My mother could not wait for Halloween to roll around every October.  I can’t say she was big into ghosts, goblins and pumpkins, but she LOVED sewing Halloween costumes.  I remember as a child participating in local Halloween parades and contests, and we usually came away with at least a prize or two.  Mom was very resourceful and used clearance fabric or even free fabric. For instance, when I was about five or six years old, she repurposed velvet drapes from a local theatre into matching adult and child skunk costumes, which won prizes for best costume that year.  Another year, my lion mask was created from an old Clorox bottle.  Mom always dressed up with us when we went trick-or-treating, and she continued to dress up and surprise her friends and neighbors long after we were adults.  As a grandmother she would fly across the country and change into one of her costumes at the airport to meet her grandchildren!  They really enjoyed greeting her at the airport as a frog or clown or in some other get up!  Can you imagine that happening today in the wake of heightened airport security?  Mom’s especially enjoyed sewing clown outfits – happy clowns, not the scary ones so prevalent today.  We got a lot of use out of those clown outfits, as they were used not only at Halloween but for performances and even participation in community parades such as the Fall Fantasy parades at Kennywood Amusement Park.  As I scrape up more photos of mom’s costumes, I will update this post to include them. Thanks, Mom for sharing your talents and for all the fun times……..