UFDC Peggy Sue's Woolworth's Halloween Trick-or-Treat Costume

Its that time!  My favorite time of year.  Autumn.  Leaves turning gold and red and brown.  Pumpkins making their way to front porches.  Shops decorated with flying witches, spooky skeletons, and draping ghostly figures.  Candy.  There's always candy, but Halloween candy is a lot more fun since it goes into a big bowl for Trick-or-Treaters. 

Did  you think that my Halloween costuming would end with Grace?  No way.  Not that I'd planned on any others, but when I started my poking around on Pinterest for more Woolworth ads, this one popped up!  Jolly, jolly Halloween!  It was from the 1950's, too, so I knew right away that it was meant to be.  

Who remembers Woolworth's department store?  F.W. Woolworth was one of the first five and dime department stores in the U.S.  Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first five and dime in Utica, NY on February 22, 1879.  It was not a successful start, but a friend suggested opening one in Lancaster, PA, and the idea took off.  Frank went into business with his brother, and Woolworth's became a great success.

The concept of the five and dime became an anchor in American merchandizing through the 50's and 60's.  I remember going there as a child as a part of the weekly shopping.  You could buy just about anything at a Woolworth's, as they became known.  Gardening tools, back to school supplies, hosiery and make up, kitchen and cooking utensils and table cloths, candy and cake mixes - well, truly just about anything.  It was a variety store, and the prices were kept competitive for middle to lower income households.

Big, bright and cheery displays could be found announcing every holiday season, and Halloween was no exception.  One of the most fun times remembered as a child, was shopping (but not buying) during the weeks before Halloween.  Dazzling costumes with plastic molded masks could be found hanging or boxed for a child's delight.  My mother never steered me away from the aisle for my endless fascination, but we could not afford to buy, and I was cautious never to ask.

But, my mother loved Halloween.  Each October she would decorate the windows in the front of the house with Beistle cardboard die cuts.  Inside, she hung skeletons and witches with honeycomb crepe paper limbs.  There was a cardboard pop-up haunted house with little doors and windows that opened.  The detail work in this pop-up was incredible, and I used to play with it for hours like a doll house.  I did love my miniatures.  I took Skipper's tiny plastic Barbie and put her in one of the top windows with her arms hanging out, to hold her up.  It was the perfect sized "doll house" for that tiny Barbie.

But, my fondest memory was the Trick-or-Treat bag she bought me one year.  If I am correct, it was this one of the witch holding her own bag, the image getting tinier and tinier into infinity.  I found this on Ebay a couple of days ago and bought it.  After seeing a couple of them listed, I think they were promotional bags that were given out by department stores.  That would make sense since, again, because money was tight. 

However, Peggy Sue is pretty spoiled and gets anything I can think up to give her.  So we discussed the Woolworth's ad I found and she and I went shopping for her official Woolworth's Trick-or-Treat costume.  That I would have to make, but she doesn't know that and we won't tell.  I'm pretty sure you could call this a witch's costume, although its a far stretch.  

Upon first observations, I thought the illustration featured a child wearing a hooded cape with the silhouettes decorating the front ends.  Somethings only become apparent when you begin recreating, or bringing something to life like an illustration.  One concept leads to another as you begin the design following construction.

I began with the cape, the hardest thing, the most detailed piece (like a bodice), but for this journal, we'll begin with the dress.  As I look on it, this costume could have been derived from a shepherdess dress from a storybook, with paniers.  Simplified for a child's inexpensive costume, of course.

I used a plain white batiste for the bodice of the dress.  It was tempting to make it sleeveless, or even with long sleeves, but short sleeves won out.  Why?  Because its a costume.  Normal clothing was typically worn beneath these costumes, especially on cold October nights, so they were loose and easy to wear over sweaters and pants.

Earlier, I'd purchased this harlequin print for a party dress.  It is quilting cotton called Cozy Christmas by Lori Holt for Riley Blake.  While I could have hunted down a better match, I wanted to use what I had on hand.  And, that included solids of which I only had in silk.  Okay, so silk actually, kind of, has that look of a polyester costume if you make it up into one.   Play along with me...it really does.  Silk has the feel and the shine.  They do make polyester "silk" though.  Why am I making excuses?  The cape and hood are made with black silk taffeta, and the overskirt, or un-paniered panier is kelly green silk taffeta.  Keeping in theme, and for authenticity, Peggy Sue's Woolworth costume closes in the back with ties. 

As I mentioned earlier, I started with the cape.  I had this wonderful little pattern made up, and made a mock up of the "hooded cape" in muslin.  It wasn't until I started contemplating the black and yellow "road striping" that I noticed the collar on the cape.  Nope.  It was not a hooded cape, but a stand alone cape with a matching hood.  All of a sudden the fog cleared, and I knew I was in for a big job ahead.  And, I noticed that both were edged in red.

