Archives for October 2019

Yesterday was Indigenous Peoples Day. I wanted to use this post to honor the native peoples of our continent, both ancient and present. When Jeff and I took our Ancestry DNA tests, I was hoping to find some more colors in our family story. I was a little sad when it was confirmed that we don’t appear to have any Native blood in our family.

These images of Hopi girls give us a haunting glimpse into an ancient way of life. Though I can’t claim kinship with them, I feel connected in some small way, because I was born in Arizona. My parents have told me stories of their childhood hikes and trail rides through very isolated and nearly inaccessible regions, where they stumbled upon sacred sites, petroglyphs, pottery fragments, a cache of clay necklaces, and a stone metate for grinding corn. Today, most of these locations have carefully limited access, and rightly so. Anything I can do is so inadequate, but I wanted to include our children in an experience that would be respectful, educational, and honoring to the people of the First Nations.

As I often do, I turned to our garden for inspiration. It didn’t disappoint. When we studied the Mayans, Aztecs, and other ancient Americans, last year, we learned that many of the foods we now take for granted were “New World Crops”. They were virtually unknown to Europeans until they were introduced to them by the Native Americans. Lots of these fruits and vegetables are represented in our garden, so I decided that we would have a Hopi Harvest.

First, we needed costumes. (Of course!) Hopi women and girls traditionally wore one-shoulder, woolen dresses, that were woven by the men. I made Emma and Eliza’s dresses from pillowcases, trimmed with bias tape.

Elliott is wearing an outfit that reflects settler influence, i.e. trousers and a shirt, but with Native elements of a turquoise-studded belt, and a head-cloth. The “turquoise” in the belt are plastic beads that we glued onto a thrifted necklace that was missing its original stones. (I’ll do a tutorial on that, later.)

Corn (maize) was the most vital crop for the Hopi. Emma has the iconic, “squash blossom” hairstyle worn by older girls, and she is holding a woven basket I found at Goodwill.

Checking for earwigs. . . The Hopi would consider our garden to be incredibly lush. They were masterful at adapting their corn to grown in a much drier climate. They grew the maize in shorter, bushier clumps, as opposed to rows.

However, the Wenatchee climate is warm and dry enough for peppers to flourish!

We’re wusses when it comes to spicy food, but we love a sweet, crisp Bell Pepper!

Eliza was partial to the red pepper.

Lots and lots of tomatoes!

Eliza made a friend.

Sunflower seeds were also a part of the Hopi diet.

Our sunflower stalks were snapping from the heaviness of the flower heads, full of seeds.

We will save some of the seeds to grow another “sun forest”, next year.

Squash also played an important role in the lives of the Hopi.

We started to gather everything we picked.

The real fun began as we started to husk the corn.

Even Oliver and Annika couldn’t resist!

So much beauty and plenty.

We combined most of our harvest, including the corn, into a delicious Hopi stew.

We spent the day in thanks for the peoples of the First Nations, and their love and care for the land. We recognize that we are but sojourners, here, living in a kingdom that is ultimately not our own.

What is my favorite part about costuming? It might be this part! I love putting the entire vision together and seeing my kids explore their world, while in costume. And I get to stand back and capture the experience.

The shrub-steppe landscape of the Columbia River Basin, complete with dramatic cliffs and rock formations evokes an epic, Biblical landscape, for me. Plus, our Classical Conversations home school curriculum was going to focus on ancient civilizations, that year. So, the kids strapped on their sandals, and we struck through the wilderness for the “River Jordan”.

Our summer family activities often revolve around visiting extended family at Lake Chelan. On the way, I am always making mental note of future photo shoot locations. There are so many beautiful views! Actually finding a good place to pull over, from the highway, and access said views is a bit of a challenge, though!

Getting there . . . As the kids were walking through all this dry brush in sandals, I was thinking, “Gee, I hope there aren’t any rattle snakes around here”.

River sighting! I’ve been talking a lot about sandals, but didn’t discuss footwear in the costume tutorials. Elliott is just wearing his fisherman sandals that he wore everywhere, that summer. Emma is wearing a pair of white, hand-me-down sandals that had seen better days. I spray-painted them brown, which immediately transformed them. However, they looked awful after this photo shoot! Spray paint might hold up for a church play, but it doesn’t stand a chance in actual shepherd-like conditions!

Speaking of church plays, Emma and Elliott love acting as shepherds in our church’s annual Living Nativity. It was eye-opening for them to have this experience. (Minus the sheep, thank goodness!)

This might be my favorite shot of Emma, during this expedition.

I wish I knew the name of the rock formation, behind her. It’s so majestic. Oops! Look at Emma’s feet, and you can see that the spray paint is already wearing off her sandals.

Just a shepherd boy, hanging out with some sagebrush.

Looking for that promised land…

Did you know that I love plants? Like, really, really, REALLY love plants? Well, I do. I still have a lot to learn about Wenatchee flora, after growing up near Seattle. So, I had to look up what this gorgeous, yellow, flowering, sage-like bush is called. Turns out, it’s “Rabbitbush”, or “Ericameria nauseosa“. No, I am not making that up!

Something was funny…

Cover from Vogue, Shepherd Edition, October, Year 1, A.D.

Props can make or break a photo shoot with kids. In this case, the staffs (fallen branches from our yard) totally enhanced the experience.

We hopped into the Suburban and drove a bit farther along the river so that we could get a little closer to this amazing rock formation.

“As I went down to the river to pray, studying about that good old way. And who shall wear the starry crown, good Lord, show me the way . . .”

