Yes You Can Costumes

Making the Extraordinary from the Ordinary

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Me
  • Blog
    • Animal Adventures
    • Cultural Creations
    • Flights of Fantasy
    • History With The Hemingers
    • Holidays with the Hemingers
    • Laundry Lab
    • Oh No You Didn’t!
  • Shop
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My account

DIY Pillowcase Biblical Costumes – Part 2

October 10, 2019

*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…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share inspiration!

  • Print
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email


Filed Under: History with the Hemingers Tagged: Biblical Costumes, Church, Church Play, DIY, Easy Costume, Pillowcase, Upcycle

DIY Pillowcase Biblical Costumes – Part 1

September 19, 2019

*This post contains affiliate links.*

I can’t see you, but humor me and raise your hand if you ever wore a Biblical costume in a church play! Did you do it? Both my hands are raised! Well, I thought it was time to make Emma and Elliott a set of Bible costumes, too. These were made almost a year ago, in preparation for Classical Conversations Cycle 2, which focuses on Ancient World history. Yes. I made these a year ago and am just now posting about it! Welcome to my life.

These costumes have already gotten lots of use, and have been loaned to many other home school families. They’re a good, staple costume set to have around, so let’s dive right in!

It all started with two pillowcases I found at one of my favorite thrift stores. I chose them for their neutral color, the subtle stripes, and the piping trim. In my opinion, subtle textures really elevate what could otherwise be very plain costumes.

Here it is, folks! This is a spread of nearly all of the materials I used to make these costumes. The pillowcases were fifty cents, each. The striped pillow sham was a dollar. The trims were all bargains that I snapped up on my various thrifting adventures. I’m tellin’ ya! Grab those trims when you find them. Buying new trim gets expensive, ya’ll! (I went to college in Oklahoma, so I can say y’all from time to time.)

Next, I washed and dried the pillowcases. I always recommend a good soaking in OxiClean, and/or a natural product I also love: Rockin’ Green. It’s truly amazing/horrifying to see all the funk that these products can remove from clothes and linens! Then, I measured and marked how deep the arm holes would be, along the side seams.

Snip, snip! I can never find a seam ripper when I need one, so I used these little scissors to snip the stitches out of the side seams to make the tunic armholes.

I reinforced the side seams right at the base of the newly-made armholes, so the stitching wouldn’t continue to unravel.

One of the pillowcases had a worn spot at what would become the top of the shoulder. So, I pulled out my favorite “fixer”: Fray Check! I also ran a bead along the newly created armholes, since the bias trim I intended to use wouldn’t encase the raw edge.

While waiting for the Fray Check to dry, I turned my attention to the neckline. I used one of Elliott’s T-shirts as a guide for how big the neck opening should be. I used my favorite, purple, Disappearing Ink Marking Pen to mark the width and the depth of the vertical, T-line for the neck opening. I cut along these lines.

Before this next step, I had the kids try on their pillowcases to make sure their giant heads fit through the neck openings! Then, I sewed narrow bias tape along the vertical slit in the neck opening, by stretching it into as much of a straight line as possible as I sewed along.

Stretching creates a smooth stitching line and reduces fabric puckering, but it creates a U-shaped neck slit, instead of a sharp point. So, I folded the neckline slit edges together and stitched a small dart to taper the slit opening back into a point. There! Isn’t that prettier?

To finish binding the neckline, I stitched more of the bias tape around the top edge of the neckline, leaving extra tape at each end for ties.

Now, it was time to relieve this sea of beige with some accent colors! I trimmed the armholes of Emma’s tunic with brown, vintage, bias tape, leaving about an inch-and-a-half at each end.

I mitered the ends of the bias tape so that raw corners would be concealed and encased more easily when I folded the ends of the tape together.

Aaand…Here is the folding process. It takes a little patience and practice, but this is just one of the ways you can finish the base of the armhole.

I did the same for Elliott’s tunic armholes, only I used tan colored bias tape, this time.

Since pillowcases are long and rather narrow, I wanted to make sure the kids had some leg-room. This was achieved by opening parts of the tunic side seams to make leg slits. As with the armhole openings, I re-enforced the side seam with some extra stitches.

I gave Emma’s tunic one, longer side slit. As with the neck opening, I encased the edge with bias tape, stretching the slit completely open as I went. Then, I sewed a small dart at its top, to make the slit finish in a sharp point and lie smooth.

Next, I decided that Elliott’s tunic should be a bit shorter, so I removed the lower band and decorative piping from his pillowcase. I saved these scraps of material for later use.

Then, I gave his tunic two, shorter side slits and finished them just I had with Emma’s. I gave the bias tape a bit of decorative top stitching with burgundy thread.

At this point, both pillowcase tunics were ready to wear, with the edges all finished. However, they were very, ummm, beige. Time to add more trim and accessories! I’ll show you more in Part 2. See you soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share inspiration!

  • Print
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email


Filed Under: History with the Hemingers Tagged: Biblical Costumes, Church, Church Play, DIY, Easy Costume, Pillowcase, Upcycle

DIY Newsie Costume Pieces and Alterations

May 27, 2019

The beauty of this photo shoot is that I basically threw it together in one day! How is that possible?

Well, there’s no doubt that we have more costume-y things lying around our house than the average family. We also benefit from having both girl and boy clothing to pull from, given that we have three daughters and two sons. In any case, these Newsie costumes are very attainable!

Let’s start from the top, shall we? A Newsie just isn’t a Newsie without that iconic cap!

We already owned this beautiful plaid one. Jeff’s parents got it for Elliott, in London, a few years ago. Elliott just loves this hat and he’s worn it quite a bit. It has an extra sentimental history because he wore it when we went to see Jeff as Bert in the musical, “Mary Poppins”. Was that really three years ago? What a magical, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious show that was!

Eliza ended up wearing the plaid hat in our Newsie photos (she loves red), and I bought three more caps on Amazon so our older four could all wear them when they came to see us in “Newsies”! (I kept trying to find them in thrift stores, but they just weren’t turning up.) So, I ordered this set of two, Newsie Flat Caps.

Then, I ordered a smaller Newsboy Hat for Oliver. Moral of the story? These hats aren’t cheap. I intend to snap them up whenever I find them at the thrift store, from now on. They are very versatile, so they will get lots of use in our family!

Moving right along…Here’s Emma’s outfit. Only the socks were hers. The other pieces came from the rest of the family!

Emma’s vest was one that I bought at Target and wore in my early 20s. I just took it up at the shoulders so it would fit her.

When Emma tried on the vest, I pinched it up at the shoulder seams until it was raised to a good length on her torso. Then, I stitched the vest at the shoulders.

Emma’s knee pants were a pair of long shorts that I also used to wear. I altered them to fit Emma by pinching two darts at the back of the waist. I also made them fit more snugly under her knees by moving the button at the hem farther over. This drew the tab closure tighter under her knees.

These simple alterations took mere minutes!

The darts are triangular shaped folds of material that start wide and then taper in. Normally, I would make darts taper to a fine point, but the bulky, back pockets on the shorts got in the way. Meh. Good enough for a Newsie costume!

Emma’s boots were a last-minute find! I saw a pair on Facebook Marketplace and met the seller in our Target parking lot the day of the shoot. At $5, the price was right! The zippers are not historically accurate, but boots can be hard to find. Plus, I knew they wouldn’t be as noticeable when the pictures were in black and white.

On to Elliott! In addition to his new hat from Amazon, Elliott wore a thrifted vest, boots, a pair of my socks, one of his own shirts, and his Pilgrim pants.

Eliza wore one of Oliver’s shirts, an old vest of Elliott’s, thrifted boots, and some shorts that I turned into knee pants.

The shorts came from our YWCA thrift store. Green tags were 50% off, so the shorts were actually $1.50! The hems were double-stitched. I simply took my seam ripper to the lower row of stitches, and made a small opening in the upper row. Then, I took some thrifted elastic and fed it through this make-shift elastic casing with a safety pin.

