Costumes Creating Havoc!

February 26, 2009

Have any of you every tried to pack up the competition dance costumes? Let me tell you, those things can create move havoc than a classroom filled with three year olds!

Take Cymbre's Fun, Fun, Fun costume. First the thing has two petticoats, one black square dance petticoat, and an aqua one that I made to just show a little below the black. Sounds like a good plan...WRONG! First you have to wrangle the things together, and then stab them with these HUGH safety pins (think diaper pin) in order to keep the two waistbands together. Heaven forbid we would want the blue one to fall down and show more than the two allotted inches! And don't forget that we already had to alter the black square dancing one because it was a bit too long. Heaven forbid I could sew the things together! However, when I wash the sweat out of them, the black one will fade on the blue one and then we will have a purple one, so we deal with the pins. Then add the saddle shoes, that I've decided Dad is in charge of polishing before each competition. I spent three weeks finding them to even buy her, so Dad gets to polish. And they have to have the old spit shine! Then her bobby socks....do you realize how hard it is to fold highly ruffled bobby socks and not smash those silly ruffles? And there are two pairs of them....I'm thinking their own plastic bag since they are white with aqua ruffles. Then go to the skirt...it's a poodle skirt made from black felt, so we need an industrial size lint brush just to keep it looking spiffy! I hang it on a hanger that squishes together the waistband, but then that doesn't like to fit in the garment bag, so we have issues there also. Her blouse, I had to let the sleeves out because she has too many muscles in her arms, so now she has little bits of elastic under the arms to hold the seams open, thank goodness she wears a cardigan sweater over it. Had to take that thing in too....now it likes to fall of it's hanger...I say let it sit at the bottom of the garment bag and just get wrinkled if it can't control itself and stay on the hanger! Then her ponytail....you would think that the kid has a big enough ponytail on her own, but NO!!! We have to have a fake ponytail! And it won't be able to use it's comb claw thing because Cymbre's bun is to fat! Who ever heard of a too fat bun? How do you get it to lose weight fast? SO, I took the fake ponytail off the claw, and just sewed the three layers of hair together, and now it will go around her own hair ponytail. Then we have to convince the scarf to stay tied around her fake ponytail, and not get lost among the rest of the costume inside the garment bag. It's hard to tie the scarf around her hair since I stoned the thing....no it's not drugged, it's rhinestoned. The tights are usually pretty tame, and just sit in their little bag. THANK GOODNESS! At least we have some sanity.... The briefs will always get tied up when she takes them off, but this time I am just going to throw them back in the bag and worry about it on laundry day. If I am lucky, Dad will sort the dirty clothes and wrestle them into submission! And finally, the earrings. They have to have mole skin attached or they hurt our little ears, and we don't want anything hurting our little ears now do we? Then they go in the little tupperware cup with a lid inside the misc. stuff plastic bag. AFTER ALL THIS, we wrestle everything into the garment bag, except the petticoats which have their own homemade bag (we don't want to squish them), pull up the zipper, and move on to Cooper's Come Dance With Me costume!

At least Cooper's doesn't have a MILLION pieces! Just pants that don't like to stay on the hanger, even if it is a padded one. So, I attache a clothes pin! That will fix them. Then a leotard, who seems to like it at the bottom of the garment bag. I really must investigate the bottom of these garment bags further when I have a few spare moments like in 150 years!! There seems to be some action going on down there that might need some supervision. I mean I have lost tights to that area before! Her jacket will stay on it's hanger, but doesn't like the tights next to it. Something about stinky feet after she dances....I just went and got a plastic bag instead of fighting with the jacket. She has a snowman hat box for her hat, and inside it goes the bobby pins, and hair snappies along with her hat....however, rumor has it that the brown bobby pins are planning to revolt against the black bobby pins. And the snappies are cowering in the corner, and that's pretty difficult since it is a ROUND box! Maybe I will get lucky and they will use the handle ropes to hang themselves. At least if they are hanging on the ropes, I should be able to find them when I am in a hurry to attach a certain HIPER dancer's hat. Cooper is IMPOSSIBLE to dress at competition. It's like she is wired, drugged, something. It is a natural high for her, but the rest of us just stand back and let her whirl! She also has jewelry that I made, and must have it's mole skin on it too. I just don't know how these girls will do out in the real world when the earrings they wear don't have mole skin attached. They may need counseling. This costume is more mature, so maybe I can actually get it all in the garment bag by myself....hold your breathe and cross your fingers! And her dance shoes, my goodness, they set up a ruckus when they have to be packed away. They just think they need to be the center of attention all the time.....they like the excitement of performing onstage. You would think they wouldn't since we spray the bottom of them with hairspray to keep her from slipping. It makes the shoes a bit sticky and prevents Cooper from falling while doing her turns. If I was a tap shoe, I wouldn't want hairspray on my working taps! Thankfully, we are just doing a straight ponytail for Cooper. That just means I have to burn my fingers using that dumb straightener thing for her. However, this costume will be much easier to get all together, and once I zip up the zipper, the contents are going to have to behave in the back of the van. Because if you get Dad made at 6am, you've cooked your goose for the entire day!

At the end of the packing procedure, we all need a valium! Remember the make-up, the good hairspray, and the shoe cheap hairspray, and the spray gel, and the fake eyelashes, and the two colors of lipstick, and the jewelry, and the hats, and the garment bags with the costumes, and the bobby pins, and the safety pins, and the dance lists, and the extra costume parts, and the rolling cart with all the stuff we may need, and the garment rack, and the camera, and the water bottles, and the treats. And if we remember all this, we need Dad to drive because Mom needs a nap in the van on the way in order to keep up with the whirling dervish of Cooper and Cymbre!

Wish us luck on Saturday...and don't forget to cheer around 7:45 am, and then again around lunch time....we don't know when Cooper dances yet, but just pick a time and cheer for her too.

Everyone pray for Mom's sanity, and the girls to dance their very best for Ms. Andee.

Love you.

Mom