You gotta be tough to make it as a shepherd.

Charleton Heston in The Ten Commandments *may* have influenced me, just a little bit.

Just a kid, with a stick, surrounded by lots and lots of rocks. Does it get any better than this? The kids could have played out here, forever!

I don’t know why, but wistfulness is a quality I like to hear in music, and it’s something I like to capture in photographs.

Maybe the elusive has an appeal.

 

“Look, I found some leaves!” I later learned that these leaves come from the “Great mullein” plant. It is a tall, imposing plant, with lots of healing properties attributed to it. The leaves were velvety soft, and they looked nearly pristine for months afterward, in the car. (Elliott had a kind of natural history museum going on, back there!)

To be honest, the last part of our photo shoot felt a little dodgy. We were heading back towards home, and I really wanted to get some shots on a hillside. I couldn’t find any good place to park, so we totally just pulled over onto the shoulder and began to climb.

The light was fading, and the kids were skeptical. I was also not so sure this was a good idea. However, those gorgeous rocks and red bushes were calling to me!

Let’s do this!

This is when the staffs ceased to be props and actually became tools!

The hillside was steeper than it looks in these photos. Emma was a little freaked out.

Me: Act natural!

Emma: . . .

*sigh*

I’m not sure if this “natural” either, but it looks cool.

We made it up to a more stable spot. Kings of the hill!

“There were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night . . .

. . . And lo! The angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them . . .” Handel’s Messiah, anyone?

The sun was setting, and it was time to go home. Elliott did a good job helping Emma down the hillside.

Thank you for joining us on our shepherd costume adventure! I hope this journey has inspired you to see God’s handiwork in your surroundings, and to explore them with your children.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills – Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2 NIV

To see how I made these Biblical costumes from pillowcases, head on over to my Part 1 and Part 2 tutorials.

*This post contains affiliate links.*

Alrighty! Let’s wrap up these Biblical costumes! In Part 1, we made the basic tunics. In this post, I’ll walk you through how I embellished them and made the headdresses and belts.

In this photo, Elliott is holding the one dollar pillow sham that became his vest, and Emma is holding the brown pillowcase that became his headdress.

Here, you can see the pillow sham laid on my work table. I planned to make the shorter side the front, and the longer side the back of the vest.

To mark the front center line, I folded the sham in half, vertically, and marked the fold with a pin. Then, I marked the spot with my trusty, purple Dritz Disappearing Ink Marking Pen.

How on earth do I figure out how to make things without a pattern? I cheat. All the time. For example, I used one of Elliott’s T-shirts as a guide to determine how wide I should make the front opening of his vest. All I had to do was to mark and and extend the lines down the front with a ruler, before cutting.

Next, I zipped around the new front opening of the vest with my serger and took out the decorative stitches that were down the sides of the pillow sham. (They would get in the way of the armholes that I was about to make.) I measured down from the shoulder to mark the length of said armholes.

As you can see, I still couldn’t find my seam ripper! I opened the side seams of the pillow sham with these little scissors. Bias tape for twenty-five cents? Yes, please! I selected this brown bias tape to trim the neck opening and armholes.

Need double fold bias tape but only have single fold? That’s okay! Just put the edge you want to encase in the center of the bias tape, and fold the sides down around it.

Trims have a tendency to creep and stretch while sewing, so I like to wait to cut the trim to length until after I’ve sewn it most of the way down. So, I began by pinning the bias trim at one end and continuing around, waiting to cut it until after I sewed it. These photos show how I fold and tuck the raw ends of the bias tape to conceal raw edges at the end.

Here, you can see the steps even more clearly, as I trimmed the vest armholes.

And…Ta-da! Finished vest!

Now, we’re going to switch over to how I made the headdresses, belts, and trims. First, I took the brown pillowcase and chopped it up! The top panel became Elliott’s headdress. The bit I removed from his vest pillow sham became the center of the headdress head tie. The material I removed from the hem of his tunic became additional tie length. I used more of the brown pillowcase material for Elliott’s tie belt. It has a stripe of brown bias tape running down the middle of its length, in addition to burgundy top-stitching. The top stitching is decorative and also makes the belt sturdier.

I used blue, striped, canvas-like material for Emma’s headdress. The “right side” seemed a bit too bright, so turned it over to show the “wrong side”. I trimmed a bit for her belt. Then, I did a stitch line about a half inch from the front and back edges of the headdress and on the ends of the belt. I unraveled the material up to the stitch line, which created a lovely little fringe. It’s all about the texture! There was a bit more of the brown pillowcase material left, so that became the tie for the headdress, along with a bit of vintage trim.

So, as you can see, all it takes to make a Biblical headdress is a rectangle of material with a long tie sewn in the middle of one of the long edges, with a bit of the tie left free on each end for the, well…tying!

And now…For the moment we’re all waiting for…(or, at least I was waiting for)…The trims! I decided that Emma’s tunic should tie in the front. I stitched some narrow, vintage trim on top of the bias tape that went around her neckline. Then, I added vertical stripes of bias tape down the front and backs, and more vintage trims from shoulder to waist. 1970s earth tones, anyone?

To keep Elliott’s tunic a bit different from Emma’s, I decided that his should tie in the back. I used some leftover bits of fabric and trim to create a geometric design at the front of his neckline.

That’s it! Here’s a look at the different costume components. Emma:

 

Here are Elliott’s costume pieces:

In my next post, I’ll show you pictures from our photo shoot along the Columbia River. For now, here’s another teaser…