Kindergartner

costume maker

I will admit it. I tried to give this book away. It was in the thrift store bag before he fished it out today, accusing me of doing the very thing I was trying to do: quietly getting it out of the house. Not that it is a bad read. It is sort of a wonderful book actually. Especially for Lincoln with his proclivity for fashioning himself incredibly intricate costumes with incredibly intricate back-stories. A friend who knows Linc well handed this book down to me--a "no sew" costume book. Sounds perfect for a 4 year old dress-up addict who likes to make things himself, right? Except this dress-up addict happens to be a weird stickler for accuracy of detail. And he can't quite do all the cutting and folding and taping on a skill-level to meet his own exacting standards. So much of the task falls to me.  I have a degree or two in the arts and even so don't often meet his standards. The over-the-shoulder critique isn't very relaxing for the tailor (Which is why the book was in the thrift store pile in the first place). And even though he takes on the responsibility for more and more of the cutting and drawing these days, there is always a *slight* disconnect between the illustrations in this book and the finished product which results from following precisely each point of direction. If he had the vocabulary he'd call it false advertising. But being 4, he describes it more directly: "This isn't just like the picture Mama," he says. I know, I say. But it still looks pretty awesome anyway, right? On this one he did all the cutting of the shapes on the headpiece, and all the drawing. I did the precision cutting of the newspaper fur. He was pretty proud of the result, even if it wasn't just like the picture. And I was pretty proud of him, because, well: