Change the Typical Colonial Outfit for All of Your Child’s School Projects
When my son was in second grade, his teacher loved to create projects in which children had to dress up as historical characters. New to the elementary school world, I still hadn’t realized the stress that character costumes put on parents. That year, my son had to dress like two different famous people in history, and I took a crash course in what it means to be in a craft store the night before your child is due to give a presentation.
My son chose Millard Fillmore for his President’s Hall project for President’s Day. Of course it was. For this project, we borrowed a suit, tie, and a “President Fillmore” tag. I hope President Fillmore was proud of us, but I’m pretty sure this suit was a complete flop. And please don’t ask me what Fillmore’s presidential accomplishments have been, because I’m not going to lie – my son’s presentation was just a nap.
After the President’s Day fiasco, I grew wiser when I needed to help my son choose a character for his next project. I realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to spend many nights in the Target aisle trying to piece together an expensive suit that we would throw in a donation heap after one use. Rather, I had a plan: I was going to get him to pick a colonial character from history, and we were going to use that costume year after year.
So while all the other kids chose Derek Jeter and Taylor Swift, my child chose Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
I bought a long-sleeved white cotton shirt and attached a lace pin to his chest in a frill-like triangle. I bought a pack of red cloth and sewed a raincoat, which I tied behind his back. He was wearing black sweatpants with elasticated knee-length pants. I finished off the look with soccer socks and a pair of classic shoes that we used in church.
But my main achievement was his white wig. I bought some sewing batting and wrapped it around my head to make it look like hair. I added some twisted details to simulate the “curls” underneath, and voila, he instantly turned into a virtuoso. The entire suit cost me just under $ 30, with most of the cost going to sweatpants.
Materials for making a suit:
- Long-sleeved white cotton shirt ($ 6).
- Lace fabric ($ 6)
- Red Cloth ($ 6)
- Black sweatpants
- Batting ($ 5 per yard)
Did he look ridiculous? Probably. Over the next three years, were we able to remake this costume into The Man of the Minute, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton? You bet we did. And I don’t want to brag, but this suit won him first prize at the colonial-themed parade in our city on the Fourth of July, thank you very much.
You too can use your normal colonial outfit for all of your child’s school projects. Either buy one (Amazon has tons of options ) or do as I do. Years later, when it came to my daughter’s turn to dress in historical costumes, we were already the pros: her colonial dress and dust cap served her well, as did Laura Ingalls Wilder, Susan B. Anthony and the time she chose the “apothecary” for the whole schools. presentation of the colonial city.
When I mentioned reworking my suit to some moms in my area, they jumped on the bandwagon of the colonial suit too. And over the years we have collected a fairly large selection of colonial clothing. So much so that we turned to each other for help, depending on the period of history. It’s pretty funny to read, “Hey, does anyone have a set of guys for my son’s blacksmith costume?” in the text of the neighborhood group.
And while our neighborhood kids seem to have a knack for choosing the least-known careers in history, we’ve been able to easily and cost-effectively repurpose and equip virtually every colonial or historical figure. However, somehow we weren’t able to convince them to use our sewn-together Halloween costumes. I guess explaining that you are Susan B. Anthony, house by house, is not all that is needed.