Which she did. Repeatedly.

Still, I sewed the skirt and the coat mostly by myself. (My mom sewed the bodice, which is why the bodice looks so much better than the skirt and the coat.) And I learned so much on the way, including how to set zippers and how to attach sleeves. I also got to stay up until 3am one night pleating and hemming 27 feet of fabric for the skirt ruffle.

Of course my mother and I were up at midnight a few days before the party working on the finishing touches when my sewing machine broke. On step 58 of 61. My industrious mother got up at 7am to finish the sleeves by hand - and as for me, I took one look at all the yards of fabric left to hem, went to Jo-Ann's, and bought some fabric glue*.

Thank you, Mom, all your help! I couldn't have done it without you!

*I told my friend Stacey that I felt bad about gluing the ruffles and the hem of the coat. "Don't feel bad," she said, "they do that all the time on 'Project Runway'!"