Recently Bunny and Buddy’s school reached it’s 80th anniversary, so to celebrate they had an entire week of heritage focused events. One of the days the kids needed to dress up in costumes that reflected their heritage. Of course, as per usual, i only figured this out the day before the dress up day. Sigh. I need to read my school newsletters more often i guess hehe.
My heritage is a mix of British and Afrikaans, and Chris is a mix of Irish and Danish. Trying to figure out what to wear with that combo was a bit hard! So i decided to go the direction of a badly made period drama and put the kids in something that looked vaguelly British/Irish from maybe the 1800’s. Nothing here is close to historically accurate or in any way researched. Dear all fashion historians, i apologise for these crimes.
This was one of those times I really wished I was a part of a culture with an official national dress!
This smolder pose was 100% his idea not mine. Work it dude.
Buddy was the easiest, he has a large collection of page boy hats thanks to his Grandma, so that plus a checked button shirt and some plain pants left us only needing a waistcoat. I used a free pattern by Jess of MeSewCrazy, and it went really smoothly. The sizing was spot on, i sewed a size 6 for Buddy, and it’s perfect. Since it’s winter here i decided to use fleece as the lining to keep him warm… but as you can see here, he decided that he wanted to wear that on the outside (sigh) which i think looks a little odd in real life, but he really loves it so i’m going with it!
Since i was time crunched and didn’t want to deal with putting buttonholes through fleece, i used snaps and i’m pretty happy with that decision. Overall, i actually really love this look on him, and kinda wish i had more excuses to put that kid in a waistcoat!
My plan is to add a star to this one at some point and then it can extend it’s life as a cowboy dress up.
Didn’t notice the bow at the back had come untied till after i took the photo. Blogger fail!
Bunny was a little harder as she is by far the pickiest. My original idea was more along the lines of a plain button up shirt, tucked into a long gathered skirt (or simple dress along that silhouette) with a plain pinafore apron over the top.
But. Bunny being Bunny, she fell in love with this thrifted sheet that i had in my stash and use for sampling. Always the individual that kid. Love that about her. So i decided to make a very simple gathered skirt with a pinafore attached. I think it looks a little like a pinafore aprony dress LOL. The Mob cap was again a choice of Bunny’s and i feel pleased with how that turned out. I used this great tutorial, and it was super easy. We chucked the dress over a Mini Briar tee and she wanted to wear her school shoes, so boom, done.
I am actually seriously blown away by how much Bunny loves this pinafore. You wouldn’t believe the fight we had to get her take it off for a bath. It’s made me think i need to make her some more pinafores in a more modern fabric that she can wear daily. At least for now she can enjoy this one in the dressup box!
So, at the end of the day, I’m glad we managed to get something knocked out before school – and even though we’re not super historically accurate to any time period, i feel like it all fell in the spirit of the day. Plus they look crazy cute, so winning in that area hehe.
I tell you what guys, I can’t believe how much costume sewing i have done since the kids started school a few years ago. I had no idea how much a part of my life that would be, but secretly, i am really loving it!
