For our Colonial costumes, I made them as simply as possible with patterns. I was too busy reading great books and preparing extended lessons about this fascinating era to do any complicated sewing.  At the last minute, my husband decided to get involved.  I didn't have time to sew a man's costume, so I had the idea that he should be Ben Franklin, prepared to go swimming in the river.  Like Ben Franklin, that's something my husband always enjoyed doing when he used to live in upstate New York.  So he rolled up some pants and wore his white shirt loosely.  For my daughter and myself,  I followed a pattern. I already had pink fabric in the closet for my daughter's dress.  The kids went shopping with me for my fabric and they chose the yellow for me. 

      My son's costume was easy in some ways and challenging in others.  He had purchased the tricorn hat when we were in Colonial Williamsburg in 2004.  The yellow trim on the hat means he is in the artillery division (I think).  That is not his choice to represent, since he prefers the cavalry. However he chose it because the yellow is one of his favorite colors.     

     The vest was the most difficult.  I had a pattern. When I pulled it out to start cutting, I realized it was a faux vest.  It only had a front and no back except ties to hold it together. It was meant to be worn with a colonial coat.  My son did not want a colonial coat. He wanted to dress just like a colonial boy on the cover of a book we had and the character never wore a coat.  I went back to the store and found a pattern combo for men and boys.  I picked one that was more for a pirate/sailor, yet it was in the colonial era.  I could work with that. When I cut the pattern out, I was dismayed to find that I had purchased a small man's pattern instead of a large boy's pattern. I did not want to endure the time and traffic and the lack of a pattern sale to get a smaller size. I was determined to make this work. I held the pattern up to my son, trying to pin it where it should be smaller. The result came out okay. It could have been better. 

     For the pants, I purchased some navy blue uniform pants at the store.  Then I cut them off at the knee. Using some of the cut off fabric, I made a band to finish off the knee.  Then I added buttons that matched the vest. My son wanted a lot of buttons, like the actual breeches had. However I was on a time crunch and company was flying in just to see the  unit celebration. I had to get these done on time.  

    For shoes, my son wore his good shoes and made cardboard buckles colored with a gold gel pen.  They were taped on the shoes for the unit celebration. 

     The shirt was the same one he wore with his Musketeer costume.  I took off the lace that I had added for the previous look. The ruffles stayed and they were still causing my son a bit of grief.

     A month later a friend found out that we were going to Colonial Williamsburg in August. She suggested that the kids wear their colonial costumes, so they could have more fun. They kids did greatly enjoy themselves wearing their costumes. I had several moms walk up to me and ask me how I sewed them. My husband and I smiled more than once when one of the interpreters complimented us on our well dressed family.  As a result, I think my son was beginning to feel okay with those ruffles. However after going through photos of our time in Colonial Williamsburg, I excitedly called my son to come see the one of him shaking hands with Lafayette. The ruffles on the sleeves match! My son has never complained about that shirt again!   

     It is now a year later and my son has been outgrowing this costume. It's going to have to hang in there for his Colonial Williamsburg trips until I have time to make a new one. I've promised the kids that the next colonial costume will be made with actual patterns from Colonial Williamsburg. My sewing machine is still lopsided from the move and I still cannot sew buttonholes with it. There are a lot of buttonholes in those costumes!  If I can't get a new machine, I might need to apprentice with the milliner to learn how to sew them by hand!