Archives for December 2018

What about the boys? Goodness me, I almost forgot to tell you how I made Pilgrim pants for our boys!

Well, first, I was really lucky and found these girls capris at the YWCA thrift store. They already looked like breeches and they were only $2. Score! They were also a size 5, and Elliott was 5 years old at the time.

First, I used a seam ripper to remove the pink bow on the waistband.

Then, I turned my attention to these pink buttons on the cuffs.

I checked my button collection (I bought a few bulk lots on Ebay, years ago) for some suitable replacements.

I found four matching buttons in my bottle of green buttons.

It was easy to snip off the pink buttons and replace them with new ones that would match.

Then, Elliott wore these breeches to our home school coop as part of his presentation on 19th-century immigrants. The pants came home with grass-stained knees, so I soaked them in OxiClean.

Now, I love OxiClean, but sometimes it doesn’t love me back. This was one of those times. See how the dye was randomly sucked out of the fabric on the waistband and the fly area?

A bit also came out of the seat of the pants. I guess the dye wasn’t totally fixed and stable in those places, and the OxiClean revealed where it was weak! I decided to dye these breeches to cover the problem.

First, I planned to remove more of the color from the breeches so that the material would be lighter, like the light splotches. This might help the new dye job to “take” more evenly. So, I used RIT Color Remover that I purchased at Walmart.

I filled the washer with hot water, added the breeches, and sprinkled in the color remover powder. The stuff smells like a home perm. Pheee-ewww!

 

The breeches came out with a lot of the green dye removed. The new, overall color was close to the lighter shade caused by the Oxi-Clean incident.

Then, I used this entire bottle of brown dye to color the pants, according to RIT’s directions.

The breeches came out great! The dark brown dye virtually colored over the lighter spots.

As often happens, the thread remained green, since it isn’t 100% cotton, like the breeches material. (Thread is typically a polycotton blend because it is stronger than if it were all cotton.)

And, here are the finished breeches on Elliott!

These breeches are so great to have in our costume collection! They will lend themselves to all sorts of time periods: Pilgrim, Colonial, Regency, and late 19th-Century/early 20th-Century!

Now, what do you do if a pair of pre-made breeches doesn’t fall into your lap? That’s what I’ll show you next! You can easily convert a pair of pants into breeches.

 

Wow, it’s getting close to Christmas! I had better wrap up writing about Pilgrims, huh? First, though, I want to show you how I was able to eke two Pilgrim caps out of the same pillowcase that also produced two aprons.

Yes, this pillowcase!

First, I took Emma and Eliza’s head measurements. I measured over the top of Emma’s head, from earlobe to earlobe.

Just in case you think my children are perfect, patient angels when I ask to photograph them…

I added a bit to my measurements to make sure the finished cap would cover each ear lobe.

Next, I measured from in front of the ear to the center back of the head.

I didn’t add any extra to the front edge of my measurement, since I knew I would be using the finished edge of the pillowcase to frame the face. But, I did account for seam allowance at the back.

I wrote the measurements down in this elegant sketch, on this lovely piece of parchment.

I also took Eliza’s measurements, for both her cap and apron, on this same bit of scratch paper. I thought it would be really smart to write all of this vital information on a single piece of junk paper that already had writing on the other side and that I would probably mistake for garbage or lose. (Miraculously, I somehow kept track of it during the entire project!)

Next, I lay the pillowcase flat. I used pins to match the front edges and fronts and backs together, since I was going to cut two caps at once.

Then, I used my trusty, purple Dritz Disappearing Ink Marking Pen  and my Draft N Cut ruler to mark out the larger of the two caps. (I would go back and trim Eliza’s a bit smaller, later.) *Disclaimer* I am an Amazon Services LLC Associates Program member. Any purchases made through my Amazon links will earn me a small commission. I am careful to only promote products that I personally use and love!

I cut two caps at once, in a double layer. Snip, snip!

Part of the pillowcase edge had a frayed spot. I planned to make Eliza’s cap out of this part. I marked where to cut her cap and made sure that the worn spot would be near the edge and eventually encased and hidden.

At this point, I noticed that some lint was trapped inside the front edge of the pillowcase. I held it up to the light of the window to show these lumps more clearly. I reached in and fished them out.

Here you can see that I trimmed Eliza’s cap a bit smaller along the back edge, too.

Next, I serged around the three raw edges of each cap. You can see how Eliza’s is a bit smaller than Emma’s.

