Break It Down: Hallowe'en 2022

In case you hadn't guessed, Hayao Miyazaki is a favorite writer/director in this house full of children. I wish I had done a bit more justice to the costumes, but with the 3 oldest girls gone, we were swimming in a sea of extra chores. I sewed like a mad woman and still had to pull an all-nighter to even get these done, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't have more time for indulging The Crazy.


For Christmas 2021, John gave us the dvd set of Future Boy Conan. Watching it together brightened dark winter evenings, so it was understood that we would have to pay homage to these characters we grew to love. I really, REALLY wanted to be Captain Dyce, but there's no way I could have made the robot in time. Someday, maybe...

Ezekiel was Future Boy Conan himself, replete with multipurpose spear and super-heroic toes.  (Cost: nothing)

Cadence was Lana, a sweet, quiet character who matches our Cadence quite well. (Cost: $10 for the wig.)

                                                            

Aidan HAD to be Jimsy. And even though I try to keep Hallowe'en costumes nearly free, I had no regrets about buying him a wig on Amazon.  (Cost: that glorious wig...I can't remember...$10 +/-)

Jimsy is first introduced into the storyline as a nearly feral child with a hot temper. 

Hehehehe.  

Ransom was Jimsy's piggy, who grows larger through the course of the story.  He was super-cute and actually loved his costume this year! He wanted to wear it every day for a whole week afterward. (Cost: nothing)

Moving on from Future Boy Conan, Skylark made the perfect Ponyo from the movie of the same name.  It was fun to match up some of the children's personalities with a character. Just like pairing Aidan and Jimsy, Lark could definitely be Ponyo.  (Cost: nothing, with thanks to Deborah for the wig!)

I made a huge hem so I could lengthen the skirt after Hallowe'en, and I'm going to remove Ponyo's collar that sticks straight up and add a Peter Pan collar so Lark can use it this summer for a "real" dress. I also need to increase the elastic on those gloriously poofy bloomers because I made the legs too tight, and Skylark loves them. (Which makes me laugh, because they are RIDICULOUSLY poofy!)

Last summer, I cut Luci's hair into a bob, plus, she's about the same age as Millie was when I made her last Nausicaa costume.  I only had to alter Millie's old costume slightly in order to fit her, so Luci was an easy choice for Nausicaa. Since we only had to paint the earrings red and convert them back to clip-ons, it was the easiest costume to pull together.

I wish we had a giant Ohmu to go with the costume, but, alas, Luci had no such luck. (Cost: nothing)

Next up! We actually based these costumes on the book instead of on Miyazaki's film adaptation, but it still fit in the Miyazaki theme even though our costumes don't look much like those in the movie.  Millie and I both loved the book, and Millie identifies with Sophie so strongly that she says, "I AM Sophie!" :)  

In the book, Howl is a dandy who, at times, wears a blue and silver suit (with one blue earring) and Sophie wears all gray. Calcifer is a fire being, so there you have it-- these three.

Millie's costume was a royal mess. She didn't have time to make a mock-up, and after she sewed a third of it, she discovered that the vintage pattern she was using didn't fit her properly, and she didn't have enough fabric to start over.  She gave up in disappointed disgust because she had to leave for VA. In the middle of the night and on Hallowe'en afternoon before they arrived home, I tried to alter the pattern and piece scraps of fabric together to make something work. Bless Millie's heart. I couldn't fix the dress, I ran out of fabric, and it was unfinished when she got home, but she let me close the back of it with 15 safety pins and cover the whole thing with the cape Titi made her years ago, which, serendipitously, looks like something that book Sophie might wear!  All for the sake of traipsing around exhausted for the sake of silly ol' me. 

She said I'm not allowed to post a picture of the whole thing, but I had to include this picture. We were taking pictures all-in-a-rush before Annika left for work, and when the wind blew, I accidentally captured the iced coffee I didn't know Millie was hiding inside the cape. What a girl! (Cost: a few bucks for the remnant fabric Millie bought.)

Susannah was Howl, a fairly easy costume once I altered the vest and painted an earring blue.  (Cost: nothing)

I took some liberties with Calcifer's costume. First off, he's a he, but he's also sassy FIRE with an attitude, so Piper was a perfect fit.  I made this in the middle of the night and two days later had to clean up untold scraps of fire-y fabric off the floor.  (Cost: $1.00)

On to Annika! She dressed as No Face from Spirited Away:
I cut out a No Face mask from an old cutting board and painted it the day prior, but I made most of Annika's costume the day of Hallowe'en, while she was traveling back from VA, so I had a few moments of panic that it wouldn't work as I jerry-rigged a bike helmet, dowels, scrap fabric, and duct tape into an imposing costume. It was perfect, though. Little 5' 3" Annika towered over us at six feet tall, and it was easy to remove when she got into the car. (Cost: nothing)

She looked like the real thing until she pulled out the hang loose and peace signs. They're both dead giveaways that a Nixie is under there. 

I ran completely out of time and thought that I wouldn't be able to trick-or-treat at all, which made me quite sad. Andrew and Corynn were here to witness my ten-minute frenzy in which I whipped something out of nothing and ended up getting out of the door in a passable imitation of Captain Dola from Castle in the Sky. (I may have traumatized them a bit as Abigail With Wild Eyes wearing her husband's pajama pants braided Millie's wool fiber into braids and stuffed my clothes with cotton batting.)  I'm still a little sad that I couldn't squeeze more time out to do her justice. She needs real lace cuffs and a giant set of pistols!!!!  Ah, well. One can't have everything one wants. Contentment and all that...  (Cost: nothing, with thanks to Rebecca for the earrings!)

And that's that for Hallowe'en 2022! I'm hoping for one more with all of us, but, who knows-- this may have been our swan song. If so, at least we went out with a bang.