Yes You Can Costumes

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Upcycle a Shirt into a Costume Vest

March 22, 2021

*Purchasing through my affiliate links earns me a small commission to keep creating!*

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

  • Button-down shirt
  • Double-fold bias tape, 1/2 inch wide
  • Thread
  • Safety pins
  • Sewing pins
  • Ruler
  • Fabric scissors
  • Rit dye (optional)

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.

DIY Easy Vest

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.

DIY Upcycle Shirt to Vest

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!

 

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Filed Under: Cultural Creations, History with the Hemingers, Holidays with the Hemingers Tagged: Costumes, DIY, Dyeing, Easy Costume, History with Kids, Holidays with the Hemingers, Irish, Kid Costume, Kid Costumes, Leprechaun, RIT Dye, St. Patrick's Day, Upcycle

Marzipan Reed Flutes – Costume Pieces

March 1, 2021

*Purchasing through my affiliate links earns me a small commission to keep creating!*

How do you turn a pile of clothes on a bed into costumes with scrumptious colors, layers and textures?

Our master bed is often my visual “storyboard” for potential outfit layouts.

To start this story, we’re going to have to travel back *gulp* thirteen years, to my senior year of college. I took a textiles class to fulfill the art credit I needed to graduate. I was drawn to the textiles course because…obviously. Also, I had a hankering to try my hand at weaving ever since I inherited some linen woven by my great-great-great Grandmother, Kajsa (Kye-suh) Sjöquist. I believe it was even made from flax grown on the family farm in Småland, Sweden.

Kajsa and Karl, and her beautiful weaving, lace, and drawn-thread embroidery. My Great Aunt Kay got to visit their home in Blomstermåla and church in Kråksmåla.

Setting up the loom was intense! My professor had a huge hand in helping me. If I messed up the placement of even one, vertical warp thread, the finished piece would have a flaw in its pattern through its entire length. *Yikes!* Speaking of patterns, I selected designs for all of my projects from the Manual of Swedish Handweaving. It was a library book that I had pored over as a teen. (Nerd alert!) I remembered it and asked my mom to check it out and mail it to me from Washington to Oklahoma. Yes, this is quite the saga!

Me at the loom: Featuring my stress acne and early attempts at taking selfies.

Of course, the actual scarf I used as part of Emma’s Marzipan Elf costume is the only piece I didn’t take photos of while it was on the loom. *Sigh* It was the third and final project I had to complete for the class. I made it from scraps of leftover yarn in my professor’s stash, and scrambled to finish it in time before graduating!

The scarf was barely long enough to wear, so I left the fringe longer on one side to extend its length as much as possible.

Moving along! Most of Emma’s costume pieces were either from her or my closets. Here are a few of the thrifted items.

*Pro Tip* Always snap up cool boots and thermal underlayers at the thrift store. They rarely turn up on the cheap when you need them for something specific!

And…Here are all of Emma’s costume pieces! Her hat (as well as most of the others) were hand-me-downs from friends. I know how to knit and crochet, but haven’t in years. I look forward to dusting off those skills when teaching our kids!

So, you’re probably sick of hearing about scarves, by now. I still hope you will indulge me one more time: The scarf on the right was made for me by my dear college roommate. I still wear it to this day. The scarf is so soft and I love the color! This scarf became the shoulder sash of Elliott’s costume.

The brown, velvet blazer was also part of my college wardrobe, and the green shirt is mine, as well! Everything else was hand-me-downs, or thrifted. Here are all of Elliott’s costume pieces.

Eliza’s purple cardigan began as a sad, stained sweater that I dyed for her Pilgrim costume, a few years ago.

I love the green, embroidered blouse that was layered under Eliza’s hand-me-down sundress. Too bad it’s not my size!

In case you didn’t already know; red is Eliza’s favorite color. So, naturally, she wore the red hat!

Oliver kept toasty warm in a thrifted thermal top and vintage, wool sweater. (I made sure he wore a turtleneck in between so he wouldn’t feel itchy!)

So many of our friends have generously given us their kids’ outgrown clothes, over the years. They know that I use all sorts of things to make costumes . . . And I do! Oliver got to wear two, cute, hand-me-down pieces: The hat and the shoulder scarf! His boots were from Zulily.

Most of Annika’s costume pieces came from the YWCA Thrift Store. How cute is the corduroy, double-breasted jacket and the ribbon-laced boots?

The rest of Annika’s costume pieces were her own clothes.

AND . . . If you don’t believe me . . . Here is our family’s 2020 Christmas Card! Can you see how many articles of clothing they also wore as Marzipan Elves? I can count three, not including their boots, which were cropped out of these photos.

However, you can sure see the footwear in these shots that didn’t quite make the Christmas card . . .

Oh, Annika. She used to flip out whenever a camera was around. These days, she practices her nonconformity through another medium: Clowning.

Future album cover/Annika descending Mt. Sinai

And, there you have it! Thank you for going on a time travel adventure with me. Maybe it’s overkill to share how deep the origins of my inspiration go. However, if you’re still reading, I hope that means that you understand.

More Nutcracker Content

Marzipan

  • Marzipan Cookies – Homemade Nutcracker: How we made the delicious cookies that accompany this project.
  • DIY Upcycled Wool Mitts and Pins: Follow this link for a tutorial on how to make these beautiful mitts and coordinating pins.
  • Marzipan Reed Flutes – Homemade Nutcracker: Follow this link to see the final photo shoot!
  • Marzipan Behind the Scenes Bloopers – Homemade Nutcracker

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged: Family History, Handweaving, Kid Costumes, Nutcracker Ballet, Swedish, Upcycle

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…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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Recent Posts

  • Multicultural Costumes and Cooking with Kids
  • Upcycle a Shirt into a Costume Vest
  • Marzipan Reed Flutes – Costume Pieces
  • Marzipan Behind the Scenes Bloopers – Homemade Nutcracker
  • Marzipan Reed Flutes – Homemade Nutcracker

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