Around The Dinner Table: Purim Theme Ideas

Just finished a cake for a customer. He wanted a cake that wasn't occasion specific, as the party is for 3 different celebrations, 2 birthdays and a Chanukas Habais (housewarming). This was a specialty cake, as the customers daughter has an egg allergy.

Being that this coming Friday is Purim Katan, this weeks posts will be holiday specific. I love being creative, and Purim is the perfect time to make your originality flow. I like to go all out in my themes. Last year, I sewed pirate costumes. I'm not a expert at the sewing machine, in fact I'm not even close.
A few years ago (right about the time my 6 year old was born), my husband bought me a sewing machine. I had no clue how to turn the thing on, much less use it for anything. I remember the first day I took it out and sat for an hour trying to thread the machine. I could not understand the manual at all. Finally, out of frustration, I called a friend of mine, who had literally just given birth, and asked her to explain to me what to do with the thread. After that, I spent some time fooling around with the machine, but still haven't figured out how to make anything correctly. If you've been following my blog, I'm sure you noticed how I can not follow a recipe, I always have to do things my way. Well, I found the same thing true when it came to following a pattern.
For the shirt of the costume, I made a pullover shirt, but with a non-stretch cotton. I then made a cut down the center front and sewed it back to make a slight "V". I bought the eyes from a store then sells all sort of trim, and found it easiest to make a small whole with something sharp and push it through, then turn it over and band down the metal teeth with a hammer or a heavy object. I then threaded it in a criss cross matter with a thick cord also purchased at a trim store.

For the belt, I cut out a long sash from yellow fabric. The pants I sewed as easy pattern, but used elastic on top, around the waist and on the bottom around the ankles. The kerchief hat is red fabric cut into a triangle. For the eye patch, I took a piece of thick black vinyl, which I cut into the correct shape to which I sewed on elastic to hold in in place on their faces. The swords (which they insisted on) are a dollar store find. To keep with the theme, my Meshloach Mones, was a pirate ship in a bottle. I baked and decorated pirate ship and treasure map cookies and placed them and a small bottle of rum in a glass jar with a big opening along with brown sugar sand, mint chocolate rocks and gold chocolate coins.