Costume Misadventures

So, I finally finished making the costumes.
Gedalya's was easy. All it required was some fabric paint and imagination. Not much heavy duty work.
Adel's costume was harder, but I started and finished it in one day. I sewed it from scratch, but it was easy and fun to do.
Zusha's costume... I was hesitating to start it. I mean, how do I make a havdala candle costume? I made him the fire crown I posted earlier. I cut out a tunic for him from beige fleece. My plan was to look at a candle and sketch the braided pattern onto the tunic, and then go over it with puff paint.

I have a flaw. I am a perfectionist. I sketched the braid pattern- it looked a bit lopsided, but nice. The unevenness would not be seen while wearing. I started tracing the lines with the paint. And then I noticed it. A mistake. I made one section of the candle different- not following the braid.I tried to scrape off the paint and wipe off the markings with rubbing alcohol. Nope. Not working.

I declared a costume emergency and brought it to the washing machine. Never mind that it was full of dirty clothes to wash in the morning. I dumped them out and started the load with just the costume.

Now let me explain our situation: We do not do laundry after 9:30 - 10:00 PM because it is bothersome to our neighbors downstairs. The time was 1 AM. And I was doing laundry.
The washing machine is above a bedroom... of a 90 year old woman.
I said it was an emergency.

The beige tunic was washed. All the paint came off, but the marker sketch lines stayed.
I didn't want to repaint it. I thought I'd cut it into three strips and make a braid. Uhhh... didn't work. It came out looking like a rat's tail.
in desperation, I took a sheer beige curtain that we have, attached some ribbons to make it into a cape and called it a night. I was so tired, disappointed, out of ideas.... and the cat kept attacking the ribbon and curtain, sinking his claws into me at each attack, since I was holding the curtain.

The next morning... I tired the cape on Zusha. It looked awful. I was so disappointed.
This is when I had an adrenaline rush. I took the butchered fleece from the original costume, cut sections and assembled what a finished braid should look like.
Then I sewed them.
By hand.
Tragedy averted.

Now there is another problem... since the shalach manos food are connected to the costumes, I wanted to attach little pictures of the kids in costume to the corresponding food to tie it all together. I photographed, edited, added words... but my printing plans fell through. Hillel was going to print them at work but he didn't go for most of the week last week.
I tried to print them in the library, but after all my time and efforts (on erev shabbos, no less!) the pictures printed one tiny one in the corner of the page instead of many small ones on an entire page. Ugh. There is one more option- someone might be able to print for us tonight, but I hate the last minute uncertainty. Hopefully it will work out.

A Freilechen Purim, people!