Strawberry Shortcake

Ok, I know that Halloween was a ridiculously long time ago. However, I want to remember this past Halloween, if anything for the hours and hours I poured in to making the costume – ridiculous, I know.

I’m not the best “go with the flow” type mom – okay that’s not entirely true, just mostly related to what she wears. I know one day I’ll have to somewhat hand over the reigns and actually let my child decide what she wants to be for Halloween. Let’s face it, at 4 she changes her mind all the time anyway, so I’m just helping to guide her on the right path, right? Okay, not really, but while the fight is not too great, I relinquish control. When we were thinking about what to be for Halloween, we went through the possibilities of all the princesses, and I was looking for some inspiration. Cha-ching! It hit me. What about making an adorable vintage strawberry shortcake costume, like the one’s I played with as a child. Problem is, they reinvented Strawberry Shortcake to make her more current, hip, and cool – what’s up with that? So getting Madeleine convinced she wanted to be that Strawberry Shortcake was a little tricky. I checked out the vintage Strawberry Shortcake DVD at the library and had her watch it. That helped her warm up to the idea, but she still wasn’t 100%. She called it “the little Strawberry Shortcake” because in the old version their houses were all humongous looking cakes with gigantic fruits all around – something I never really thought about. I wasn’t deterred! I told her she would have the cutest purse and next year she could be … (fill in the blank, because you know as well as I that next year she’d come up with a different idea altogether). Done!

I of course should have planned ahead and started way ahead of time, but that’s not how I roll. I did paint the tights ahead of time. In case you were wondering, it’s near impossible to find green and white striped tights for little girls. So there I was the day of our church Halloween Trunk or Treat, sewing like a mad woman (and to set the scene further, going through some pretty intense miscarriage pains), but I was bound and determined to get it done! I did, just in the nick of time, and she LOVED how it turned out so that made it so fun. She won a best costume prize at church, which you wouldn’t think would be a big deal to her, but it was and that’s part of the fuel for my madness. Luckily the costume got tons of use – Ward Trunk or Treat, to preschool, dance, friend’s party, and Halloween itself.

Madeleine and Cammie Jane– they are cousins and close friends

Her token silly face…

So you can see the back detail. The pinafore was the biggest pain because I just had to make it up as I went. Really happy with how it turned out!

    

And so I have it noted for posterity, the year before she was Madeline from the Ludwig Bemelman books and I was Miss Clavel, the nun over the school.