This past weekend was a shared birthday for my son and me.  We have long dreamed of celebrating at the annual Prelude to Victory event at Colonial Williamsburg. We left Friday for Yorktown Battlefield in preparation for the event, then went to CW in the late afternoon. That evening I was seranaded by historic musicians for my birthday at Christiana Campbell's Tavern. That was definitely unique! Then the rest of the weekend was for my son.  How much fun for a boy to be surrounded by cannons, artillery, (in other words, lots of noise!) and a surprise meeting with his favorite actor!  We arrived home late last night and had a wonderful time making new memories, many of which revolve around my son's "new" costume.

     Since we moved from Texas to Northern Virginia last spring, we have not acclimated to the colder weather. Although the autumn leaves are a fresh treat for our birthdays, the huge temperature ranges are doing us in.  Recently, I have been trying to figure out how to help my kids survive the colder weather in Colonial Williamsburg, while they are in costume. Even though I have purchased fabric for historic cloaks for them to wear over their costumes, I haven't had time to complete them before our big birthday trip down to CW last weekend.  To complicate matters, my son has grown five inches since moving to Virginia!  He can barely get into his old costume anymore. He has been wanting me to make a new colonial costume for him, but I haven't had time to do that either. One day I realized that his Lafayette costume had been hanging in the closet and should fit perfectly.  Also, it has extra layers of fabric, so he'd be warmer.  That was good because there were some chilly moments last weekend.  Nevertheless my son did tell me he was glad I would make a cape for him, when he felt the evening chill settle in.  

     Sounds like we're on the right track, right? Well, what would other people think of him wearing a major general costume?  We worried about how this would go over at Colonial Williamsburg. We certainly did not want to be presumptious in having him portray Lafayette at CW. That was merely his assignment for a school project a year ago when we studied Yorktown.

 We agree that there can only be one "Lafayette!"  In fact, that is why my son had the costume in the first place. While studying Yorktown, I assigned my son to do a first person interpretation of someone who was at Yorktown and give his perspective of the future. This was an assignment I had found in the Electronic Field Trip packet and I was going to allow him to simply make a rough draft and present this for his dad that weekend. He not only chose Lafayette, but also asked for a costume.  Wilting from all of my other costume projects, I decided to make the Lafayette costume, if it meant encouraging his history studies.  He doesn't normally dig into history books, so I sewed the costume while he dug away!  I used a combination of contemporary patterns and vacation pictures of the CW Lafayette to put the costume together. 

     After much thought, my son decided he could honestly say that he was supporting the troops. I thought that was good, but what if it didn't work?  After all when we attended Under the Redcoat last June, my children were nearly arrested. This time I had visions of the Continental Army arresting him for impersonating an officer. (My dad and husband are both retired USAF, so we understand these things.)  I decided that I would take the 21st century slant and explain, if needed, that it's the only costume we had in the closet that fits and helps to keep him warm. (My kids and I are always trying to stay in the 18th century as much as possible, which is a huge challenge when 21st century things are occuring!)  Well, my son definitely got a lot of reactions to his costume, especially from all of the actor interpreters! On top of that, Lafayette himself approached him concerning this matter. Stay tuned for the details!    

     The Year 3 Unit 4 costumes were relatively easy, especially my son's.

     Since he wanted to be a cowboy he just wore blue jeans and a cowboy looking shirt we found in the men's section (not a lot of cowboy looking shirts in Northern Virginia).  The cowboy hat is from Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.  We purchased it a couple of years ago.  In fact we each got hats that day to wear on our 2 hour horseback ride into the Rockies!   

    A couple of days before the unit celebration, we were running errands for unit celebration goodies and my son announced that he wanted chaps. What?????? I had to sew something?  I was incredulous! We were at JoAnns and affordable leather was not to be found. He was content with a tan micro suede which I purchased at 40% off.  When we got home I just form fitted it to him, while looking at pictures of some on the internet.  I forgot to tell him to tie them looser, until after the unit celebration was done. But he was happy with them.

      My daughter's pattern was rather straight forward.  It is nearly identical to the one on the pattern cover, except for the color. Hmmmm, I did do the puff sleeves differently. I am always looking for short cuts to save time in costume making. The pattern had complicated directions.  I merely took a yard of netting, cut it in half, folded it up and hand sewed it into the inside of the sleeve at the shoulder to help it puff.  

     My dress is basically the same as my daughter's. In fact, the pattern is the same size, a 10.  I sewed regular 5/8" seams for my daughter's dress and the bodice was still a little tight. I sewed 1/4" seams on mine and it was far too big!  I can't believe how much weight I have lost in the last year. My skirt is wrapped up and layered in back, there is so much of it. My daughter and I are basically held together by pins once we put these costumes on. I also found some special tape to use on the bodice when needed.

      My dress is patterned after Queen Liliokalani in a famous painting.   I used the same pattern as my daughter's, except there are no sleeves.  I purchased wire edge black sheer ribbon.

I took out the wires and gathered the one side to inset into the sleeve.  I purchased a velvet edging to line the bodice.  Because the Queen's dress sparkles, I purchased a can of silver spray paint for fabric to lightly coat the dress. I never did that though, because I ended up also being a French lady. For jewelry, I went to a costume jewelry store.

     In analyzing Queen Liliuokalani's painting it appeared that she had a bustle. But when we watched  period movies like "And Ideal Husband," bustles were out.  I did a lot of research and decided not to wear a bustle.  Before I made that decision though, I set out to make a bustle.  I found interesting directions on-line which I couldn't conceive how in the world it would work. I had to try. I purchased a yard of netting and a yard of silk lining, in pink and black for each of our costumes. (both are rathing inexpensive)   The saleslady who cut my fabric asked what I was making.  When I told her she said it would be easier to merely sew a bag and stuff it.  With my extra fabric, I made one of those for each of us.  Then I set that aside and make the one with the netting.

    These directions are a compilation of much research.  With the silk lining, I made 2 "bags" with one end open. One was for the stuffing, as per the saleslady's instructions.  The other was for the application of the netting.

  Then I found a bowl with a 10" circumference, which I traced onto a garbage bag and cut out.

 Using the paper bag circle as a pattern, I pinned it to the netting and cut around it. Then I folded the resulting circle into fourths...

 and snipped a small curve out of the tip, where the blue tipped pin is in the top picture.

  Then I cut a slit into one side so that when I opened it it looked like this.

 Then I took four of these circles and sewed the straight edges together...

...so that I had a string of four sewed together.

Next I pinned it evenly across the "bag" and sewed a straight stitch across the top.