This is definitely the fastest and easiest way to make short pants or breeches!

The downsides to using elastic are: 1. It’s not historically accurate. 2. The activity of the wearer causes it to ride up, as you can see, here!

Oliver’s outfit was the most colorful, although you can’t tell in the black and white photos! He also wore his Pilgrim pants.

We ran out of vests, so, I decided to break in the suspenders that he’s going to wear in my sister’s upcoming wedding! (Emma was also wearing a set, hidden under her vest.)

Annika wore one of Oliver’s shirts and some shorts that I took in by making a small pleat at the hem of the inseam. Her vest and boots were thrifted and the hat is one of mine!

And that, my friends, is how I put these outfits together!

Here’s a look at our Newsies in full color!

Share inspiration!

  • Print
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email


Filed Under: History with the Hemingers Tagged: DIY, Easy Costume, History with Kids, Kid Costume, Musical Theatre, Newsies

DIY Newsie Costumes – Alley Photo Shoot

May 15, 2019

Well, Friends, Newsies closed on Saturday night. The strike and cast party were on Sunday. What on earth? I’m a bit in shock, and definitely nostalgic. So many happy memories are flooding through my mind. After eight years and five babies, I got my booty back on stage and got to sing and dance alongside my husband. Such euphoria. Is this really my life? However, I still feel like I should practice the tap dance sequence I learned for the “King of New York” number. It took me so long to learn…I don’t want to forget it. Just in case the show isn’t really over.

What’s not over is this blog! I am stoked to have more time to spend on other avenues of creativity, and with our kids! So, please bear with me while I slowly work Newsies out of my system with a few more related blog posts. We took too many cute pictures to cram them into one edition. These images are from our second location. It’s an alley behind the temporary home of our public library, while the actual building undergoes a major remodel.

I stumbled upon this location as the kids and I were leaving the library and couldn’t believe my luck! I mean, look at the architectural features! There’s awesome brickwork, arched windows, a fire escape, and “Wenatchee” painted on the wall! Are you kidding me? As you can see, Emma was influenced by the amazing dancers that were in the show. Many of them attend the same dance studio as our children. It was really inspiring for our kiddos to see their friends and mentors rocking it!

Around the corner, there were these awesome window alcoves. Now, if we could just get Annika to join the fun!

There she is! Now, if we could just get a Newsie cap on her…Annika is starting to give Eliza a run for her money in the expressions department!

I loved taking portraits of each of our little waifs in the window alcoves. Here’s Oliver.

Our character actress: Eliza.

Too cool for school.

Found a feather.

Alley scamp.

Elliott boy. My goodness, I love these sweet pictures of him!

Here’s our big girl and the ring-leader of our pack: Emma! I put her hair in two braids and pinned them on top of her head. In the whirlwind of activity, I almost thought she was Elliott, a couple of times!

Next, we took some fun action shots!

Prep and leap!

Jumping for joy!

Cartwheels!

Dance party.

I’m going to wrap it up with these cute shots of Emma. Daydreaming…

Want a pape?

Alright, next post I will plan on showing how I put these Newsie outfits together. Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share inspiration!

  • Print
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email


Filed Under: History with the Hemingers Tagged: DIY, Easy Costume, History with Kids, Kid Costume, Musical Theatre, Newsies, Upcycle

DIY Newsie Costumes – The World Will Know!

May 11, 2019

Hello, Dear Readers! I’ve been quiet on this blog for several weeks, and I have really missed you! What on earth have the Hemingers been up to? Well, Jeff and I were cast as the leads in Music Theatre of Wenatchee’s Production of “Newsies”, back in December. We’ve been rehearsing ever since, and now the show is up and running! This year has been a big one for our community: It is the 100th anniversary of the very first Apple Blossom Festival. Apple Blossom is Wenatchee’s annual celebration of our vital and vibrant fruit industry. (Have you ever seen those “Washington Apple” stickers on your fruit? There’s a good chance those apples came from Wenatchee!)

