Halloween Hot Dog

So, as I mentioned previously, I really wanted to try and come up with a good Halloween costume this year. My goal was to out do, or at least come close to the shower costume I put together last year (I really need to get some pictures of that costume online, but dont have any in Africa). Anyway, just as we were drifting off to sleep, Kylie blurts out "We could be a hot dog! You'll be the dog and I'll be the bun!" We laughed at first, but then I knew that was it. We started to talk about how we might put it together. We'd need lots of fabric, color would be key. We'd need that pillow stuffing stuff to stuff it with stuff (stuff, now typed 5 times in one sentence). This would have been difficult in the States, but we were in South Africa where we couldnt exactly head down to Hobby Lobby and pick up what we needed. We really had no idea how to do this.

Kylie tried to sway us from the idea. She said it was too much work, and well, she was right, it was way too much work. But I thought it was too great to pass up. We found a great wholesale materials store on Thursday, and made our first step towards a hot dog Halloween.

Kylie was truly brilliant in the cloth store. She pieced the idea together in her head. I gave my advice and opinion, but she was the mastermind behind most of it. The hardest part was going to be the bun. We needed the right color fabric and it had to be shaped like a bun. For some reason, I kept suggesting that we go with yellow for the bun color. I still dont know what I was thinking.

Now I did come up with the idea for the weener part. They made this rolled up foam material and I wrapped myself in it in the store. I picked out the red felt material, and decided that we'd also need some arm holes.

We had the raw materials purchased. There was no turning back now. It was time to sew.

And sew we did. I worked on my dog while she worked on the much more complicated bun. We cut and sewed and arranged these materials for hours. Friday evening, when we were nowhere near done, we realized how much time this project was going to take. But we couldnt turn back now. We had already invested hours of time and a lot of Rand.

Saturday, we watched the equivalent of 5 movies in the background while we worked. It essentially took all day. We had to HAND SEW EVERYTHING! My weiner suit is acutually two large rectangles of fabric sewn together with the foam stuffing material in between. Kylie ingeniously cut and designed the mustard strip, which I think is by far the best part.

We finished the costumes around 8 pm Saturday night. Nupe and Anand came over for drinks before hand (which meant LOTS of very rapid clean up) and we relaxed at our apartment for an hour before we left. The group of largely American kids thought the costume was great. So we decided to try it on a gang of drunk South Africans.

We went to a big house party at the communal residence of some university students. We didnt know many people when I arrived, but I think lots of them now know us. We got lots of wierd looks before people realized what we were. But once they caught on, it was a hit. Kylie especially looked odd standing alone without her dog at her side. People thought she was either an eclair or a butterfly.

Much like my shower costume last year, members of the opposite sex seem to flock toward costumes that allow for covert party kissing. Kylie's bun costume could easily close in around someone and this seemed to entice a few South African guys who fluttered towards her like bees to an orchid. They really seemed to want to get between her buns, so to speak. Luckly I was there to fight them off with my felt-lined hardhat and defended my position as Kylie's number one weenie.

We wore the costumes for most of the night. It wasnt much fun to stand the whole time, but we got used to it. We even danced a while, and just generally had a good time. We finally made it home that evening, exhausted and with very sore backs from all the hours of bent over sewing.

It ended up being a major endeavor to put all this together. We wondered if we would have gone through with it all had we known in advance how much work it would turn out to be. But as awful as it was to stich the whole thing by hand, it made for a great night and a costume that I felt was on par with years past.

We arent sure what to do with this oversized hot dog in our apartment now. We certainly dont want to throw it away. Perhaps we could sell it to a costume shop. But for now, it makes an out of place addition to our apartment decor.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN