I have no more time left to offer…

Why is it that things end up making extra demands on your time, when you have the least time to give?  Honestly?  This year when the girlie said she wanted us all to be pirates I was thrilled.  I knew I wouldn’t have the time to commit to sewing all of our costumes from scratch.  Not with the backlog of photo edits I’m still working through from this Summer, and with the provincial election at the same time too?  Definitely not the time I’d normally devote to our costumes.

“Pirates?” said aye.  “Arg!  Pirates we be.”

Well…  the whole pirate theme was going great…  until last night.  And well… even for part of today things were still okay.  LMAO  And then it fell apart.  Literally.

For the last few weeks we’d been picking up a piece of gear here, a bit of booty there.  Slowly building up our stockpile.  Then it was one day of intense shopping, and one day of alterations, and we’d be all set.  Or, well, that was the plan anyway.

So we do our shopping.  We’ve got everything we need.

For Damon:  Jacket, pants, shirt, sword, hook, eye patch, boot tops.

For me:  dress, cuffs, hat, cape.

For the kid:  dress, hat, scarf, boot tops, sword, cape.

The next day I begin the alterations.

I take in the girls dress at the sides, and around the neck.  Tighten up the sleeves some.  Take in quite a bit on her boot tops.  Sew the cape right onto her dress.  And presto finito.

I pull the buttons of the trench coat we got for Damon, replace them with antique brass buttons we have in our button stash.  Rip the seams out of his boot tops, and sew them back together correctly (they were sewn together wrong and had to be completely redone, but for the price, I didn’t mind).  Then we realized that he could really use some flashy trim on his jacket.  So that got added to the list for today.  *Shop For Trim*

I put on my dress – which I love btw – walk over to the mirror to see where it needs to be taken in (it’s a one size fits all jobbie, which clearly doesn’t REALLY fit all if you want it to fit well) only to discover that the fabric has pulled apart.  Now.  There are some fabrics that really require certain types of stitching… if you stitch them incorrectly the fabric just shreds and pulls apart at the seam.  This was the case.  So, because I love this dress so much, I figure we can still make this work.  I just need a new one that hasn’t yet pulled apart.  If I reinforce the seams before they fray and shred with fabric glue, it should hold.  Allowing me to do the work that needs to be done in the sides and back, and wearing it without issue.  Add it to the list for today.  *Exchange Damaged Dress*

So today we head out to exchange the damaged dress.  Called around and found a shop that had one in stock.  Headed over there only to discover that the one in stock was in worse shape than the one I had.  We returned the dress I had, and tried another store that we didn’t have a phone number for.  They had one in stock as well…  and it too had already pulled apart at the seams.  I can’t help but wonder how many wardrobe malfunctions this particular costume will cause come Halloween night.  I also can’t help but wonder if any of the exposures will result in lawsuits.  Yikes!  We tried one last spot, and nothing.

Although I wasn’t happy about it, this left us with one last option.  The fabric store.  We bought a pattern and a bunch of fabric (as well as trim for the hubbies jacket).  Everything we bought was on sale, but it still ended up being more expensive than we’d hoped…  but what else is new.  I always spend more than I’d hoped when I hit Fabricland.

So, for the last eight hours I’ve been sewing.  Cutting, pinning, and sewing.  And tomorrow?  Tomorrow I’ve got another several hours ahead of cutting, pinning, and sewing.  SEW not part of the plan.  SEW don’t have time for this.  But honestly?  I just can’t disappoint my baby girl.

Lily-Ann loves Halloween and Samhain as much as I do.  And it’s one of those few special high holy days that we can really celebrate in and take part together FULLY.  So if I end up putting in an extra 12 hours of unexpected work, then I put in an extra day and a half.  Even if I don’t like the costume I’m making for myself, I know she’ll love it.  And it means we get to be pirate family.

And YES!  The photo shoot for the evening before the party is on.  🙂  Only, it won’t be my cousin Jamie taking the pictures.  It will be my friend Yolanda.  So once these costumes are finished (sooo looking forward to them being finished, my back just can’t take this many hours hunched over a sewing machine without rebelling) we’ll have a lasting memento.  The last Saskatchewan pirates all together for a family photo beside the River Saskatchewan.  Arrrrr!

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Thanks for making supper today Mom and Dad.  It was SOOOOO appreciated!