ouch. that's what i hate the most about making costumes, is the cutting. once i get past that, it's not so bad.

You're one brave woman! I can't wait to see how the costumes look when complete.

Yeah, I have those same bruises from cutting miles (surely it was miles!) of fleece for my Little Man's costume. I would sew constantly if I could just find someone to cut everything for me. It's absolutely the worst part. Congrats for pushing through it.

Have you tried a rotary blade? It's much easier and not as hard on your hands. Save those hands for the baby knitting!!

And I envy you your cutting space, even if it is a bare floor!!! :)

The cutting is the sucky part. Crawling around on the floor getting the scissors bruise is not so fun. The sewing, however, is the delightful part -- seeing the thing come together. Magical. It's kind of like the difference between swatching and knitting, except that you can't skip the swatching-equivalent when you're sewing.

Your boys are lucky to have such a creative and talented mama. You can tell them I said so.

You are SUCH a nice mama.

Hmmm, I suppose now would not be a good time to tell you that I used an adult-sized, orange sweatshirt to make my son's pumpkin costume a few years ago. :)

I hope that as they get older the boys realize just how much their Mom loves them, what with all the scissor bruising and the blankie rescuing that you've gone through. You're such a good Mom.

a self healing mat and a rotary blade really do make all the difference.

I sometimes don't know how you will be able to handle the addition of one more adorable kid in that house. It's bursting at the seams with 'cute' already.

My little niece LOVES Charlie and Lola. (she's 2 1/2) I think one of these days she's going to start talking with a british accent...she already calls the neighborhood dogs Sizzle. I have to admit, it's a cute cartoon and one that I never mind watching with her!

See you at Rhinebeck!

One year my son wanted to be a pumpkin. So I found an orange t-shirt that belonged to his dad, tied something around the bottom of it and then stuffed him with scrunched up grocery bags. Green hat, orange face paint and it was go get'em kid!

Yeah, no one nominated me for mother of the year.

Where I live it's so cold at Halloween that all the kids have coats on anyway, so don't despair moms who don't have time to make it yourself! Up here we never see the costumes anyway!!

oh my gosh you are so carfty, that takes patience.

The boys are so cute . . . I love their megawatt smiles. They'll be breaking a lot of girls' hearts in a few years.

About rotary cutters - be very careful. These are Sharp, with a capital S. I should know - I got a nasty cut that ends on part of my fingernail. My advice would be to get a pair of cut-resistant gloves. there's a good article in November 2006 issue of Threads about accessories for protecting your hands.

Ah, the days of making Halloween costumes - I have twins as well, b/g - so I always had to make two different costumes - and my daughter was a pumpkin one year. I had an old poly/cotton bedspread from back when I was a teen (school colors navy blue and orange!), so I used up the bed spread (and probably used a similar pattern) - she was quite the pumpkin! The only problem she had was getting on and off the bus - hard to see, hard to sit! But she loved it (and I think her Cabbage Patch doll had a matching outfit!) Her brother was a Ninja Turtle (another wonderfully weird home-made costume!) We, too, live in an area that's always cold by Halloween (not to mention daylight savings ends before then - how dumb is that?) Now my kids do their own thing for Halloween, and boy do they have some strange outfits! Enjoy!

Oh what a pain in the thumb to do all that cutting. 26 pieces for pumpkin costumes sounds like a lot of sewing too, and complicated. Good luck and I cant wait to see the end results.

Looks like you have a couple of Happy Pumpkins there!

Guess what, I finally made some progress on my Weasly. May be it'll be finished some day...

Wow, you're a great mom! And your boys are VERY handsome! Didn't your belly (is that the right word for little baby's place? Sorry I'm Dutch...) hurt?
Can't wait to see them finished.