To add to the fun, our friends at Schmetz Needles recorded this at the recent International Quilt Market. Here Tula talks about Nightshade and her new collection The Birds and The Bees, from Freespirit. She also shares her new book called The House of Tula Pink. What fun!
Now that you are properly Tula-fied, tell us your favorite Halloween costume story. Did you make something for your kids and they refused to wear it? Did you blow up purple balloons and make someone a bunch of grapes? How creative were you in your efforts to "celebrate" an occassion that allows you, once a year, to be something other then you?
Six random commentors will be selected to win six, one yard cuts of FreeSpirit Night Shade by Tula Pink. Winners will be selected and announced on June 4. Enjoy!
My best Halloween costume effort was the year my boys dressed up at George Washington and Lord Cornwallis. Even though we were less than 10 miles from Yorktown, Virginia, people would say to Elder Son "I recognize you, you're George Washington." Turning to Younger Son (age 3) they would say, "But who are you?" He would huff in reply and say, "Lord Cornwallis, you know, the leader of the British forces at Yorktown?!"
ReplyDeleteSeventeen years ago (wow!!), I made my three-year-old son the most spectacular Elvis costume ever! It was white satin with a gold "flares" inserted in the bell bottoms and a dramatic gold and white cape. Of course, the whole thing was encrusted with rhinestones, too. As luck would have it, it rained on Halloween, but the local mall (which was thriving way back when) stepped up and hosted trick-or-treating. Will was a huge hit, but my favorite moment came as he was leaving a store and I heard the clerk comment "Elvis has left the building." Such fun!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in third grade, I had my top four front teeth missing (!), so I went as kind of a reverse vampire. I got a long flowy chiffon dress at Ragstock and this highlighter-acid green shawl (I'm not sure why I thought this screamed vampire, but I did). A kid in my class had the classic Bela Lugosi outfit and he was very skeptical of my costume, but I was way more rock n' roll :)
ReplyDeleteI saw a clown custome for my daugther when she was 4 yrs old. By the end of the day she was tired and cranky and she looked pretty funny as a sad clown. Poor thing.
ReplyDeleteMy mother always made our costumes and when I was four I wanted to be Superman (not woman) because Superman was a lot cooler! So she made my Superman costume and I was rad!
ReplyDeleteGrowing up with a couple siblings, we would often take turns wearing the handful of homemade Halloween costumes my mom had made. There was this pumpkin costume that I was quite fond of, complete with a little stem hat. :) Thanks for the chance to win!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween costume was a victorian lady. I spent days sewing a detailed high necked mutton sleeved blouse with a beautiful long skirt. I attended the party as a dead countess.
ReplyDeleteThis line is so creative and different from anything I've seen before. It is just so fun and I love it's uniqueness.
ReplyDeleteI do Halloween BIG every year--my fave holiday. I try to make my husband and I matching costumes every year--2011 we were Thing 1 and Thing 2 (with red footed fleece PJs and blue wigs from Target) and the year before we were Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein.
ReplyDeleteSaw Tula's booth at market, she is as lovely as her fabric. Would be THRILLED to win some Nightshade!
I can remember when I was 11 years old I went Tricker Treating with my friend who dressed as a clown and at every house, everyone commented on her fabulous costume, took photos... I can't even remember what my costume was! hahaha
ReplyDeleteCool...I love to win. The line looked creepy , perfect for a hallo ween project.
ReplyDeleteMy mom made me a sweet wonderwoman costume when I was 7. It was a red leotard with and awesome gold eagle appliquéd to the front. The best part?? I wore it until it tattered... Not just for Halloween!!! Tula makes some lovely fabric!!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't used purple balloons to make someone a bunch of grapes, but I did do the same thing with green balloons :-) I'm more a white wine kinda girl! LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great giveaway. Love Tula Pink and her fabrics and patterns are awesome!
halloween is such fun! i remember my mom loved making our costumes as kids...and one year in particular she wanted to see a princess dress for me...but i refused...i just HAD to be King Kong...plastic store bought suit and mask. ugh! my daugher has been Spiderman 2 years in a row...and my son refuses a costume, but of course does the trick or treating!! thanks for a chance, huge Tula Pink fan!!
