History with Kids Archives - Yes You Can Costumes

Upcycle a Shirt into a Costume Vest

March 22, 2021

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Need a simple costume vest in a jiffy? Look no further than that old, button-down shirt at the back of your child’s closet! Is it the wrong color? Dunk it in some RIT dye, like I did for Elliott and Oliver’s Kelly Green leprechaun vests. So, let’s upcycle some shirts into costume vests!

The beauty of converting a shirt into a vest is that you don’t need to add buttons, or really much of anything else! You mainly just remove elements that you don’t need.

Supplies

Fitting

First, I nabbed my little leprechaun for a fitting. I determined which buttons I would keep as the top and bottom ones of the vest. I pinned the hem and spread the collar. The fold line of the opened collar would be the future line on which I would cut to begin to remove the collar. I also marked where I wanted the shoulders to land. You can see me gauging whether or not to take the side seams in. I ultimately decided not to, but you could to achieve a trimmer fit.

Pinning/Sleeve Removal

Next, I folded the shirt perfectly in half on my work surface. I matched the armscye seams with pins, and then marked the new shoulder grade down to the armpit with more pins.

The pins holding everything in place allowed me to cut through both sleeves at once to achieve the (basically) exact, mirror-image armhole shape on each side.

Now, to alter the collar! I removed the safety pins and marked the grade of the new vest neckline from the shoulder to the button placket with quilting pins.

Collar Removal

Next, I used a ruler to guide the straight cut I made from the shoulder to the center front.

Here, you can see the cut-open collar. See? It’s starting to look like a vest!

It’s a bit awkward to cut through all the layers, like the button placket. However, covering the newly cut neckline in bias tape soon fixes that problem. It is very satisfying to encase all the internal weirdness with a cohesive strip of material!

Next, I finished removing the collar entirely with just a few scissor snips along the collar band. I saved the collar, along with the sleeves, to make matching, Irish princess accessories for the girls!

Bias Tape

Regretfully, I was in such a hurry to finish the vests, (when am I not, though) that I don’t have pictures of me sewing on the double-fold bias tape around the neckline. However, it is pretty intuitive, and there are lots of great YouTube videos that can show you how, like this one!

Hem

The above series of photos showed how I quickly tacked up the hem of the shirt with a few back and forth stitches in strategic areas. Then, I ran over the hem with an iron to make a crisp, finished look. (Did I mention that I was in a hurry?) Below, I show more hem and bias tape details. By far the trickiest part of handling bias tape is how to tuck and fold the ends to created a clean, mitered edge.

Armholes

I finished the armholes of the vest by serging around them and then folding that edge inward and stitching around it one time. The result was rather puckered armholes This is probably mostly because it is difficult to hem a curved edge. Encasing the armholes in bias tape would have produced a cleaner, more polished look, but, c’est la vie! Fortunately, this shortcoming isn’t as noticeable when the vests are worn.

And, there you have it, folks: Yes You Can make cute vests from button-down shirts!

More St. Patrick’s Day Content

DIY Dyed Green Leprechaun Costumes – RIT Dye tutorial
DIY Irish Princess Crowns and Necklaces – Turn shirt scraps into Celtic capes, chokers, and tiaras.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day – The photo shoot with the finished costumes!

DIY Suffragette Costumes

October 23, 2020

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Celebrate women’s history by assembling your own, amazing, suffragette ensemble with carefully curated thrift store finds. Make your voice heard with all the right symbolism in your accessories. Votes for women!

When you think of “history”, do you see a series of black and white photos in your mind’s eye? I confess that I sometimes do. That is why I love to explore the past in a tangible way. For me, that entails clothes! In past posts, I showed you how to make suffragette picket signs and sashes. Now, it’s time to put together the rest of the outfits…

…In color! As with any organization, the suffragette movement chose its colors very strategically to convey its message: Equality for women. To my surprise, I learned that the main color used by all American suffrage organizations was yellow! Later, the National Woman’s Party was the only group to adopt purple, white, and yellow (gold): “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause. White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving.” The Suffragist, December 6, 1913.

Hats

Well, I happen to really like purple, so I decided that we were members of the National Woman’s Party. Simple as that! And, would you look at what I stumbled upon at the Dollar Tree? Pre-made purple bows on hair clips!

You know what you can also find at the Dollar Tree? Hats! (In the spring and summer, that is.) I got two matching ones for Eliza and Annika. (One came via the thrift store.) All I had to do was snip off their pink flowers and slide the purple bow clip onto their white, elastic hatbands.

