Great sewing machine company and more Halloween costume madness

I love to sew. I have been sewing since i was 7 when i got a battery powered sewing machine. My mother bought it for me hoping that i would take to it and keep busy while she was sewing. Little did she know, it only made me long for the power locked within her now 60 year old pale green metal monster Elna. That thing can sew through anything!

I would wait until i had the house to myself at 10 or so and thread up that Elna and off i would go. My crappy hot pink and purple toy machine taught me how to thread a machine so it fed the beast inside... and creativity was hatched from the deep recesses in my brain.

As an adult, i still have a penchant for old super heavy metal sewing machines and love my Old Faithful which is a 50 year old yellow Singer in a blue and white box. Old Faithful lived in a friend of mine's garage for some 30 years in the damp climate of Vancouver BC Canada where it rains more than it shines. That pup got plugged in and off it ran -- no sweat at all! All i really needed to do was Febreeze the box which smelled like mold. (worked like a charm on the wood too).

Sometimes i have found over the years that i hanker for a new machine. They have all these fancy features like one touch button hole makers and a multitude of stitches. This past January i caved to this covetous leaning and picked up a Brother CS 5000H. I couldn't believe the lightness of the machine. No back breaking labor to pick this sweetie up, i could tote it in one hand. I threaded her up and off we went on a journey of leaf and vine stitches, single touch button holing and a great interlock stitch that is virtually like a serger without the cutting blade. FUN!!

Alas, all this good sewing came to an abrupt end this weekend. The needle arm seized on me like a crocodile on a fried chicken. No efforts to free the arm would rectify the situation. I chalked it up to the affordability of the machine and the paces i put the poor thing through with my home based business. I figured i would go back to Old Faithful or need to buy a new machine for all those fancy stitches. It came to me that i should perhaps call the 1-877 number on the Brother website.

I gave them a call yesterday and was told that they are shipping me a brand new upgraded machine to my doorstep this week and all i have to do is ship the old broken machine back. In this day of "ain't my fault" companies that shirk any kind of responsibility for faulty products or low quality manufacturing, it is SO refreshing to find a company that backs up it's products with excellent customer service and reliability. I highly recommend a Brother sewing machine and know i will be dealing with them for any additional sewing machine needs.

Now for some new costumes recently made:

6 costume from Shane Ackers' Movie 9 above. Below, a toddler cobra costume requested in green and blue.




Here is a toddler Hedwig costume. Hedwig is the owl from Harry Potter. Requested with horns.



Here is a dinosaur costume based on the dino from the movie Toy Story.

Halloween Costumes Central... how may i help you?

Halloween is almost upon us again and i cannot be any happier. While i love the summer months, my natural pasty pallor, my October birthday and my morbid sense of humor has led me for most of my life to consider Autumn and Halloween the best time of the year. The smell of crisp leaves with a touch of frost in the Canadian air sets me all a'thrill.

I am the grown daughter of a Halloween obsessed costume maker and took up the gauntlet myself as soon as i lived on my own. I have been making costumes as a hobby for some 20 years now. I make all my patterns myself and just dive right into that pile of fabric.

Here is my charming little housefly son from last year.


Buzz buzz... don't want to shoo that fly away, he's too cute -- and he has a cookie!

My daughter has a penchant for sushi much like her mama. Here she is be-decked last year complete with wasabi cap and chop sticks. Much to her chagrin, most of the people in our rural neighborhood believed that she was a hockey puck... i guess you see what you know.



This is a terrible picture of a cute costume. This was made for my daughter when she was only 4. She was a real Reptar fan.


The next year, she was a metallic blue dragon. The body was scales with rippled blue lame scales down the belly and iridescent blue wings. The head piece fit like a hat.


Sometimes, waiting for Halloween is just too long. Here is the costume i made for my son when he was 1... just in time for Easter.


As many people who know me can attest to, i have a real love for sock monkeys. One year, i decided to be one for Halloween. Here's the costume. This sold on Ebay - used - for $200.oo.

When my son was one and a half, Fall was a cold time of year for a fair child with very little hair. This made an interesting idea boil forth in my mind. If he had no hair, could i make him a costume with hair? What kind of hair would i make? Well naturally, a POMPADOUR... Elvis has left the potty!


Another family obsession is pirates. Here is my dear daughter when she was 6 as a cute an cheeky pirate. Oh those buttons were so much fun... without a button holer on my sewing machine.



Below is a custom request for an Ewok costume i made just today for a friend's daughter... my son is a willing model.


Here's another custom order i made for this year's Halloween. It's Max in his wolf suit from Where the Wild Things Are. The person who ordered this will have fun rumpussing for sure!


I just revel in costume making. I take custom orders and make up as many costumes as possible each year for Halloween. If you would like to have me make you something, check me out via my Etsy store or leave me a msg. here. Cheers!