I kept sewing layers of this...

...until the bag was covered.  Then I took some matching grossgrain ribbon and centered it across the top of the bag, and sewed it on with a straight seam. Ta da!

Here is the back...

Results?  I tried on my two new bustles with my costume.  The one made according to the saleslady's instructions made me look as though I seriously needed to lose weight.  The one with the netting made my costume look gently draped and classy. If you need a bustle, I highly recommend this technique! 

     Our Civil War costumes were a challenge, not only because of the elaborateness of the fashions of that era, but also because we sold our house, packed up, moved from Texas to Virginia, house hunted and unpacked during this time.  Whew!  As a result of all of the above, and in addition to my limited skills, these are probably the poorest costumes I have made. (Pictures hide a lot, but obviously not everything!)  Therefore, this post is mainly about tips that I offer from lessons I learned from my mistakes.

     Timewise, this is how I worked it in. After our Texas house sold and a few days before the packers came, I had an abundance of nervous energy. I cut out and machine sewed the dresses and Union officer coat.  A few weeks after we moved into our Virginia house, I finished the costumes. Tip: I could have done the handwork while w-a-i-t-i-n-g on the new house.  

     For the dresses, I had a few contemporary patterns that were quite historical (and complicated).  Not sure of which one I would make, I went to the fabric store for inspiration.  I was looking for fabric that had "the look" and was inexpensive.  After researching a few stores, I went to JoAnn Fabrics and their spring collection was available. They had eyelet gingham at a great price (40% off)  so I got two different colors and wiped out the bolts.  The total yardage from the bolts was a little less than the patterns called for.  All along my favorite was a pattern that was too complicated, but had tiny cap sleeves, as in a picnic dress that Scarlett O'Hara might wear.  However the patterns with the longer sleeves were easier. (not easy, just easi*er*)   I decided to do the easiest of the patterns and modify the sleeves.   

     After the dress was made, I had my daughter try it on with the hoops from our Elizabethan dresses.  The boning I had gotten for the hoops was too flimsy to do the Elizabethan dresses enough justice. Sadly, they weren't stiff enough for the Civil War dresses either.  When I arrived in Virginia, I went to the fabric stores looking for boning that would be appropriate for hoop skirts.  I now live in an area where there is quite a bit of Civil War reenactments...but I ran into dead ends.  The fabric stores did not carry any strong boning.  The ladies who worked at the fabric stores did not even know how to make hoop skirts.  I was flabbergasted.  Tip: I highly recommend either purchasing boning from an online historic garment site or purchasing hoop skirts either from a local bridal shop or on-line. They aren't that expensive. At the time I was overwhelmed with numerous details from moving into a new house and to a new state, that I did not purchase hoop skirts.  If anyone knows of a reputable dealer, I would like to know.  =)

     The gloves are gorgeous!  I purchased those while on vacation last August.  After touring Monticello, we visited Mitchie's Tavern.  They have a historical garment shop.  That is where I got the gloves.

     My son's Union officer coat I don't even want to think about. There was no way I could alter a pattern I had for him, because it is double breasted and I have no idea how to do that on my own.  There were no children's costumes for Union officers.  I finally purchased a small man's pattern,which I had to alter down in size for my son.  Even though I have used navy blue broadcloth for the Oliver Hazard Perry swallowtail coat and the General Lafayette  officer coat, they hung quite well on my son. However the Union officer coat did not hang well.  He also outgrew it during the move!  When I sewed it in February, I made the sleeves extra long.  By the time we had the unit celebration in June, they were too short.  =/  I agonized over epaulettes and they just wouldn't lay down well when I hand sewed them.  Tip:Try to use a heavy fabric and  try to find some embroidered epaulettes from a historic Civil War costume site.  Hopefully they wouldn't be expensive.  Some Civil War battlefields sell costume items.

     My son's pants were easy. I got some navy blue school uniform pants and red edging.  I sewed the edging on by hand. His boots are the same ones he made for his Robin Hood costume and also wore for the Musketeer, Oliver Hazard Perry, and Lafayette costumes.  

     The hat was an adventure.  We went to the Fredericksburg Battlefield gift shop (after touring the battlefield and cemetary).  They sold kepies, which my son wasn't interested in.  He knew he wanted to be a cavalry officer, and the kepies had the wrong insignia on the front. He did find a cavalry embroidered patch, I think for about $5. (I wonder if they had epaulettes?)  We looked through their books for a picture of a Union cavalry officer to see exactly what kind of hat he wore and what kind of epaulettes he had.  Meanwhile, the gift shop employee started talking to us and found out what we were up to.   =)  He started researching with us and he told us that the kepi probably would have been the most realistic. (I was leaning towards the cowboy hat look, like General Grant.) He asked us what officer wants to go onto the field of battle with obvious rank on him?  But didn't they?  We couldn't decide and left without a kepi. This was before we moved into our house. 

     After we moved into our new house, my son decided to go with the cowboy hat look.  I hoped we could find one at Target, like I did for the Musketeer hat.  My son suggested we just rework the Musketeer hat.  What?  That is one costume piece that looks great!  I put a lot of work into that! We are leaving that alone!  We went to several stores and found a lot of hats, even cowboy hats, but they were made of straw. We needed a black/navy blue felt cowboy hat, just like the Musketeer hat. Where to find something like this in Virginia?  We should have bought one before we left Texas.  When I found out there are longhorns raised not too far from us, I figured there had to be a cowboy store somewhere.  I started asking around and people laughed.  A cowboy store in Virginia?  After they recovered, they'd remember a certain store that they'd describe to me.  At this time, I did not know the area well and had trouble finding my way home.  I had no idea where they were directing me.  Eventually I found the store on-line.  Can you believe it?  A western store in Virginia?  I even printed out a coupon for cowboy hats. This could be good.  We drove to the store and it was small.  For some reason I was expecting a Texas sized store.  We looked at the tiny selection of cowboy hats.  Hmmm, the closest I could find was a discounted Indiana Jones felt cowboy hat.  Brown. Hmmmm, dare I dye this? The salesman asked if he could help and I explained we needed an inexpensive felt cowboy hat to convert into a Union officer hat.  He was impressed and asked if we were reenactors. Oh no, I explained this is just something we do for homeschool and I explained our unit celebrations. We got to talking about our having recently moved into the area from San Antonio, Texas and he told us how much he liked Texas. He also told me I could dye the brown hat to a nice navy blue, although he qualified that by saying he only knows that from what his wife does as he is too manly to go into the craft store himself to get the dye. LOL In the meantime, my son found a black felt cowboy hat that fit him. Yea!  Ugh...the price.  Not too bad but still more than I had budgeted.  Then I remembered the coupon and presented it to the salesman. He told us that coupon was for the Stetsons, and we were purchasing a non-Stetson clearance hat.  Oh.  Disappointed, but understanding, I put the coupon away. You know what? The salesman quickly changed his mind, because he said he likes friendly Texans, and gave me the discount anyway!  Tip:Be Texas friendly to salesmen who are softies at heart.  =)