So you're laughing about my "road stripe" comment.  Well it does look like that!  Now if this had been made today, I'll bet the yellow would have been reflective or glow in the dark.

I started looking for a black and yellow stripe and gave up.  I'd be at this all month just waiting for fabric to arrive that wouldn't be quite right, so I made it.  I cut a length of the black silk and sewed yellow silk ribbon stripes on it on a slant.  Thirty-six of them.  Took an afternoon to do this, but got the effect I was after.  Its okay.  I've made "fabric" before.

The red is silk as well, cut on a bias, and painstakingly edged on the cape.  Sewn to the top edge, turned under, then under again and hand hemmed to the back.  I wasn't going to do that again.  I had to find a better way to do this.  I wasn't making a French Fashion costume, it was a Woolworth's costume, and I needed to keep reminding myself of that.  Then it came to me.  I simply folded the red silk strips in half and overedge machine stitched them to the area around the face.  This became a bit more challenging on the neck of the hood since I had to gather the ends to fit around her neck.  I was so proud of myself.  LOL  I mean it!  Professional designers for doll costumes do this all the time.  That's one of the reasons this blog is so important to me.  I've been teaching myself to sew for nine years now and I learn new things all the time.

For the ties on the hood and the neckline of the cape, I used red silk satin ribbon.  At first I tried to make ties, but they were too chunky.  And, the ribbon ties follow suit for a Woolworth costume as well.

Most of the work went into the decorations on the cape.

There was no way I was going to find the image on the illustration, although I looked.  I even tried to enlarge the image to see if I could simply print it out on printer fabric and use it that way, but the ad was of poor resolution and pixel'd apart.  I began looking for ephemera online, and also in a very old Jean Nordquist doll Halloween workbook package.  This is where I found the witch on the moon, and the pumpkin.  That cat came from an online search and I cut it out with a bit of edge so it would stand out.  Both images were done on printer fabric and fabric glued to the costume.  I did try to use fusible webbing on a sample of silk, but it wouldn't stick.  

For the cat, I cut about a 2mm border edge around him, and colored it yellow with one of the alcohol markers.  I was still troubling over what to do with the pumpkin, and then I remembered my old Trick-or-Treat bag!  So I made smaller and smaller pumpkins ascending toward the night sky.  I made a complete mess of my work table cutting out scraps and trying this and that before I got a design I was happy with. 

I was about to take photos of Peggy Sue in her costume when I realized something was missing.  A Trick-or-Treat bag.  So back to Pinterest and Bing images looking for something suitable for a vintage bag.  Nothing.  Nothing felt quite right.  So I tackled Ebay looking for actual vintage bags, and this is when I found the promotional bag, that I still believe was the one I had that year as a child.  I've never seen anything like it again, but I could be wrong.  The one I had may have been different, but I've romanticized the notion into believing it was "better", magical in some way.  It was.  To me.  Back then.  And, still is!

But, I also found these vintage treat bags for parties.  Its hard to tell when a seller posts something as vintage, as to whether is truly is, or a contemporary appeal, a reproduction, to people who love the vintage look.  I went back and forth with the seller trying to get her to change her auction to add Priority Mail as an option, and she couldn't do it.  After a good night's sleep and a hike with my dogs, it occurred to me that I could simply buy two sets of 10 and she could use the money for the shipping, sending me only one set.  As I was about to pose this to her, she'd written telling me she was going to ship them Priority just for me.  Whoa!  Bonus!  How kind and thoughtful.  I was and am, truly appreciative.

But, I was having "a day".  In truth, I had not had a good night's sleep and the day was feeling wasted.  Around 4pm I decided to give the bag a try by cropping and doing a fine rotate on the image.  I printed it on a light card stock, which is all that will go through my printer, and mapped out a bag around the image.  After cutting this out, I trimmed the top portion with a mini scallop pair of sheers.  The handles are delicate cotton grosgrain ribbon.  When the shipped bags arrive, I may try it again and hope the color saturation will be better. 

I added a pair of black classic Mary Janes that just came in from Debs Adorables, and the costume was complete.  I might add that the silly pumpkin in the photos was one sent to me from Rachel Hoffman, bless her heart, for some goody bag items I made for her to give out this holiday season.

I've been going nuts for the 1950's illustrations for days now, and some of the most charming were those by illustrators for Jack and Jill, a child's magazine from this era.  In an age when everything you could possibly dream of is online or for sale on Etsy or Ebay, its a glorious time to be a collector.  I hope you'll enjoy some of the images I saved off, below.

I dedicate this post to my dearest friend, Jean Nordquist, who inspires me endlessly, and encourages my joy in vintage ephemera.  Besides.  She loves Peggy Sue and Halloween, too!

Happy Halloween!

Love,

Melissa