ReplyDeleteI don't do much at Halloween anymore but when I was a child I dressed up as a bride.
ReplyDeleteI actually cut up my wedding dress to be the Corpse Bride for Halloween one year! I was planning on using in a quilt anyway, to pass down to my daughter, so I didn't mind, but I shocked many of my co-workers. I'd love to make something different and really go all out for Halloween this year.
ReplyDeleteYay, giveaway!
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids to make costumes for, but looking back at all the costumes I, myself. wore through the years, I *should* have refused to wear them. Hah
I have always made my daughter Halloween costumes - elaborate ones. I made her a 'dark fairy' once and she refused to wear it out of the house, instead she sifted though her closet and came up with something (hobo?) and went out with her friends. Tweens! That, by the way, was the last Halloween costume I ever made her.
ReplyDeleteWe're pretty "standard" Halloween fare here when it comes to costumes. The kids are into pirates so that's been a common theme in recent years.
ReplyDeleteHubby and I did go as 60's hippies to a party a couple of Halloweens ago. Thanks for chance to win! (EMAIL: marshudson at comcast dot net)
One year I went as a spilled plate of spaghetti. I had meatballs all over my red jumpsuit, parmasan cheese, a mop head and calander for a hat. It was awesome!
ReplyDeleteI always made my children's Halloween costumes as I couldn't stand paying the price for the cheap store bought costumes. My favorite year was when they were Minnie and Mickey Mouse and the costume included styrofoam balls painted black for their noses. I took them to a contest at the local grocery store and people literally gasped when they walked in. They didn't win though as it was the year of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
ReplyDeleteOne year I was a rock star for Halloween, I think it was when I was in the third grade. As part of the costume, I use a very popular craft company's glitter glue to put stars on my face (okay, my mom did that part). Shortly after, I broke out in major hives from it. After fighting with the company to gather the ingredients and working with my doctor closely, we determined that I was allergic to the formaldehyde in the product. Needless to say, no more glitter glue for me.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite costume was a hand-me-down from my cousin - a purple unicorn that my aunt had sewn up! But oh boy, was that terrible face paint in the 80s horrible and itchy (kind of mitigated the cuteness of the costume when I was scratching my face all of the time, lol).
ReplyDeleteI made the cutest Mickey Mouse costume for my son who is now 14. He was about 7 when I made that costume and he was just the cutest. Featured a cute Mickey Mouse stuffed head that he wore like a hat with ears. So dang adorable. I love these fabrics. I already bought a huge stack of them but you can never have enough of Tula Pink fabrics. Thanks for the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteMy Halloween story is that I was 4 or 5 years old and I had just quit dance class...right after my mom paid for the recital costume. My mom took the recital costume and added accessories, wings and such, to make me a kickin' costume. I won the local parade best costume prize and everything. On Halloween night, my birthday by the way, I wet my pants in my special costume. My night could have been ruined. But my mom, very resourcefully, stripped the clothes off of a life sized Ragedy Ann doll she had made me, put them on me with a Ronald McDonald wig and drew on some freckles. I had a fabulous Halloween after all :)
ReplyDeleteI can't say that I've had terribly inventive costumes over the years. However, an old friend of mine once went bar hopping on Halloween as a giant taco. She used foam rubber that was spray painted for the shell and then miscellaneous other items for the fillings. She did win a few cash prizes that night too.
ReplyDeleteSo my grandmother had several wonderful dresses in her attic (full dresses with petticoats and all), one of them helped me pull off an amazing fairy princess, and in 7th grade I wore a red one with black applique, and one of her rhinestone tiaras. I was going for a queenly look and at school it was asked if I was a Spanish courtesan. Sigh, at least they didn't throw around the word hooker back then!
