Currently I am in Kauai on a visit/holiday with my husband and it occurs to me that many people cannot get a costume easily out of the Autumn season and if you are on the island or away from a big city with a costume shoppe…it is difficult to get a costume easily even when it is Halloween season. Of course you can visit the internet and costumes site such as my online site odysseycostumes.com . Look in your local phone book or online yellow pages and you might be lucky enough to find a friendly neighborhood shoppe to help you with an affordable sale or rental; but what about things that pop up at the last minute or if you are on a limited budget and shipping along with the costume eats up well…your dinner budget so here are some tips to ease a few costume needs that may come up….so I am going to write a few posts to help some do-it-your-selfers…
School projects: Now a lot of us do not sew much but we are creative and crafty so let’s think about this…if you have children, chances are they will be in a school play, program, or history project that will require some type of costume. Your child might even need to be a “turkey”….ouch! That will be another blog post but below are some ideas of things you might have in your closet or can borrow from others or find in a thrift store…or put together with pieces from a shoppe that will make a wonderful pilgrim and colonial male.
Pilgrims and colonists can be tricky in some ways, but not too bad in others…pilgrims need to wear black, grey or brown…the look of a pilgrim man/boy is the collar and cuffs (white felt) so now you look around for basic black (sweats?, sweater, black long sleeve t-shirt) and cut a square style collar and some little cuffs and attach them like bracelets (this can be done out of white felt/fabric obtainable at any craft store )….the pants can be had by finding sweats, old church pants that are too short or a thrift store or hand me down value…then shortened several ways…my favorite no-sew way is to tie elastic around the leg under the knee and tuck them up…utilize long white socks (from mom, sis, athletic style) and voila…you have a pilgrim…the hat is trickier…so perhaps you should just be an indoor pilgrim. (hee, hee) Our hats for pilgrims are only 7.99 – 9.99 so adding it that to your home made costume might just be the cherry on the sundae.
The male colonist is similar…but no collar and the color scheme can be black, brown, blue, grey or even a dull green. Now the shirt should be a white oxford covered with a vest borrowed from mom, sis, bought at a thrift store and at the throat use a lace handkerchief/napkin/or lace square of fabric (grandma’s doily?) gathered with a strategically placed safety pin.(think John Adams) The hat here would be a tri-corner, named as such for the three corners it has. You can find easy patterns on the internet, for instance there is a nice one at
www.fi.edu/franklin/birthday/tri-corner.hat.pdf
But remember, with the money you saved making a cute colonial out of a button down shirt, lace jabot at the neck, baseball pants or short sweat pants, knee socks, you can buy a $10 hat. Baby powder or bath powder can be used on hair to get the “powdered wig” effect. So go for it…add your personal touches to a “bought” costume or create your own!
