Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Do you like to be prepared for last-minute costume events and look totally put-together for pennies? You’re going to like this post, because that’s what I did with this simple, Newsies costume for Jeff.

 

Yes, this handsome Newsie is my husband! Now to list the key costume components:

• Dress shirt
• Slacks
• Driving cap
• Vest

Jeff already had the shirt and slacks. They are nondescript by themselves. *Yawn*. The magic lies in the accessories! A tweedy vest and cap in neutral colors are must-have costume pieces that instantly designate the wearer as coming from the late 19th/early 20th century. These items are very easy to find in thrift stores. Keep them around, because you never know when they’ll come in handy!

So, why did Jeff need a Newsie costume? Well, he was asked to sing “Santa Fe” from the musical, Newsies, to promote Music Theatre of Wenatchee’s upcoming production of the show to would-be sponsors. This was before auditions had even been held. (Jeff has helped MTW do promos for several shows, before; even when he wasn’t planning on auditioning for them.)

However, surprise, surprise…Jeff and I are going to be in this production! We auditioned and have been cast as the leads: Jack Kelly and Katherine Plumber!

What’s cuter than a Newsie? A Newsie with a baby! Jeff and I can’t wait to fall in love on stage and to sing and dance while our kids are in the audience. I haven’t been in a musical since I was pregnant with Emma, so this is a milestone in my life! I am very excited to be able to give you first-hand tips on what it’s like to be in a show. The costumer has asked me if I would be willing to help work on my own costume…So, you KNOW I’m going to include you in the process from rehearsal to performance.

I’m so happy, and so nervous, and SO out of shape! Time to start stretching and dusting off my tap shoes. I should probably see if I have a good rehearsal skirt, too…This show is set in the 1890s, so I am going to be working towards historically accurate posture and decorum, partially as dictated by the range of motion in my costume. The earlier I get a “feel” for this during rehearsals, the better!

Happy New Year, Dear Readers! We are going to make so many amazing things, together, in 2019!

Does your little girl have a long, white nightgown in her pajama drawer? No? Neither did mine! I had to get a little creative on this one. Let’s look at how I put Emma’s Saint Lucia outfit together with thrifted and Dollar Tree items.

First, we made a crown with Dollar Tree supplies. *Disclaimer* This post contains affiliate links. Any purchases made through these links will earn me a small commission. I am careful to only promote products that I personally use and love!

Then, I happened to find this women’s nightgown at Goodwill. It would be shorter on a woman, but it was floor-length on Emma. Score!

This find reminded me, yet again, that I often don’t find what I’m looking for in the store section that I would expect. Most children’s clothing is very contemporary, with a few vintage finds tucked in. It is highly unlikely to find a long, plain, white nightgown with the kid stuff. However, I may find one that could be altered in the women’s section. It’s all about thinking a bit outside the box while I’m shopping!

This nightgown has a tie to shape the waist in the back. (The back hem got a bit dirty during our photo shoot. I need to soak this in OxiClean!) The nightgown has a very wide and low neck, so I had Emma wear one of Elliott’s white dress shirts, underneath, to fill it in. It’s often tricky to find girl’s blouses, so my default is to use boy’s dress shirts, which are relatively common in thrift stores. Elliott often has to wear “girl” items in his historical costume outfits, so it was about time for Emma to take one for the team!

For the sash, I used the last length of Offray, red, 1 1/2 inch-wide grosgrain ribbon that I happened to have on this spool.

I tied the red sash around Emma’s waist. The white robe stands for purity. The red sash stands for martyrdom.

Where would Saint Lucia be without her tray of breakfast? I found the perfect, child-size “silver” tray at the Dollar Tree.

Put it all together!

As a Protestant, I have not spent a lot of time thinking about saints. However, there are many things to learn from Saint Lucia. She was an early Christian who was martyred because she was caught while bringing food to fellow believers in hiding. Her story was revived, in medieval Sweden, when a woman brought food to a neighboring village during a famine. She wore a wreath of candles on her head and came over in a boat, lit with torchlight. Her bravery and kindness reminded people of the old tradition of Saint Lucia. This is how an Italian, Catholic saint came to be celebrated in Scandinavia; Sweden in particular.

Lucia’s enduring message of being a light in the darkness has led to her special day still being celebrated in Sweden, even though it is now a nominally Lutheran nation. For more, this is an excellent article in the Post-Gazette. It includes a more detailed history of the origins of Saint Lucia (*warning* it may be too gory for wee ones), and yet another recipe for Lussekatter. Lucia, Child of Light and Lucia Morning in Sweden are also excellent and interesting sources. The latter is the most entertaining for kids, due to its wonderful illustrations.

