Happy Halloween!

Remember the Wonder Woman cape I had fun modeling? It looks so much better on AnnaMay, its intended wearer!

Jen posted some wonderful photos of AnnaMay wearing her Wonder Woman costume on EPBOT recently, and said I could share them on my blog as well. You can also see the boots I made to go with the cape in the pictures. =)

Here are two of my favorites (read Jen’s post to see a few more pictures including a group shot of superheroes!):

AnnaMay in her Wonder Woman cape!

Good photo of the Wonder Woman “boots” I made to cover her sneakers. (They fit! Yay!)

I got the best email from AnnaMay’s mom earlier this week:

We went to camp this weekend in the mountains.  All of the families that go have at least one child with autism or sensory disorders like AnnaMay. We shared our cabin with another family who had 2 children. One of them was a 5 year old little girl.  We were getting ready for the Halloween carnival and I was helping AnnaMay with her costume.  We went to put the cape on and the girl came over with huge eyes and asked AnnaMay if she could fly.  AnnaMay told her no. The girl leaned in and very earnestly said, “I bet you could with that cape if we got you up high enough.” I thought you might enjoy knowing you made a cape so awesome it made a 5 year old believe AnnaMay could fly…

And here’s a great shot taken by AnnaMay’s mom of the whole costume:

I can’t tell you how much this makes me smile!

So the job I’ve been working for the past few of months for a holiday display has been postponed for a year. (Bummer – I have eleventy-million pictures I want to share!) This week, I’m helping finish some costumes at the University of Dallas for a friend who wasn’t able to complete the job due to health issues. And in a couple more weeks I’ll be helping in the Southern Methodist University costume shop for 2 weeks. So I’m keeping surprisingly busy this season!

The detailed posts on how I made the Wonder Woman cape & boots will be coming as soon as I have time to sit down and go through my photos.

And Happy Reformation Day!

Sorry, Edna* – I Say Let’s All Wear Capes!

I finished building a Wonder Woman cape!

Stars go on the outside. They only turned Lynda Carter’s cape backwards to get the beauty shot.

As much as I wanted to keep it, I didn’t make it for myself (which is why it’s so short on me). I made it for a special little girl named AnnaMay.

I first heard about AnnaMay on Jen’s EPBOT blog and was inspired to help make her geeky dreams come true – she wanted to be Wonder Woman for Halloween. (Thanks, Jen, for being the instigator and letting me be a part of the fun!)

I was given the task of building the cape and the boots (both of which will have their own posts about how I made them later) while someone else made the top & skirt, and Jen made bought the accessories (original plan was her making them).

Before I mailed it off to its intended owner, I had fun wearing the cape for some blog photos taken by my mom (Thanks, Mom!). I think we should all wear capes – just because!

Spinning is required when one sports a cape.

I was trying to get a good shot of the back as I spun for the camera, but there was such a shutter delay, my mom and I had trouble timing it. We kept getting the same angle over and over!

So I kept spinning. And spinning. And I got really dizzy. Which gave me the giggles. Which made the whole thing just spiral into silliness.

I’m having way too much fun in these photos! We finally got the back but it was action-shot blurry. I’m calling it art.

I don’t think I’ve been that dizzy since grade school when I would turn in circles until I collapsed to watch the ceiling keep turning above me.

There are two ways to tie a cape.

One way is the standard bow in front:

My typical squinting in the sun smile.

The other is a way to avoid the bow riding up to choke the wearer by wrapping the ties over the shoulders & under the arms (like a backpack) and tying it behind the wearer’s back but under the cape:

No choking possible. =)

It makes me happy that AnnaMay will never outgrow her cape, which is part of the reason I spent so much time on the details.

Appliqué stars with sequins.

She will be wearing it tonight at Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. I can’t wait to see (and share) pictures!

(UPDATE: See pictures of AnnaMay in this post!)

Enjoy your cape, AnnaMay! I hope you proudly wear it to shreds! I certainly had fun test-driving it! =)

And yes, I also ran around my parents’ backyard in it. Capes have a way of making you do things like that.

* “No capes!” (on YouTube)