Homemade Costumes

When I was a kid and Hallowe’en was approaching, my friends would ask me what my costume would be. I would always pretend I was still trying to decide. The reality was that “costumes” as real characters, were totally beyond our reach, financially. I used to wander through the Woolco, looking at all the costumes, trying on masks, knowing I couldn’t afford such a luxury.
Not a big deal, right? Many people make homemade costumes that can be just as good as store-bought ones. However, home-made costumes assume a sewing machine, fabric, ideas and skill at sewing. I had none of those. Our homemade costumes had to be made with things we already had, and of those, only things we could spare. That narrowed it down to some old sheets or old clothes. It's hard to be a princess that way.
Many years, I was a Hobo. Easy enough when all you needed was old, torn clothes and a dirty face. I still had to tell people what I was. I guess it wasn’t so obvious.
One year I was garbage. I wore a green garbage bag over my clothes (good, because it was raining), and I glued candy wrappers and chewed gum all over me. Talk about low self-esteem. Art imitates life.
But my best idea was to go as a fried egg. I cut arm slits out of a white pillowcase, then taped a round yellow yolk made out of construction paper. I thought it was rather creative under the circumstances, even if I was the unfertilized offspring of poultry, rather than a princess. And I still had to tell people what I was. :(
When I was older, I wore my sister’s white confirmation gown, and made a halo out of a wire hanger wrapped with silver tinsel. People at least guessed correctly that I was an angel.
They may not have been great costumes, but I couldn’t bring myself to go trick-or-treating without one, as some poorer kids in our neighbourhood did. It’s funny that there’s a pride there, that makes you tell yourself, “I may be poor, but I’m not as poor as they are.” It’s almost a snobbishness, I think.