Then, I folded each cap in half, wrong sides together.

I pinned them together, along what would become the back seam, leaving a bit open at the top. I planned to gather or pleat this open area together to give the back of the cap a rounded shape.

I then stitched up the back of the caps, but left that last bit open.

I hand-sewed gathering stitches at the bases and around the tops of each of the caps. I used red thread for visibility, knowing that I would remove the stitches, later.

I gathered the back of Emma’s cap down, a bit, and started her top back gathers four inches from the top. I gathered the back of Eliza’s cap three inches from the top.

Then, I experimented with pulling the threads tight.

These tight gathers looked good, at first. However, the back of the cap still looked too peaked and pointy when it was worn. I went back and decided to pleat the material instead. I based the idea loosely on a Swedish folk costume cap in my collection. This is a picture of it, below. Annika wore it as her Pilgrim cap.

I kept the red gathering stitches in place, although I didn’t really need them, anymore. I subdivided the excess material with hand stitches in white thread. I kept reducing the material by dividing it in half and then half again as I stitched.

It was almost like assembling flower petals by catching the material and drawing it closer and closer into smaller sections with my needle.

Smaller and smaller…

Once I was satisfied with the shape of the cap, I secured my white stitches with a knot and removed the red gather stitches.

Now, I’ll go back and show you how I used bias tape to bind the raw edges of the caps and to create their ties. I wanted the caps to have very skinny ties, so I used white, 1/4 inch Wrights Double Fold Bias Tape.

Working with bias tape is fun! I left a tail that would be long enough to tie under the chin, at the front. I lay the serged edge of the cap into the trough created by the fold in the bias tape.

I lay the cap into the bias tape with the right side of the cap facing me.

I stitched the cap into the bias tape, following the edge of the bias tape and the serging stitches along the bottom edge of the cap.

It was a tight squeeze, since the serging stitches are 1/4 inch deep and so is the bias tape! Then, I folded the bias tape over the serged stitching and sewed it down from the top. That way, I could see my top stitching and make sure it would look straight and pretty. Before I made this final, long stitch, I folded in the ends of the bias tape so that their raw edges would be encased inside the bias tape.

Here you can see what the pleated backs look like.

And there you have it! Two Pilgrim caps and aprons made from a single pillowcase and a bit of bias tape!

Here is a good view of Emma’s finished cap.

And here is Eliza’s!

 

 

 

 

I am so excited to share this tutorial with you! (Because being crafty and thrifty at the same time makes me giddy!) I am about to show you how, with some supplementary bias tape, you can make not one but TWO aprons and TWO caps out of a fifty cent pillow case!

Behold, the pillowcase! I’m telling you, this is the stuff that dreams are made of. I chose this particular pillowcase for this project because I liked the piping trim that was close to the edge. I thought this would make a nice detail on the pilgrim caps.

After cutting off this decorative edge to make the Pilgrim caps, I took a seam ripper to the side and bottom seams of the pillowcase to open it up.

And, here it is. Now it became one, larger, rectangular piece of material.

I measured and marked how long I wanted each apron to be and drew a line using my favorite, Dritz Disappearing Ink Marking Pen and a ruler. *Disclaimer* I am an Amazon Services LLC Associates Program member. Any purchases made through my Amazon links will earn me a small commission. I am careful to only promote products that I personally use and love!

Then, I cut along this line to create two apron panels. One was for Emma, the other was for Eliza.

Next, I decided to make Eliza’s apron a little narrower than Emma’s so that they would have the same amount of fullness, in proportion to their sizes. This is totally overkill, but I am persnickety like that! Feel free to ignore this part.

I connected my lines and blended them together to make one, long, straight line for cutting. This Draft N Cut ruler is another one of my standard tools. It helps me to keep the pieces I am making square and with straight edges. Snip, snip!

Did you think I was going to throw away that little trimmed bit of material? Well, you should get to know me a little bit more before making such a crazy assumption! I turned that strip of fabric into the waistbands for the aprons. I also serged around all the raw edges.

You don’t have to serge your raw edges, but one reason I really like to do so is because I can use the stitching as a 1/4 inch hem guide. This helps me to speed up my sewing because I don’t have to measure and pin for every single step. So, here you can see that I folded the sides of the apron over, one time, using the serging as a guide. Then, I stitched them down.