So, it was great fun and a great honor to ride the “Newsies” float in that 100th Grand Parade and to play a role in celebrating the history of our wonderful city.

The next day, our four oldest kiddos came to the “Newsies” matinee. It was such a thrill for them to finally see what Mommy and Daddy have been up to! This occasion was Oliver’s first attendance of a live, musical theatre production. Originally, we didn’t get him a ticket, because we didn’t think he’d sit still. However, he has become obsessed with all the songs from the show, so we made sure our littlest, self-titled “Newsie Boy” got to see it!

Well, you know I just had to create a blog project to commemorate this epic time for our family and our community! Plus, we had to include Annika, right? So, that’s we did. We asked for permission to borrow some muslin prop bags from the show, and I dumpster-dove into a relative’s recycle bins for old copies of the Wenatchee World. Then, I dressed up the kids in odds and ends from their closets and from my costume stash, and we headed downtown!

Our first location had to be in front of this building. For one thing, it’s gorgeous. For another, it’s the headquarters of the Wenatchee World. This makes me giggle, because the newspaper in “Newsies” is called the World. Fitting, huh?

Taking pictures of five, young children is a little nuts at the best of times. This building happens to be on Mission Street, which is one of the busier streets in town. Jeff helped me keep the kids in the shots and out of the street. Several people honked as they drove by. I guess they either knew us and/or were fans of “Newsies”. Oh, Wenatchee!

Dad in action! Putting Annika back in frame and toting a Costco-size container of M&M’s for bribes. We don’t mess around! Okay, back to black and white.

Fortunately, Emma and Elliott can be counted on to stay in character and to take direction. Ooh, look! There’s an ad for “Newsies” at the bottom of the front page!

Meanwhile, you can bet that Eliza will find something engrossing, like rocks, ants…or a stick.

Who wouldn’t want to buy a pape from this little “Newsie Boy”? Oh, and do you recognize those knickers? Yep. I found another use for the boys’ Pilgrim Pants: Elliott’s dyed capris and Oliver’s converted khakis.

And, then there’s Annika. She had no interest in keeping her hat on, whatsoever. Here, you can see Eliza dutifully attempting to put it back on for her. I didn’t get any good shots of our little strawberry-haired scamp at this location. So, you’ll have to wait for my next post for the good ones!

Speaking of bloopers, no blog post would really be complete without a compilation of the many faces of Eliza.

“Extra, extra! Read all about it!”

Proudly carrying the banner.

Newsies in action!

And, with that, we’re off to our next location! I found an amazing alley with lots of evocative brickwork, signs, and even a fire escape. Stay tuned!

 

 

Share inspiration!

  • Print
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email


Filed Under: History with the Hemingers Tagged: DIY, History with Kids, Kid Costume, Musical Theatre, Newsies

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Recent Posts

  • Marzipan Reed Flutes – Costume Pieces
  • Marzipan Behind the Scenes Bloopers – Homemade Nutcracker
  • Marzipan Reed Flutes – Homemade Nutcracker
  • DIY Upcycled Wool Mitts and Pins
  • Marzipan Cookies – Homemade Nutcracker

Recent Comments

  • DIY Pilgrim Pants from Khaki Pants - Yes You Can Costumes on DIY Pilgrim Pants from Dyed Capri Pants
  • DIY Pilgrim Skirts from Pillowcases - Part 1 - Yes You Can Costumes on DIY Pillowcase Pilgrim Skirts – Part 2
  • DIY Pilgrim Skirts from Pillowcases - Part 2 - Yes You Can Costumes on DIY Pillowcase Pilgrim Skirts – Part 1
  • A WordPress Commenter on WordPress Resources at SiteGround

Archives

  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • November 2017

Categories

  • Fantasy Fun
  • History with the Hemingers
  • Holidays with the Hemingers
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Connect

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Theme Design By Theme Fashion · Copyright © 2021

Copyright © 2021 · Craft Haven Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Enter your name and email and get the weekly newsletter... it's FREE!
Introduce yourself and your program
Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.