     To convert the hat from a cowboy hat to a Union officer hat, I sewed on the cavalry patch my son had purchased earlier at the battlefield.  I also got some red tassle to decorate the hat. (like the picture on the costume cover)  I had also meant to sew up one side of the hat brim, but my son was so impressed with the hat that I never saw it again until he wore it for the unit celebration.  Unfortunately for me, out of sight out of mind. Do you realize the necessity of the one brim being up?  I always used to wonder why so many officers did that, until we read about it during our Civil War studies this year. Apparently my son forgot but he realized during the unit celebration when he held up the rifle to demonstrate how to load, aim and shoot. The brim was in the way! See the practicality of having unit celebrations?  Details that kids forget from their reading make sense when they reenact!    

     For those who have been wanting to see how I design the costumes, this set for the Year 3 Unit 2 Celebration  was easy!  I was grateful for a break after the previous challenges. Also unit 2 usually falls after the holidays so it's nice not to have a major project on top of the festivities. 

     The dresses were straightforward.  I simply sewed them, using a contemporary pattern. For fun we chose brighter colors than a typical pioneer might have worn day to day. We pretended we were like Laura Ingalls picking out fresh fabric at the mercantile. In all honesty, I almost set out to purchase a more historic pattern on-line and nearly purchased duller cotton at the store.  The kids and I had been asked several months before to become part of the reenactment group at the Alamo! They do a few reenactments a  year, since more happened around the San Antonio area during the Texas Revolution, than the Alamo. However the Alamo is certainly the most memorable. For some reason I struggled with accepting this opportunity.  It seems Providential now that I did not, because our busy time reenacting would have been during the sale of our house and the Alamo reenactment was the weekend we moved from Texas to Virginia! I came oh so close to contacting the reenactors to sign us up and use that for our Year 3 Unit 2 Celebration! Wouldn't that have been great?  I was going to use the extra time for extra study, even though the reenactor told us we knew more about Texas history than most of their reenactors.  Oh well, that didn't work out. It was certainly a thrill to have been invited to do historical interpretations at the Alamo though. =)

      My son wanted to be Davy Crockett.  His costume had actually been a work in progress for almost a year, since he knew who he wanted to be. The pants and mocassins were from his American Indian costume in Year 2 Unit 3.  I got more ultra suede to make his shirt. The pants and shirt patterns both came from an American Indian pattern, available from a contemporary pattern company.  I used brown floss to sew the edges to make them look more rustic.  The coonskin hat was purchased a few years ago at the Alamo, of course!  The rifle was purchased at a historical toy display the previous spring. And that was it!         

    For those who have wanted to know how I design and sew costumes, the Lafayette costume was the greatest challenge yet. Last year was our first year to do Electronic Field Trips with Colonial Williamsburg.  When we experienced the Yorktown EFT, my son wanted to do a first person interpretation of Lafayette.  "Mom, can you make a Lafayette costume for me, p-l-e-a-s-e?"  I wilted.  I had recently completed our Year 3 Unit 1 costumes. Our Y3U1 unit celebration was over. I thought I was on a costume sewing break for a few weeks.  I gave this careful thought.  I had three days to make a Lafayette costume, from the time he asked to the time the kids would share their presentations with Dad on Sunday. I had no pattern for a Lafayette costume. However, my son was motivated to deeply research Lafayette's life and impact on Yorktown and reflections on liberty.  I couldn't help but want to encourage that.  Although my son was a deep thinker, intensely curious, asked deep questions and has always impressed generals (21st century and 18th century) with his knowledge base and ability to make connections, he avoids historical books.  Even though we don't use text books, but rather deeper historical books, many of which are story-like and are written at his level, his preference is to avoid them like the bubonic plague. If making a costume was going to encourage him to dig into history, then so be it.

        Although I did not have a Lafayette pattern, I did have a basic colonial coat pattern from the costume section of a contemporary pattern company.  I used that as a base.  Then I dug out photos from our vacation to Colonial Williamsburg when we got to meet "Lafayette" so I could attempt to recreate the look. Because the CWF puts great effort into making everything historically accurate, I knew that I could trust our vacation photos for research. 

    This was going to be more difficult than any other costume I had ever made for my son.  I know I keep saying that, but up to this point, they have been getting progressively more challenging. Well, I was up for the challenge! I ran everything by my son, because I knew my skills were limited and I would not be able to create a perfect look. But I hoped that I could come reasonably close and I wanted him to know I would do my best.

     My son wanted both the coat and vest. We had basically everything else. My son would reuse his boots from his Robin Hood/Musketeer/Oliver Hazard Perry costumes.  He would wear the infamous ruffled shirt that he wore for his Musketeer/Colonial boy/Oliver Hazard Perry costumes. In fact, it was during the analysis of the Lafayette costume that I realized this shirt my son hesitated to wear because of the ruffles, was identical in the sleeves to the actor's!  Ever since I showed that to my son, he has been pleased with this shirt choice.

  The breeches were actually school uniform pants, buff colored that we got at the store.  My son stuffed the bottoms of the legs into his boots.  The hat would simply be the one he already had.  I asked if he'd like to try to make the plume.  (Lafayette's hat is laying on the bench.)  Surprisingly my son did not want a plume. That turned out to be a good thing, because I was never able to figure out how to recreate that. And now when I'm at CW, and I see that plume on the hat, I analyze how that plume could have possibly been made. (Where ever I go, if there are costumes, I analyze them.  I didn't used to, but since I started doing costumes for children's choir years ago and now for our unit celebrations, it has become ingrained in me.)  While I worked on the rest of the costume, my son worked on his harness. After our vacation, my son had redesigned his sword to look like Lafayette's for his Y3U1 costume. As a result his Lafayette sword was ready to go. My son spent his extra time trying to figure out the harness for the sword that Lafayette wore. We compared that to how Washington wore his sword, which is different. In the end, my son decided to wear it similar to Washington. We did some google research on different types of historical harnesses to get ideas on how Washington wore it, which seemed easier to recreate than how Lafayette wore his.  We never did do the black cravat.  I don't remember why, but I think it's because we weren't sure how to do it.  It actually looks like a black turtleneck with a white cravat.  Or perhaps I ran out of time and forgot to get black fabric at the store. Anyway, we used the white cravat and not black.          