ReplyDeleteThe funniest costume I remember was when a group of us(guys and gals)went to a Halloween dance dressed as a box of tampons!
ReplyDeleteBeing a wishy washy garment sew-er with no kids I have yet to make any Halloween costumes, but I have fond memories of all the costumes my mom made for me & my twin siblings growing up. Big bird, California raisin, Darkwing Duck, fairies, ace of spade, Sorry game piece... They were all amazing! Hopefully someday I'll have kids that will wear these costumes & I'll get to make some fun ones too! :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 8, my mother made my costume. I was a christmas tree. For Halloween. I hated it. I was also very shy but she wanted me to join the Halloween carnival costume contest at my school. I won best costume in the whole school and stand on the stage to accept my award! I refused to dress up for Halloween for years after that! LOL
ReplyDeleteMy best Halloween costume moment happened two years ago. I got invited to a party an hour before it started. I was supposed to have been working but someone traded shifts with me, so I had not planned any costuming. Running around the house I collected a wig and a top hat. I turned a curtain into a bustle skirt using safety pins and a belt (pulled through the pole loops). A little creative makeup and I went as a Cracked Porcelain Doll. Who would have thought that mad dash would have led to me meeting my now husband? ;)
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite Halloween memory was the year I dressed up as Clyde Barrow. I always got asked "Hey Bonnie! Where's Clyde?! HAR HAR HAR!". I was so tired of the joke I dressed up as a 20's gangster, even carrying around a violin case. So when people asked me that I could say "Right here, ma'am...." LOL!
ReplyDeleteMy best Halloween "effort" (it was super easy) was when I made my husband a static cling costume. I used a black sweatshirt and pinned all kinds of crazy stuff to it: single socks, a thong, granny panties, a dryer sheet etc. It was hilarious and he won his office's costume contest that year!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chance to win some Tula Pink! I'm in love with Nightshade! I can't wait to make a quilt out of the whole line!
My best Halloween costume was that of a bag lady. I wore an oversized green garbage bag with black stockings and high heels. Surprisingly, it was a very warm costume as it turned chilly that evening. I received a lot of complements.
ReplyDeleteby MargaretQuilts email mlwright29(at)hotmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteOne Halloween, I dressed my youngest daughter in her brother's old clothes and boots, and added some hay for a scarecrow costume. My DD then trick-or-treated the older folks and disabled in our rural area. This was pre-arranged. These neighbors loved it and talked about that visit for several years. Fast forward fifty years, and now I look forward to my greatgranddaughters coming to trick-or-treat me!
I've been little red riding hood, casper the friendly ghost, and a witch (for a few years) I really liked being a witch I guess. I never really made my own costumes, but now that I sew, I want to make them for my nieces.
ReplyDeleteI love this line by Tula Pink!
When I met my husband (28 years last weekend) we were at a costume party. He was dressed as the Cat in the Hat (Bedtime Stories theme) and won first place. The costume has been recycled many times over the years with each of our older two girls wearing it. It always makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteI made my daughter's costume for the first time when she was 3. I dusted off my junior high school sewing techniques, borrowed Mom's sewing machine and found a pattern and went fabric shopping. Glad I gave myself a month to work on it, because with my lack of sewing skills and white satin fabric, it was a labor of love, for sure. I even made the wings out of gold metallic fabric and matching gold ribbon accents for trim. She looked adorable and despite my short-comings, I went out and bought my own sewing machine and have been sewing (much better!) ever since.
ReplyDeleteHalloween is my all-time favorite holiday & Tula Pink's Night Shade is fantastic..thanks for the chance.
shel704 at aol dot com
I had the standard pumpkin, clown, etc. costumes (all made by my mom, of course), but the most memorable one she made was for my sister. She was a troll (like the plastic doll/toy thing) one year! She had a mask, gloves and shoe covers, but we did have a slight problem getting her hair to stand straight up. At least it was pink!
