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Monday, January 19, 2015

Star Wars Half Marathon weekend: the costume quandary


I love Disney. I love Star Wars. I love half marathons. And I love making costumes. So prepping for this race was, for me, all about the costumes.
From the very beginning, I dreamed big. Since we had two races, we had two opportunities for costumes! Wil wanted to run in his hilarious "Slave Leia" costume... but we feared that that might not be as family friendly as Disney would like. Besides, I couldn't quite figure out how I would construct -- or run in -- a Jabba the Hutt costume. I, on the other hand, really wanted to run as Boba Fett (my favorite character), and pitched the idea of Wil running as Han Solo in Carbonite. Somehow, Wil was opposed to that idea...
The obvious, super easy option was to run as a pair of Ewoks, but I knew there would be dozens of Ewoks and I didn't want that.
Then I veered to another of my favorite characters: Admiral Ackbar. Wearing a creamy white tunic was hard to stomach... but I would have, had I been able to figure out how I could craft a head that I would be able to run in. This made me so absurdly sad.
I even thought about my third favorite character, Wedge Antilles. But I didn't want to wear an all-orange outfit, and, really, it's only funny if you also have an x-wing attached to your body.
So, finally, last weekend, totally pressed for time, I settled on making Ewok costumes. But you know what? When I put light brown, doeskin / chamois on my head and cut an opening for my face... it looks an awful lot like a hijab. Now, I wouldn't mind if someone who doesn't approve of headscarves thought I was wearing a hijab. But I wouldn't want anyone to think I was mocking them.
I thought, well, maybe adding the ears will help.
Nope. Furry hijab.
At which point I decided to just pack it in -- i felt defeated, felt like I had failed.
I was truly, honestly sad about this, and confessed to Rebecca how sad I was. (All the while acknowledging that this was a Very Silly thing to be sad about.)
But at some point in over a very nice birthday lunch she said something about the Cheshire Cat costume I wore last year despite how simple it was to put together and BAM. I woke up on Thursday with an idea
I knew that in our costume vault I had a brown furry suit that I could use as fabric, though I wasn't sure quite what all I would do with it. I brought it upstairs and started plotting, then cutting, and made a few plans and a short shopping list for supplies.
After work I hit the fabric store, then set up my lovely new sewing machine and, literally, let the fur fly.
Three hours later, this:


I know it's not the best costume ever. It's not even my best costume ever. But it's funny, totally runnable, and it makes me happy. I might even wear it both days (apologies to my Boba Fett hoodie, but I will wear you in the parks, ok?)

1 comment:

  1. Cute! I picture you like the Grinch (tho with better intentions)plotting and cutting and sewing.

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