     First, I made the coat because that was the most important. Then I chose the fabrics. Obviously they had to be navy blue and buff. That was easy. Although the CW actor/interpreter told us he was wearing wool, that was out of my price range and color range at the store. Instead I purchased broadcloth because it comes in a broad range of colors and is inexpensive.  I cut two sets of the coat pattern. The outer layer would be blue and the inner layer would be buff.  Also I cut the pattern larger than the big boy pattern.  This pattern is from the same set as the Oliver Hazard Perry swallowtail coat, that I had made precisely the same size as the large pattern. When it was done, it was too short!Obviously my tailoring and fitting skills are not great, hence the Lafayette coat is extra large on him, despite the time I took to make sure it would be the right size. Oh well, it would fit him better one day.   (Now he is growing like a weed so it would be interesting to see how much better it fits him now.)

     The embellishments would be the challenge. I measured along the neck and sides of the coat, for an apporpriate sized strip of buff to line the edge. Pieces like this are normally cut on the curve, exactly as it should be. I am not capable of figuring that out. I cut on the lengthwise grain because I did not have enough fabric to cut on the bias.  I sewed it on to the edge of the navy, right sides together, then used an iron to carefully press the buff so that it showed on the outside of the navy. Then I took pins and pinned down the other side.  This worked fine on the straight part, but on the curve there were going to be puckers. I struggled quite a bit  before I finally just decided to go with puckers. However they would be neat puckers. I carefully pinned them down, spreading them out so (hopefully) they looked like I had meant for them to look like that. After it was pinned, I hand sewed it in place with tiny, neat stitches. 

     Then I took more buff to create cuffs.  That was easier. I measured the cuff and cut a strip of buff on the lengthwise grain, with a proportionate width.  I sewed the short ends together. Then I pinned it to the edge of the sleeve, right sides together and sewed it together. Then I folded it open and pressed.

     Next were the buttons. We analyzed all of Lafayette's buttons and their placement. That was a lot of buttons!  I had just spent a bit of money to outfit the Oliver Hazard Perry costume in buttons! My son said to reuse those buttons.  (GASP) Surely he jests!  After all that time I agonized over that costume, there was no way I was going to dismantle it. Also I had recently made it. Besides he might want to wear it for his costume for the Awana leadership banquet. (Little did I know we'd be living in Virginia by then.)   I bought the buttons. We ended up not using sleeve buttons, because I couldn't find enough and I didn't have time to shop all over San Antonio. We only had so many to work with and I told my son we needed to place them where they would be most strategic for a grand look.  That would be along the sides of the coat, instead of the cuff. Besides my son has a small frame and I thought that would be accentuated by all the buttons on the sleeves.       

     How to do the epaulettes?  I had no idea how to figure out a duplicate of the epaulettes. My son taught me how to zoom in on pictures on my photo editor program.  Of course when we took these pictures we had no idea we'd need them for costume analysis.  But the zoom showed that Lafayette had  fancy epaulettes. I felt constrained for time, so I duplicated the ones I made for the Oliver Hazard Perry costume. Also Lafayette had 2 silver stars on top of each epaulette. We had no idea!  We did remember that he was a major general, so 2 silver stars for each epaulette were needed. I hoped to find some nice embroidered ones at the store.  There were none. I did find silver button stars. I purchased those but when I laid them on the epaulettes, the stars were tiny in proportion to the epaulette.  Back to the store I went for silver lame. (pronounced la-may; I can't use accent marks on this keyboard) Then I took some paper and made a five pointed star.   Obviously  it was too large, so I kept carefully cutting it down by refolding the star and making a little snip. Then I'd reopen it and lay it on the epaulette until I got the proportion I wanted.  When the proper size was established, I used it as a pattern on the silver lame.  Then I adhered them to the epaulette with glue stick. Any other glue would have been too thick for the fragile, thin stars. Nor could I sew it on neatly, being fragile fabric on top of a cardboard base. However the gluestick does not stick as well as it needed to. The gluestick had to work.   

     Finally I pulled up the bottom edges of the coat and sewed them together. I kept telling my son that Lafayette didn't wear it that way but my son said that other pictures in books show it and he liked the look. So that's what he got. 

     I had a little time left to make the vest. Using another pattern for a colonial pirate in a small man's size, I resized this to be smaller. I used the Lafayette picture to see how long the vest should be in proportion to the rest of the body. Otherwise I followed the pattern directions.  In the end, the vest was huge on him. At least he can grow into it.

     Here is the final look. I sent the CWF Educational Outreach Department pictures and copies of my kids Yorktown presentations. In turn, they sent us a gift!  That was a great memory maker and it was a lot of fun. Now that we live in Virginia and go to CW quite often, my son has asked me to let him wear his Lafayette costume.  I told him there is only one Lafayette!  =) Actually I'm not sure how that would go over at CW, with him running around in a General costume.  I've seen other boys wearing one, so I guess it would be okay as long as he didn't tell people he was Lafayette.  Afterall, what would Lafayette think?            

     My favorite dresses to sew were for our Year 3 Unit 1 Celebration.

 In fact, they were the most comfortable to wear!  Furthermore, I loved the little poof in the back.

I did a lot of research on these dresses. I think I was inspired by Colonial Williamsburg's attention to detail!  I found a great web site that shows all the dresses from the 1996 movie, "Pride and Prejudice" and other Jane Austen movies.  Another good source of patterns, history, types of fabric, etc, etc, etc is here.

     I found a great historical pattern which I used for our dresses. My daughter's dress is identical to the pattern. Viewing "Pride and Prejudice" was also a great help in selecting fabrics. I had lots of fabric left from our Roman costumes, and it would make a fun overlay for her dress.  I went to Jo Ann for the underfabric.  I purchased a matching color from the Casa Collection. The Casa Collection fabrics are great for costumes. I used them when I sewed for the children's choir too. There is a large range of colors in great weights.  I chose a lightweight fabric so it would have a pleasantly soft drape. Also the fabric is 60" wide and often on sale.  There are also great coupons (at least 40% off) at Jo Ann.

    For my dress, I got a little adventurous.  I chose a creamy yellow for the underneath layer. Then after much searching, I found a dotted swiss at Hobby Lobby. Dotted Swiss is hard to find these days. I used the same pattern as for my daughter, but this time the overlay is the same length as the dress. 