Voilà! I did the same “cheat” on my mom’s hat (center), and Emma’s (tan straw hat on the left). Emma’s hat was borrowed from my husband’s grandmother’s costume collection. This particular hat had a convenient loop of ribbon on its band that made attaching the bow a cinch! Easy-peasy suffragette hats on the cheap!

My hat took a little bit more work. (Of course!) I snipped off its white and yellow sequined flower. Those stitches had also held the brim up. So, I took needle and thread and re-stitched that part of the brim back to the crown of the hat. I made the last 3-4 stitches large and loose to make a loop for the hair bow to slide through and stay secure.

Props

If photographing kids has taught me any lesson, it’s this: Give them something to hold, aka “props”! (I plan to discuss this further in a future post.) In brief, props serve as toys that the kids can play with, while also helping them to get into character. Physical items can help the costumes and setting to merge into a cohesive story. The props I selected for this photo shoot were bouquets of yellow roses.

A variety of flowers are associated with the woman’s suffrage movement, with yellow roses and sunflowers being the most popular. I selected these yellow roses from the Dollar Tree, since they would be durable.

Outfit Pieces

Let’s put it all together and make our costume ensembles, shall we? It’s actually really difficult to find historically-appropriate dresses with sleeves. All of these outfits are assembled from blouses and skirts (my mom and me) or sleeveless dresses layered over blouses (the girls). Here is Annika’s little outfit. I’m pretty sure her shoes only cost a dollar. I already had the tights and vintage pinafore. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a blouse in her size or a good under-dress. (The pinafore was sheer with eyelet holes all over. It really needed some kind of layer beneath it.) Then, it occurred to me: I could use a larger-sized girls’ blouse! The sleeves and collar worked with the pinafore, and the shirt’s length also functioned as an under-dress. I’m not gonna lie; I felt pretty clever for coming up with this “cheat”!

Next is Eliza’s outfit! She’s already gotten some mileage out of these shoes, since she also wore them in our 1960s family photo shoot. In fact, I like to make sure that each of our girls has a pair of black and a pair of white dress shoes. This carries us through the year for church, and it also takes care of footwear for lots of costume looks.

Eliza’s blouse is a vintage one that I used to wear! (Wait. Does that make me vintage?) Her darling, eyelet dress is a Hanna Andersson piece I found on eBay.

Emma’s dress was an amazing find. I scooped it up for twenty-five cents at a thrift store sale!

Under her dress, Emma wore another vintage blouse from my childhood wardrobe. (Maybe I am old!) Tights, white shoes, a hat, flowers, and a suffragette sash and picket sign completed her ensemble!

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Speaking of great thrift store finds…(Okay. I’m always talking about great thrift store finds! This one is really fantastic, though.) Look at this gorgeous blouse with pin tucks and insertion lace! I have been looking for a blouse like this for YEARS. This piece is a treasure that will, henceforth, have me covered for looks from 1890 – 1920. The only flaw was the small, brown stain on its front. Fortunately, a soak in OxiClean took it right out!

The skirt I paired with the blouse definitely wasn’t the cheapest thing I’ve ever found at a thrift store, but I couldn’t resist its lace panels.

Then, I completed my suffragette look with my modified hat, white knee socks, thrifted belt, vintage shoes, and, (of course) a picket sign and sash.

My mom’s outfit was also made of separates. Her skirt was a $5 vintage find.

The rest of my mom’s outfit came from various thrift store excursions, except for her blouse, which I bought on eBay. Her shoes deserve a special mention: vintage ballroom dancing shoes make excellent costume footwear for multiple time periods! They can be found in all sorts of colors and heel heights. Keep your eyes peeled for them!

If you’ve made it this far, you may be wondering, “What is up with all the white?” Well, lots of women in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods already owned white blouses and skirts as parts of their everyday wardrobes, especially for summer wear. These were clothing articles that were quite accessible and made a big statement when worn during parades, demonstrations, etc.

Additionally, the suffragettes wore white in a deliberate attempt to bolster their feminine image. Opposing propaganda sought to paint a negative image of them as aggressive and masculine. By contrast, men who supported women’s suffrage were depicted as hapless fellows left at home, holding the babies and wearing the skirts. When suffragettes gathered en masse, they were literally sending a strong cultural message of bright hope, purity, and femininity.

Speaking of gathering, I hope you’re ready to see the pictures from our suffragette parade photo shoot! Grab your sashes, hats, and picket signs and join us in the march. See you there!

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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!

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!

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!