Next, I folded each apron panel and waistband in half to mark their centers. I pinned the edges of the apron to the edges of the waistband and matched the centers.

This begins the process of subdividing the excess material in the apron panel to gather evenly into the waistband. You could make the gathers with a large running stitch and eyeball making them even. However, I like the assurance of symmetry that this folding and pinning process gives me.

You can see how I kept portioning the material into smaller and smaller sections.

Here’s a top view of the gathers.

More pinning…

Even more pinning…You can see how I would match the center of the next bit of waistband to the middle of this bit of the apron. The more pins you use, the more you can control exactly where each gather will lie.

I think that’s enough pins!

Next, I sewed a 1/4 inch seam to bind the apron to the waistband. Once again, I used the serged edge of my material as a guide for that 1/4 inch.

Here’s a top view of the stitched gathers.

I folded the side seams over another 1/4 inch by rolling them over themselves. I stitched them down.

Now, the sides of the aprons were totally enclosed with no raw edges and no serged edges to be seen.

Time to bust out the bias tape! I used Wrights White Double Fold, 7/8 Inch Wide Quilt Binding bias tape to make the apron strings.

After determining how long I wanted the apron strings to be, I folded the waistband of the apron over the bias tape. The bias tape acted as a stiffener inside the waistband. I left long tails of the bias tape at each end to form the apron strings.

I opened up the bias tape at the ends of the apron strings and used the Draft n Cut ruler to help me mark and cut straight edges.

Snip, snip!

I marked a 1/4 inch from the edge of the ends of each apron string. I stitched this down with the bias tape opened.

I had designed the finished width of the waistbands to be 1 inch, so they just barely wrapped around the bias tape. I pinned the material over the bias tape. Then, I hand-stitched the waistband down on the backside of the apron, using an invisible stitch. My, what a lovely thumbnail I had. (Stick with me long enough, and you will see how rough I am on my hands.)

To finish the aprons, I stitched down each apron string so that the ties would remain folded and so the raw edges at the end would be encased.

I sprayed each apron down with Heavy Starch from the Dollar Tree and ironed them.

I gave Eliza’s apron a deeper hem so that it would fit her at about the same length as Emma’s would land on her. More of that proportion pickiness! I can let the hem out as Eliza grows.

Here are the finished aprons! I will share how to make the caps in my next post!

*History snob sidenote* Pilgrim women and girls would have probably only worn white, linen aprons for Sunday best. They would have worn sturdier, colored wool or linen aprons for their everyday work. So, you can decide if you want to make Sunday or everyday aprons. I went the Sunday route to create a more iconic, Pilgrim look.

Hello there! If you read my first two posts about making Pilgrim skirts from pillowcases and felt overwhelmed, don’t worry! There is always an easier way to make something.

It is almost impossible to find existing long skirts for girls, especially ones that can work for historical costumes. However, you can easily alter a woman’s skirt, like this black, wool, vintage one. It is midi length on me, but long enough to nearly reach the floor on Emma.

I simply had Emma try on the skirt. I pinched the extra material in the waistband until it fit snug against her waist and then safety pinned it. I could have stopped there and just let her wear the skirt with the safety pin, but I am going to caution against this for three reasons:

1: Safety pins can pop open and stab the wearer.

2: The material can work its way into the coil at the base of the safety pin and form a hole into the material.

3: Vintage clothing is especially fragile (even if it doesn’t look like it is) and can rip around a pin hole, especially if the material is under a bit of strain from the wearer’s activity. (Ask me how I know…)

So, I used the safety pin merely as a place marker and replaced it with stitches. Look at the photo, above, and you can see the hand stitches I made in the waistband. They are a bit difficult to see, being black-on-black, but they are right above my fingertip. This alteration only took a few minutes!

I could have tapered this stitch line further down into the skirt and formed a dart. However, I didn’t think this was necessary for a quick costume.

I altered this skirt for Emma to be a Pilgrim in our annual Classical Conversations home school celebration, called “Night of the Arts”. This was back in the spring, and it gave me the idea to make even more Pilgrim costume pieces for our kids. I was able to borrow a white cap and an apron for Emma, back then. However, I realized that it was time for me to make some of our own. People regularly ask me if they can borrow pioneer costumes, etc, and I never have hats or aprons! Accessories are what tie outfits together. They really help to identify a character or a particular historical period.

So, stay tuned for my next post. I will show you how to make easy and inexpensive historical aprons!