Also, after sewing the bodice, I cut out the creamy yellow base from the sleeve, using applique scissors.  (Applique scissors are often used in quilting, when cutting a top layer of fabric without fear of cutting any fabrics underneath.)  Then I embellished with pearl trim. 

 I carried the look of pearls on the back...

     Regency, Empire, Federal...all styles from the early 19th century, but what is the difference? According to this web site, it's the same style but different names according to the country:  France, America and England. Can you guess which country used which name? After several unit celebrations of wearing dresses with layers of heavy fabrics and feeling confined, these dresses were light and airy.  And who would I have to thank for this gorgeous fashion statement?  None other than (drum roll please) Napoleon!  

     Studying history along side literature, fine arts, philosophy and government of the same historical era has taught me how they are inter-related.  One always affects the other.  Before the French Revolution, Paris was the fashion leader of the day, as we all know it continues to be today. When visiting the Milliner shop in Colonial Williamsburg, one can learn about the latest fashions of France and whether they are being imported to the colonies anymore due to the America Revolution.  Obviously the French Revolution crippled the fashion industry of Paris. According to this article, one way Napoleon revived the economy of France after he gained power in 1804, was by requiring the ladies to wear a new dress every time they arrived in court. His wife, Josephine was a fashion statement, as we all know. High waistlines and elegant fabrics continue to influence fashion today.  

      My son's Year 3 Unit 1 costume was inspired by a souvenir he purchased when we were at Colonial Williamsburg on vacation a month before we started this unit.  He had no idea who he wanted to be, but he knew it had to center around a bosun's whistle.  Since the era studied for Year 3 Unit 1 was 1801-1825, we were thinking he might be someone from the War of 1812.  But who? The week we actually studied the war, when I learned of the incredible victory of Oliver Hazard Perry, I had a feeling my son would want to be this character!  That's exactly who he decided to be!  (The bosun whistle is around his neck.  I'd take a close up picture of the actual one right now but my camera is broken.)

     The Oliver Hazard Perry costume was the most difficult costume I had made for him up to that time.  Actually parts of it were easy. He wore buff colored school uniform pants and stuffed the legs into his boots he had made for his Robin Hood costume. He had a white shirt, the infamous ruffly musketeer/colonial shirt was still in fashion. However, after looking at pictures of Perry, my son would need a cravat.  Hmmmm, how in the world are those things tied?  I found this site which gave us some ideas.  I analyzed pictures of actors at Colonial Williamsburg who wear cravats. They are all done differently.  After much agonizing research,  we settled on an easy look without worrying about a historical method.  Since everyone wore it differently, maybe it didn't matter?  Basically I used a wide strip of white cotton fabric, about 6" wide.  I merely ripped the fabric by hand down the lenghtwise salvage.  To save time in my busy schedule, I didn't even hem it. We experimented until we got a look that seemed to work. We tucked it in well enough so that no one would know it hadn't been hemmed.  (Shhh, don't tell.)

      The jacket, itself, was easy because I had a pattern for it.  However the embellishment was the challenge. He needed gold buttons, gold trim and gold epaulettes. I used ideas from pictures, then simplified a bit. I did enough for effect.The epaulettes was the most difficult, because I could not find directions on how to make a nice set. After analyzing pictures of Perry, I couldn't see the entire epaulette well enough to form a plan to make them.  I pulled out our vacation pictures from Colonial Williamsburg to analyze the epaulettes of the generals. Fortunately we happened to have a few good shots of the epaulettes to be able to form a plan.

     First I took sturdy cardstock and cut them to a length and width to fit proportionally on my son's shoulders.  Then I found a curved object, like these coasters, to trace a line for the curve...

...at the end of each epaulette.

I centered them on top of gold fabric that my son approved for the project...

The clothespins held down the edges while the glue dried.

 Because this type of fringe easily ravels, I taped off the ends.

Since it looked sparse, I doubled it by folding it in half. The pictures of Perry show thicker trim, but I made this costume in proportion to my son's small body. Also, thick fringe would have been more difficult to manipulate for the epaulettes. 

I used double stick tape on the shoulder of the coat...

then laid the fringe on the tape, sandwiching it so I could sew it on with tiny stitches hidden under the cardstock base.

     My son made his hat, using pictures as inspiration. This is merely cardboard, tape and paint. He is quite the artist, isn't he?

The sword is an enhanced version of the plain musketeer sword he had made.  He used a picture of Lafayette's sword, whom he met at CW, for inspiration. In fact, he asked Lafayette about his sword one day and Lafayette unsheathed it to show it off. (Now I can't find a picture of Lafayette with the fancy handled sword.  Perhaps it was someone elses sword that looked like that?) That obviously made an impression on my son. Isn't the sword great?  My son does these projects behind my back. I am usually surprised when we put the costumes on the day of our unit celebrations, when everything comes together.     

     If you're going to go to the work to make a great historical costume for your kids, then don't forget a few simple props to help them bring their story to life.  Oliver Hazard Perry is infamous for this flag...

     We had read about this and wanted to make it as historically accurate as possible.  I found a picture of the actual flag that can be seen at the US Naval Academy. (Now that we're living on the East Coast we need to visit!) I think I did the letters free hand.

Then I traced them backwards onto fusible web.  Next I cut out the letters, positioned them onto the flag, and then ironed them on.

    Next my son needed the infamous Oliver Hazard Perry letter, which became a prop into a play-like scene that opened our unit celebration.

 A few months previous we had been on vacation to CW, where my son used money from grandparents to buy souvenirs. He purchased a historic quill and ink writing set that he was able to use for this project.  First we made the ink...

Then he sat down to write. On the notebook paper above his parchment paper, is the quote he will copy. (When done, we store the ink in a small jar.)

Then he sealed the note...

and stamped it.

  Ta da!

    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!

The Native American costumes were quite easy to make.  For all of our costumes, I think I purchased ultra-suede.  The positives are that it looks like actual Native American clothing and it was extremely comfortable to wear.      

     This time, my son's costume was the only one with a pattern.  I followed the pattern for the pants, except for the waistband. Instead of using elastic, I thought it would be more "authentic" if I used rawhide string for a drawstring.  Inspired by a picture I saw, I added the loin cloth, using a rust colored ultra-suede. I cut out rectangles and made a casing at the top to thread more rawhide string to tie it on.   I did not make any seams in the sides.  I doubt that any of the Native Americans made finishing seams, so I didn't either.

My son made the leather pouch from a kit he got at Hobby Lobby. He also made the bear claw necklace with items he got at Hobby Lobby.

