The Pumpkin Carriage-Part I

Since these projects are not in chronological order anyway and I mentioned it in the first post, I'll go ahead and tell you about the pumpkin-carriage stroller costume.

Now, I've made lots of Halloween costumes over the years for my daughter, Snow White, a mermaid, a unicorn and various others. But this one, this one, has to be the oddest request ever.  About mid-September, daughter calls and tells me about her Halloween plans.  She wants everyone to be a character from Cinderella. Everyone being her ten-year-old son (forced into the role of Prince Charming), his half-sister, Ava, as Cinderella, Mackenzie as the little mouse that runs around saying "Cinderelly", and daughter and her friend portraying the stepsisters. Can I do costumes for everyone, except Cinderella who already has hers? Keep in mind folks that this is 6 weeks from Halloween, I'm already working on projects she's given me for Erik's birthday party in a few weeks and I'm going out of town in mid-October for a month. All I can think of is surely she doesn't mean Halloween this year! She must be kidding! And, oh yeah, can I turn the stroller into a pumpkin carriage since Kenzie is not yet walking too well yet and will have to ride. My first reaction to all this was, of course, hysterical laughter. When I finally regained my senses, I gave my answer. NO WAY! No way I was sewing 4 outfits and turning the stroller into a pumpkin carriage!

We compromised on no stepsister costumes, 2 semi-handmade costumes for the prince and the mouse and a pumpkin carriage costume for the stroller. The prince was pretty easy. We got a pair of blue jeans at Walmart and I basted some gold trim down the legs. She bought the jacket, and sash and I shortened the sleeves and the sash because they were adult-sized.

Erik's Prince Costume

Miss Mouse was made from a brown shirt and pants, again, from Walmart. I sewed a pink flannel oval to the front of the shirt for the mouse tummy. We found this cute hat at a consignment sale. It already had little ears on it, so I just made some larger ears of brown felt and pink flannel and basted them to the the existing ears.

Miss Mouse

Now for the pumpkin carriage. I'll have to admit, my usually creative mind, completely drew a blank on that one. How on earth could I do that?  After brainstorming with my hubby, we decided on cardboard....two very large pieces of cardboard. Large enough to cover the sides of the stroller, leaving the front open so Kenzie could see where she was going. After procuring a very large box, so large in fact it would not fit into the car and I had to wait at the store with it while my hubby went home to get the truck, we commenced work on this unusual project.