Hugh's was the most challenging this year. I took both Neva and Hugh to Fabricland to choose the fabric for their costumes waaaay back in September, and despite there being a plethora of snake-y and dragon-y type fabric, Hugh chose this gold lamé. I wasn't really sure how it would go; he chose the red lamé for the wings and the spikes as well, so at least the gold was going to be "cut" with something else, and he did consent to the grey scaly fabric for the tummy and claws. I stitched the gold fabric onto some leftover fleece from last year's costume to create both depth and warmth. I faked my way through the claws, making something up as I went along and adding big, black, fake nails, and they look awesome. The wings had several incarnations, from a store-bought pair which I altered but which still looked too "fairy-like" to these flowy-er, pointier ones. But the mask is really my chef-d'oeuvre. It's an old baseball cap covered in casting material and sculpted to look like a dragon's head. We spray-painted it gold and painted the details on, and it was a grand success. I think overall Hugh was a bit disappointed that the dragon ensemble wasn't scarier, but it's hard to be scary in gold lamé. The puffy tail didn't help things, either. But the mask and the claws really helped ramp up the "grrrrr!" factor. I knew things had turned out well when one of Hugh's little classmates complimented me on my work at the Hallowe'en dance. "I really like Hugh's dragon mask," he said. "I like how you made it." Also: last night as we watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, we noticed that the White Witch wears a headpiece remarkably similar to Hugh's dragon head in the final battle scene, and if that's not scary, I don't know what is.Pattern: McCall's 2335
Fabric: gold and red lamé for body, tail and wings; grey faux-skin knit for tummy and claws