     The dresses I made for my daughter and myself had no pattern. She wanted to be Pocahontas, so I googled images of Pocahontas.  I styled our dresses based on ideas I got from the search. I got ultra-suede fabric for our costumes. The fabric comes from the store like this:

I refolded the fabric to look like this:

Then I had my daughter lay down on the fabric. I basically marked lines like this with pins around her body, making sure I would have about 5/8" seam allowance.  I wanted the dress to be slender on her, so I marked the seams with pins near her body.

      I sewed the seams on the sides. I cut fringe on the bottom.  I did not finish off the seams at the armhole.

      For the neckline, I cut a rectangular piece of the ultra-suede, fringed one side of it, then sewed it into the neckline. Then we went to Hobby Lobby to find embellishments.  Pocahontas might have embellished her dresses with seashells. My daughter chose this green shell which already had holes drilled into the end. I took some twine and strung it through, knotting the end.  Next I sewed it into the neckline, varying the length to match the fringe...

 and knotted the other end on the underneath side of the fabric.  

      I made my dress in a similar manner, choosing pink shells and sewing the fringe in a bit differently.

     These shells had holes drilled into them, from end to end.

I sewed them on like this...

      Since the Native Americans used a purple shell for money (called Wampung in Plymouth), I found a purple necklace seashell necklace at Hobby Lobby. My daughter, made one for a craft project, but I don't recall if she wore it.

     Finally, my son made each of us a pair of moccasins from kits I got at Hobby Lobby (I miss Hobby Lobby! There are none around here!)     

     I have been promising some ladies that I'd detail how I do costumes. I am always asked if I use patterns or if I make them up.  If at all possible, I use patterns. Quite often, especially for my son, I have to get extremely creative because patterns cannot be found. Also he is extremely particular about the details, so his costumes can be quite the challenge. I am picking up where I left off last summer, with the Museketeer costume. Details on the previous costumes and the Elizabethan costumes from this unit are in the "Costumes"  link in my right sidebar. I'll try to get caught up to where we are now in the next few weeks.

      I used a pattern for the cape. I purchased the blue silk for the outside and used yellow silk for the lining, which was in my fabric stash. The pattern called for gold trim, which would have been expensive. I made my own with gold fabric in my fabric stash. After ironing it to a double sided fusible, I cut out all of those triangles. Then I ironed them onto the cape.  On the positive, this was free since supplies were sitting around unused. On the negative side, the gold frays easily and it was time consuming.

     The pants are actually navy blue sweats that my son had in the closet.  I was up to my elbows in Elizabethan dresses for my daughter and me, so I wanted to simplify my son's costume as much as possible. Don't remind me of the unsimplified homemade gold trim. =) 

     The boots are the ones he made for his Robin Hood costume. The faux leather for the boots were a bit pricey so I was glad they were getting more use.

     The shirt was a great find. There are patterns for those types of shirts, but they are in men's sizes.  I went shopping. Shhh, don't tell the secret of where I found the shirt. My son doesn't want anyone to know, but I found that shirt at Marshall's in the lady's department. Because I was so busy with those Elizabethan dresses (and gold trim), I was thrilled that I found this shirt in the first store I walked into. That is rare.  My son was devasted when I brought it home and told him where I got it. I told him that's what men wore back then and this is a costume. The ruffles are very French, which his costume requires. He conceded that.  I was also thrilled because I could foresee him wearing it for the next several unit celebrations, which he has done.  He even wore it with his colonial boy costume when we went to Colonial Williamsburg last summer.  After vacation, when I was going through pictures, I was ecstatic and called him over.  There is a picture of him shaking hands with the Frenchman, Lafayette. The ruffly sleeves look identical!  How cool is that? To make this shirt more French, I sewed lace to the edges of the sleeves.  For future costumes, that lace came off and stayed off, which I guess was a good call since my son's sleeves matched Lafayette's!     

     The biggest challenge to this costume was the hat. Would I find a hat that I could afford that could be repurposed into a Musketeer hat?  Marshalls, where I got the shirt, did not have one.  I think Target was next and I found some black felt cowboy hats in the men's section. I don't know if Target always carried these.  This was in San Antonio where the annual Stock Show and Rodeo was about to start. The hat was about $10.  I was willing to pay that. Then I got a large white feather at my favorite craft store, Hobby Lobby.

     When I got home I made more of those gold triangles and ironed them onto the hat. Then I glued the feather onto the hat and I probably put some clothespins in place until the glue dried.  Ta da! 

     My son made the sword.  He used combinations of cardboard, tape and paint. He used pictures off the internet that I probably found for him, as models. This sword went through transformations after he met Lafayette at Colonial Williamsburg.  I'll save that for when I describe how I did his Lafayette costume.

     Overall, Mr. Particular was pleased with his costume.  In fact, at the end of the year when my kids were asked to serve tables in costumes at the Awanas banquet, I told my kids I was not sewing more costumes.  =)  They could choose from our costume stash. Although he would have loved to have worn his Spartan costume, he knew he would have a difficult time moving around in it. Finally he decide to wear his Musketeer costume, which was a hit! Whew!  Another costume accomplished!    

These Greek costumes were really fun to make!  DD and I wore queen size bed sheets!  DH thinks the pretty lace is too scruffy for his chin, so they just sit in the closet.  Finally they are being put to good use!

Basically we just held the sheets up so that the bottom touched the floor.  We safety pinned the fabric at the shoulder and allowed the top to drape down, showing the pretty lace.  We used rope for our belts.

DS costume was the most involved.  For the helmet, we measured his head size.  Then we blew up a balloon a little larger.  That was paper mached.  Then he made a trough out of masking tape for the top to hold the crest. 

 For the crest he cut strips of red tissue paper and dipped the tip into glue and stuck those ends into the trough.   The night before the unit celebration, we watched "Alexander the Great" with Richard Burton.  He had a cool helmet with visors that flipped open and closed in the front.  I panicked.  I thought, "Oh dear!"  My son meticulously worked on this costume for weeks.  I feared it wouldn't be done in time.  I feared he would want the Alexander the Great helmet.  I found out that he was cool with the one he had! Whew!

For the breast shield (curias), we cut down poster board for the front and back. 

We used paper fasteners to secure...

From the front they look like this...

For the greeves we cut down poster board.

For the shield we used foam core.  We cut that into a circle. Using a piece of yarn, we held one end down in the center and the other end had a pencil, so we could swing it around for a circle.  Then ds drew and painted on his design.  He also bent it slightly to get the curve.

Here's the back...

He made this knife with posterboard and tape that was spray painted bronze...

The spear is made from huge dowels and blocks of wood cut to shape for the points...

Here's the other end...