ReplyDeletelast year was my first all-out year for my son, since he was 2 he got the idea. i made him a bluebird costume out of wool felt- i got the idea from martha stewart, but free-handed the whole bit myself. he loved it- but mostly the hat, which was the easiest to make!
ReplyDeleteLove this new line! One year I was a tooth for Halloween! Ha!
ReplyDeleteMy mom always made our costumes, but the best was a troll (like the small plastic doll/toys) costume she made for my sister. There was a mask, gloves and shoe covers. We just couldn't get her hair to stand up right, but at least it was pink!
ReplyDeleteWith 6 children to outfit, yet being as over the top creative as I could be while fitting in with their Halloween visions of themselves was not a time of year looked forward to. But... now that they are grown and either outfitting their own prodigy, or pulling something together for themselves I will admit to pangs of longing to, once again, pull together their visions for that one night each year.
ReplyDeleteAs I sit and think many memories come to mind: Raggedy Ann, Hershey kiss, Pokemon, dragons and so on......
Tula, I am loving your new line!!!
I love this fabric! In 2nd grade I really wanted to be a unicorn. There was this huge parade my class was doing and I thought it would be a great costume. Well, it was just my dad and I growing up, so you can imagine how hard it was for him to come up with something. In the end we got this pink horse costume (luckily My Little Pony was big back then) and then he fashioned this horn out of some pvc pipe, painted it purple for me, and allowed me to put glitter all over it. Then he tied a string to it so I could put it on my head. It wasn't exactly what I had envisioned, but my dad really made a huge effort to make me a unicorn :)
ReplyDeleteI have never dressed up as anything other than a few well selected "bum" type characters... but; if I were able and had the nerve I would pick one of the three women from your fabric collection... they are so awesome and such a change from the usual "Halloween" fabric available... also, if a book is in the works I would love to read more about the "sisters". Thanks so much for the chance to win such beautiful fabric.
ReplyDeleteOne year, my students and I converted our classroom into the Underworld. (We were studying Greek mythology.) I had a throne for Persephone and Hades. We even had Sisyphus rolling a rock uphill, and the Elysian Fields full of Greek heroes and modern day ones as well. I made a lot of Greek costumes and props. It was amazing.
ReplyDeleteWe made my little brother a race-car driver costume one year, complete with a giant cardboard race car held up by suspenders. He absolutely loved the costume. On halloween we discovered that while he could was in the costume just fine, his running was severely impaired. As he ran to catch up with his friends, he and the car did several summersaults multiple times that night. He was never hurt, so it was very entertaining to watch.
ReplyDeleteNEAT GIVEAWAY!
ReplyDeleteI'M WORKING ON A BLUE+WHITE PINWHEEL MINI QUILT FOR A DECORATIVE HANGER FOR A GIFT! THANKS FOR SHARING!
msstitcher1214@yahoo.com
When I was in 4th grade I made a paper mache pumpkin costume. It didn't make it through the first block so I made tied the lining into a sack, tied it to a stick and became a hobo for the rest of the night trick or treating.
ReplyDeleteI was so excited to sew a costume for my two year-old son, but I forgot to take into account that the last days of October in south Texas are nothing like the fall night in northern Ohio where I grew up. The poor little guy was pretty darn hot in that fake fur panda suit!
ReplyDeleteHere in England Halloween tends to be a bit more subdued than in the US but that's never stopped a bit of spooky fun. I was away on a cadets camp and we were in an old army camp on the South Coast. Ironically it's a mile away from where I live now.
ReplyDeleteAs an officer, I was supposed to set an example but we had a lot of fun instead. Fuelled by a little beer and a lot of mischief, we spent then evening and night scaring the all female cadets. Throwing gravel on the roof of the dorm, tapping on windows with a nail, floating past with big white sheets over out heads. You get the idea. As the evening went on the pranks got wilder and the girls screams got louder as did the laughter.
Suffice to say the Sunday morning parade was a little ragged with 70+ tired teens and officers!