is now the time to mention that i have the space ghost coast to coast CD?  i love brak, and LOVE this costume!  great job.

wow, i started this thread a year ago and it's still going! i've been looking at costumes online just for some ideas, and again am bombarded by "sexy" versions of everything.

an old article, but of some interest to this ongoing conversation about very young girls dressing slutty:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/62474
"The hypersexualization of younger and younger girls only serves to reinforce gender roles. When an 8-year-old girl can't find a doctor costume because all they have are nurse outfits, that's a problem."

and from one woman's book, which includes a chapter on halloween costumes:
Of the 22 girl costumes featured on one Web site Lamb looked at, 15 were cheerleaders, divas and rock stars. "That really limits girls' imaginations," says Lamb, who surveyed 600 young girls for the book, many of whom admitted to dressing up as something sexy for Halloween in order to get attention.

i will give this a try, thank you for the tips!

hi all you fabulous sew-crafters,

i am newish to sewing, and am trying to use elastic thread to do ruching... but it doesn't seem to be working for me.  it hardly ruches at all.  i'm not sure what i'm doing wrong.  i am ruching on a thicker fabric, and the instructions said to wind the elastic thread loose on the bobbin.  but it hardly ruches at all.  i've also read that you might need to change the tension on the thread... but this doesn't seem to have any effect at all.

anyone have any idea what i'm doing wrong, or what i might try differently?

thank you!

one more...

amazing!!  great job, you get my vote. 

my husband and i LOVE tim burton films, and this year decided to go as sweeney todd and mrs. lovett. 

for my costume, i made the skirt (based on a craftster's bustle skirt tutorial), the corset (based on roethke's tute) and reconned a store-bought shirt. 

for sweeney's costume, i made the vest, the handkerchief, the razor holster (which you can't really see), and reconned the scarf and gloves.

most validating of all, we WON the costume contest at the club we went to for scariest category!!  while we lost out to bettie page from the sexiest category for the grand prize, we were pretty happy with winning the category, especially considering there were some great costumes!

now, the pics:

haha, clever~! i like it.

one of the BEST costumes i've seen this year!!!!  great job!

you could also put your gnome in a sombrero and pancho (or some other "ethnic" trappings), and go with the "traveling (stolen) lawn gnome" thing.  you could even have snapshots of a gnome in locales around the world (i bet you could find the pics on the web) to show people how worldly you are. (i'm thinking one of those long fold-out wallet photo holders!)