I was asked the other day how I sewed our ancient costumes. These are the basic steps I used for costumes for dd and I.

First I measured each of us, from the neck down to however far we wanted the garment to fall. DD and I wanted them to go to our feet so I measured to our feet.  I multiplied that by 2.  That is how much fabric I need.  Then we went to the fabric store and purchased their cheapest white fabric. Now when fabric comes off the bolt, it is folded like this:

The selvage is the factory finished edge.  The cut sides have obviously been cut with scissors.  When we got home, I refolded the fabric to lay like this:

I smoothed out all the wrinkles. Then I cut a semicircle in the top for the neck opening and sewed up the sides almost all the way...like this:

The solid line shows where I cut the neck opening.  If I estimated that too small, I can always cut it bigger. The dashed lines show my seam lines.  The arms go through the opening above the seam lines.  I did not do any hemming or finish work.  After all, these are ancient costumes!  I tucked in the sleeves so the raveled edges wouldn't show.  If the raggy edges showed on the hem, I told the dc to say that came from miles of walking!  We were ancients after all!  LOL 

Since the Egyptians liked to wear gold, Dd and I wore gold belts.  I took out some gold lame fabric from my fabric stash and tied them around our waists.  Done!

I bought some cheap gold jewelry for me to wear.  DD made her own out of Sculpey clay.  She just followed directions in some of the craft books we had.

For ds, I just got a smaller piece of white fabric, wrapped it around his waist and used a safety pin to hold it in place.  Then I got a strip of white fabric to wrap around his waist for a belt.  I had found a web site with some color sheets for Egyptian collars.  I forget where this was found, but that is the neck ornament ds is wearing.  He made a band for his arm too. 

Then we all put on dark brown eyeshadow for Kohl.  I think that's how simple our costumes were.  Oh, we did go barefoot too!

 I used to do costumes for the children's choir at church and I learned tons about making the most of the biggies for the greatest impact and not sweating the small stuff!  Really!! So for Egypt, the key elements are white fabric and gold accents. 

Who'd have thought, all the costumes I've been sewing for unit celebrations would come in handy for another purpose!  At the end of each Awana year, they have a leadership banquet.  The teens get a partner to decorate and serve the tables.  DD did this last year with a friend.  This year there was a theme:  Around the World.  They wanted elaborate costumes and table decorations.  I started to panic.  I have no time to make more costumes...I'm already busy with our unit 4 costumes.  Then I had an idea.  Would my children be willing to partner with each other and wear one of their previous unit celebration costumes?   Yes!  Whew! 

Here they are getting the table ready...

Meanwhile Italian music was playing in the background...

Mexican food was being catered and was already in the kitchen...

My dc's table theme was France...

DD had stamped fleur d'leis on cardstock for placemats...

DD had wanted an Eifel Tower but we couldn't find one.  I let the dc shop for things from my stuff at home...

DS wore his Three Musketeer D'Artagnon costume.  DD wore her dress from our Medieval Feast and portrayed Constance from The Three Musketeers.

They had a lot of fun!

Last week I showed 14yod's Portia costume of our next unit celebration.  The children insist that I dress up as well.  I am to be Queen Elizabeth!

This was a huge challenge for me, because I have never sewn anything like this before.  However, I was up for the challenge.  I've sewn costumes in the past for our church children's and adult choirs.  I learned a lot from a great lady who one year devised weed costumes, crows, etc the first year I sewed for her and the children's choir.  Wow, the things I learned. Then the following year she injured her arm...so I was in charge of the costuming.    I like having my skills honed; one never knows what in the world a director is going to ask for.  ;)

In addition, this motivates my children to do their history and literature readings and writings, projects, speeches, etc. It's fun to dress up at the end of every few weeks and eat food from the era and show off for Dad and Grandma and Grandpa.  Sometimes the other Grandma flies 1500 miles to view a unit celebration.

 In trying on these dresses, dd and I have learned why these ladies weren't very active and why they needed others to dress them.  My goodness, I am huffing and puffing, putting on a bum roll, hoop skirt, underskirt and then a heavy tapestry dress with hooks or ties.  And this is in dressing my daughter!  Then I'm going to have to dress me!  =0  As we learn history sequentially, it's been an interesting sewing history lesson for me.  Seeing the development of clothing styles has been interesting.  It's also given me a new appreciation for the seamstresses of yore.  My skirt was too thick to sew to my bodice on the sewing machine, so I got a tapestry needle and sew it together by hand...all they had back then.  Ugh.  My shoulder felt like it would fall off!  But, finally it is done!

I have also used a lot of fabrics already in my fabric stash, which has saved money.  For the items I need, I buy on sale or with coupons as much as possible.  These have been 1/10th, even 1/20th the cost of purchasing.  I know it has to be cheaper than rental as well.    

There is another reason why I do this, besides being a crazy woman! ;)  I hope to sew my dd's wedding dress someday.  What a great way to practice on mere costumes.   I just take each pattern one step at a time, and it works like a puzzle.  I also have to keep cleaning out lint and reoiling the bobbin mechanism.  I also remember to hold those thread tails when I start a seam, or they'll gunk up in the bobbin mechanism.  I also take my machine in for a professional cleaning once a year, while I'm on vacation.  This keeps my machine happy and cooperative.  ;)  Then when I come home, well rested, I can get back to work cranking out more stuff!  =)

14yod wants to be Portia.  We found a great pattern...which uses lots of fabric!   DD selected her key fabrics, which we got on sale.  DD was really taken with the tapestry used in the bodice. Then we supplemented with extra fabrics from my fabric closet.  That was not only a great way to save money, but a terrific way to clean out the closet!

Here are the bum rolls for each of us.  They are worn around the waist to make the hips look bigger (like I really want to do that) and help make the skirt poof out more.

Here is dd's Portia costume.  It doesn't look too good on camera...but it actually it looks better in person. I was really disappointed when I saw this picture.  It's difficult to see the subtle colors and patterns and just looks blah.  DD was delighted when she came home from Awanas to find her dress finished last night!  This morning I started playing around with changing it up somehow, but dd says she likes it just the way it is.  So we'll stick with that. Of course it needs a conical hoop skirt.  I got an idea overnight of how to cheaply incorporate that.  Hopefully that will be done by next week!

Here is a close up of the trim.  Sadly, I didn't even think to lay the pattern carefully to get the stripes symmetrical on each side.  DD picked out the buttons and just loved that pop of red.  For the red and gold trim, I used a roll of Christmas trim I've had sitting around for a few years.  That red and gold trim actually runs down to the bottom of the green skirt.