So, while I do not pray to, for, or through Saints, learning about Saint Lucia opened a conversation between Emma and Elliott and me about the cost of our beliefs. What, ultimately, is so important to us that we would risk everything? As a Christian, I believe that all fellow believers are saints (with a little “s”). We are called to serve and to love and to be lights pointing the world to Christ. This is what celebrating Saint Lucia represents to me.

So, I know Lucia Day has come and gone, but the spirit of Saint Lucia and the theme of light in darkness holds throughout Advent season, right? Plus, you may be like I was as a child and celebrate St. Lucia on Christmas morning. We did this because:

A. It was the only morning we wanted to get up early. (I mean, HELLO. Presents!)

B. It was one of the few mornings we could wake up before our parents, since my dad was an early commuter.

Regardless of when you celebrate, this tutorial will show you how to make a Saint Lucia crown. Even better? Nearly all the materials come from your local Dollar Tree!

First, I found these 15 inch wreaths! They are very basic, but I saw their potential as the foundation for a Lucia Crown.

Luckily, I had a model with me to check the fit of the wreath! It was a little large on Eliza, but I figured I would attach the candles inside the crown. This would reduce the internal circumference enough to fit a child’s head.

Speaking of candles, those were next on my list! I opted to use these 6-inch, battery-operated ones instead of real candles with flames. Fire + hair = no bueno. Ask my nine-year-old self after blowing out my birthday candles…Let’s just say, I was blessed that the worst that happened was that the tip of my braid was singed and very stinky. I could have gone up in flames!

                                                                                                 

Eliza is the perfect shopping companion, by the way! She is so methodical and eager to help.

Each candle required two, Triple-A batteries. Yes, the Dollar Tree also sells packs of batteries!

I also picked up this roll of Christmas ribbon to wind around the wreath.

I decided that the Lucia Crown needed some additional interest, color, and texture. So, we went back to the Dollar Tree on another day and bought some gold, artificial foliage.

Before you start making your Lucia crown, open each package of candles and test them with batteries. Occasionally, a package will have a defective candle. All of my candles passed this initial test, but one inexplicably failed after I finished making the crown. I was glad that I bought an extra package of candles to replace it. I recommend doing the same!

Here’s a collage of the basic supplies needed to make this wreath. I also used wire to wrap the around each candle and to secure them to the wreath. I already had this wire in my stash. Unfortunately, I am unable to tell you its grade or material, since its packaging was missing. However, I recommend getting something sturdy!

This next bit takes some patience and experimentation. I cut the wire into six lengths (one for each candle) and began by twisting the middle of the wire around each candle. Then, I wrapped the remaining tails of wire around the wreath, from above and below. I crossed it in an “X” shape and wrapped around the wreath again. I repeated this until I had no wire left.

If your wreath looks like this, at this point, Do. Not. Panic. (Okay, I panicked a bit!) It looks rather dreadful, doesn’t it? Maybe this is because I should have used stiffer wire. However, I remembered that I had bought this ribbon for a decorative effect and to secure the additional foliage I was going to add to the crown. Maybe it could also help to brace the candles upright?

Sure enough, it did! I tied the end of the ribbon around one of the candles. Then, I twisted it around each candle a couple times and wrapped it around the wreath 2-3 times between the candles. I used almost the entire spool, which contained three yards! The candles were much less floppy and much more upright. I figured that they would probably stand up even more when the crown was worn and the candles were trapped between the wreath and the wearer’s head.

Next was the most enjoyable part of this project! It was fun to snip apart the clumps of gold foliage with the pliers. I tucked the shortened stems into the ribbon wrapping, making sure to place the stems in the same direction around the wreath. I recommend adding a few drops of hot glue inside the ribbon wrapping to secure each bit of foliage. You can skip this step, but you may lose some foliage when the crown is worn.

Here is the finished Saint Lucia crown with the rest of the outfit I assembled for Emma! I will share how I put this whole look together in my next blog post. Emma said the Lucia crown was somewhat uncomfortable because the faux pine branches were scratchy. The candle ends also dug into the sides of her head, and the wreath was still loose and prone to slipping. SO, it looks like this crown will be a work in process. I am going to create a fabric “doughnut” of padding inside the wreath. This will hopefully solve all three of these issues.

A friend from church delivered a fresh, beautiful wreath to our door right before we were going to take pictures. What a perfect photo prop!

This is what the wreath looks like when it is lit at night! The battery candle in Emma’s hand was also purchased at the Dollar Tree.

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!