Star Trek Uniform

We all know that all babies look like Winston Churchill. But making a Winston Churchill costume seemed too complicated, so I decided to dress my new baby nephew, Nathan, as another bald icon - Captain Picard.

Just to be clear, I didn't deliberated make this as a Halloween costume. I made it because I thought it would be funny to dress a baby as a Starfleet Captain. It was pure coincidence that it was about the right size for Nathan to wear on his first Halloween.

I started with a pattern for pants and a long-sleeved one-sy. In the interests of comfort and ease of diapering, I went with elastic waist and ankle on the pants, rather than the slim leg with the boot slit that adult Captain Picard wears. It's not as if Nathan was going to be wearing low-healed ankle boots with his pants. I made a mock-up of the one-sy on muslin first so that I could draw in the appropriate pattern of red and black sections, which I then cut apart and used as a pattern for cutting the real pieces. The communicator and the pips on the collar are hand-sewn.

I have a friend who was appalled that I deliberately branded my nephew as a Star Trek nerd at such a tender age. Of course, my friend is an alumna of Cal Tech, so I don't think that she has any right to talk about anyone else's nerdy-ness.

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Musical Pumpkins

Every now and then I try to go in an uncharacteristic direction with a simple, yet compelling design. Simple isn't really my strong suit, so they're generally not all that good. This one is no exception. I would characterize it as mediocre at best. Even the progression of notes is dull, both visually and aurally.

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Howling Wolves Pumpkin

Generally, I'm not a big fan of the pumpkins that define an object by silhouetting it against the moon. I think it's overdone and simplistic enough that it usually indicates a poor command of the medium. But I did it anyway. And apparently it was good enough to win first prize in the Pumpkinmasters "Animals" category.

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Danse Macabre Pumpkin

I actually bought the sheet music to Dance Macabre in the interests of verisimilitude. Unfortunately, the first several measures (which is about all I could fit on a pumpkin) are really quite boring.

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Carnival of Horrors Pumpkin

This is my second attempt to create a circus-based pumpkin. I was trying to create a dynamic composition, juxtaposing the undulating curve of the roller coaster with the self-contained unity of the circular, be-skulled ferris wheel. It didn't really work, though. Especially with the big flag, it wound up looking very static and uninteresting. I guess I'll have to try again.

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Stuffed Spider

When I found out that my dear friend had given birth to her son Isaac prematurely, the only thing that I could think to do with my worry for them was to make Isaac an enormous stuffed spider.

At some point I read or heard something about black and white patterns stimulating babies' developing brains. In retrospect, I imagine that is a drastic oversimplification of someone's preliminary research that got completely distorted in its portrayal in the popular media, much like the Mozart effect. Either that, or I just imagined that I had heard that somewhere, when, in fact, I made it up altogether.

Be that as it may, I used black and white patterns as a jumping off point. I chose to make a spider both because spiders have a lot of legs and eyes and such that I figured would be good for a baby to grab onto and because I really like spiders. I chose to make it two feet long because I always overdo these things. I chose to use various fabric textures, under the theory that someone exploring the world with his hands and his mouth would appreciate some textural options.

I decided on a black velour and two different black and white patterned cottons for the abdomen and cephalothorax. For the legs and eyes I chose eight different colorful patterned cottons plus a white vinyl.

Each of the eight eyeballs is made of pentagons assembled into a sphere, using both the colored patterned fabrics and the black and white fabric. Because the pieces were so little, it proved to be easier to hand sew them then to sew them on a machine. I think I made a blessing out of a necessity by using a thick thread so as to create textured ridges on all the seams, again, under the theory that it might be a nice touch for someone prone to chewing on things. I attached each eyeball to the cephalothorax with a length of elastic wrapped in black and white fabric, giving them some movement and bounce.

I also made big vinyl pedipalps for the front and a crazy big stinger of some kind for the back.

I believe that initially little Isaac greeted the gargantuan spider with equanimity, but I am told that it has recently been banished from his bedroom because it was inducing nightmares.

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