This dress is so stiff (and it's meant to be) that it has startled me more than once as I see it out of the corner of my eye.  I keep wondering who that Elizabethan woman is!  It can even sit up in a chair...like I had it last night when everyone came home from Awanas...but forgot to take a picture of it.  One reason why it is stiff, is because there is actually boning in the bodice.  That was cool to work with...easy too!

Here are the bodices laid out before I did the boning.  The white fabric is canvas...which makes it even stiffer.  The red lines were made with chalk pencil, so I could sew the channels.

Here is a close up of where I sewed the channels for the boning.  The boning is the round curvy stuff on the table.  This is a nice mesh that was twice as wide as I needed.  I just cut it in half down the middle.  Then I cut it to the length I needed and inserted it in the channel.  The pink lines on the white canvas are the drawings I made to sew the channels evenly.  When you flip it over, you see the green lining.  After all that, I sewed the tapestry you barely see in the middle on top of the canvas, wrong sides together.  So you never see the channel stitching on the tapestry.

Here is a close up of the boning.  I can sew through it and not hurt the needle.  Have to be more careful with the steel bonings.

Here are the bodices now with the boning in them.  See, they are already taking shape!  LOL

My dress is similar, yet different.  That caused me no end of mistakes the other night, while I spent more time ripping out than sewing together.  Here is the bodice.  Those crescent moon shapes will be sewn to the shoulders.  The sleeves are next to it.  The reddish orange pieces are tabs that will go between the bodice and skirt.

 Here is the skirt!  The reddish orange will be the outer skirt.  The gold will be the underskirt...the part that peaks through the outer skirt, like dd's.  The white will be the rest of the underskirt, which no one will see.  These are practically new queen sized bed sheets dh didn't like.  These are cut from the bottom fitted layer. The top sheets have a gorgeous lace trim that bothered dh's face when he slept. I used the top sheets for Greek costumes for dd and I last year.   

Next week I hope to have the rest of the costumes finished.  Can you guess who I am going to be?  ;)

My medieval dress is done!

Here's the back with the grommets...

Same pattern as dd's, so no new story there.  The story this time, is in the fabric! 

When we were purchasing fabric for dd's medieval dress, I saw the $$$.  Her end cost wasn't too bad because everything was 40% off except for one thing, so I used my 40% off coupon for that. But I had a thought in the back of my mind for fabric for my dress.

You see, we've had a little too much of this fru fru stuff going on in our dining room...

See that scarf like swag at the top?  That was mainly dh's idea..anything fru fru in our house is usually dh's idea!  LOL  It's come from his love of Victorian houses.  But knowing we could have a pending move, and after watching a lot of hgtv, I knew a real estate agent would tell me to take down the scarfs.  So I did and washed them, about a year ago, which ruined the fringe, but the fabric was in great shape...and there was a lot of it.  I stored the 2 scarves in my closet stash. 

Being inspired by Scarlett O'Hara and Maria...governess to the von Trapp children, I decided to recycle our old curtains.  I got dh's permission first.  =)  Look at allllllllll the fabric.  Well, it's hard to see, but you can make out some of the pattern pieces at the top.  I think it was about 4 yards, 44" wide.  I laid the two scarves on top of each other... After cutting everything out, I had all of this left over.  Sorry, it's still hard to see, but it's a few yards. 

My son wants me to have a train on my dress.  Although I love the idea, I don't know if it's historically correct, nor if it'd be too much for this feast.  I keep forgetting about it actually.

Then I needed lining, and I found that in my fabric stash.  I forget why I bought it but it's been sitting in the closet for a few years.  My only purchase were the sheers, trim, grommets, and cording for the grommets (no zipper or buttons in back, just like dd's dress.)

The dining room still has a window treatment, just not as fru fru...

And now you know...the rest of the story!  =)

DS has been insistent that his Robin Hood character have boots.  At Jo Ann we found leather looking "fabric" in the clearance bin.  So we bought it.  I only had one idea of how to make an idea of a boot.  DS wanted the real McCoy!  There is no way I  can fathom trying to make real boots for him!  lol  I have enough with everything else to help the kids pull off this feast!  I told ds that in the real world, apprentices work for years to learn to make boots.  Undaunted, he undertook the project on his own, after a few ideas from me.  This way he is happy because now he understands the difficulties that lie in making boots, yet they'll be made to his level of acceptance!  lol

Here is my young determined cobbler.  Where does he get this drive to do the impossible???? 

This week I completed my 12y son's Robin Hood costume for the upcoming Medieval Feast.  He picked out all the colors. Here is the cape.

 Here is the tunic.  I did not hem the collar, sleeves or jagged bottom.  After all, Robin Hood did live in the forest during the Middle Ages!  I also figured that a guy who was always fighting for sport and to rob from the rich to give to the poor and to ransom King Richard from France would not have the most pristine clothes.  Therefore I was aiming for a more rustic look!  Besides, the neckline will be covered by the cape anyway!  =)

Here is a close up of the neck opening.  That I did decide to hem with embroidery floss to make it look rustic and give dimension.

Maybe you can see it a little better here...

Then I did the hat.  I had to sew an inner circle to an outer circle. I meant to take a picture of that but forgot.  This was quite tedious.  I pinned excessively and took my time going around, snipping into the curve with my scissors to get the fabric where I wanted it and it came out perfectly smooth!  Rejoicingly, I had ds open it up...

Oops!  Well we don't want the interfacing to show!  So ds turned it inside out...(Did you see the hint?  Can you tell what is coming?)

 Alas, methinks I sewed the inner to the outer backwards!  See the seam line between the brim and peaked hat?  Sigh...so I had to rip out that hard work.  Then I worried about messing up the bias and getting it all wonky.  When I finally got the seam ripped apart, I didn't even bother pinning this time.  I just ran it through the machine and got...

Whew!  Mission accomplished!  Now ds will be decorating it with a feather.  That wraps up the weekly adventures of a seamstress mother and her merry children!

This week I finally completed 14yods dress for our upcoming Medieval Feast.  Whew!  This was not easy.  Slippery fabric and  intense details but she is happy with it!

There is no zipper or buttons.  Instead we used grommets!  The pounding of the grommets enticed noise loving 12yos to investigate, and offer to finish the job!  So he did the remaining grommets...24 in all!

I was on a roll until I did the sleeves.  There are two parts.  The inner sleeve is fitted, with 2 layers, lining and sheer.  Then the outer butterfly like sleeve.  They didn't meet in the center like they should have.  Shhhh, don't tell anyone.  I threw in the ribbon in an easier way that the pattern had.