Saturday November 4th was going nice and quiet. I was getting things done around the house and taking in some reading. Then, in came a new mission:
My wife: "Well, I'm doing something different" Me: "What?" Wife: "My D.A.R. Chapter wants me to be in the Veterans Day parade next week." Me: "Sounds fun, what are you going to be doing?" Wife: "Just walking in the parade, except I dress up in a "Colonial" dress." Me: "Where are you going to get that?" Wife: "They have ones available, oh and they want the girls in it as well." Me: "In costume?" Wife: "No, just dressed patriotic" Me: "Okay, so what's your plan for that?" Wife: "I have no idea ..."
The task was set; create a patriotic outfit for two little girls to wear while riding a float amongst a bunch of ladies dressed in outfits that are supposed recall the fashions of two hundred years ago.
And, we have one week to do it.
Halloween being just over gave me my first inspiration. My eldest daughter had wanted to be "Cinderella", which to her meant, "make me a blue dress". That was easy as I had a pattern already on hand for something appropriate.
Getting home, it was time to get creative, and out-of-my-depth. I wanted to lengthen the bodice down to the natural waist instead of the empire waist in the pattern. We needed to add long sleeves (too cold for bare arms) and add a contrasting collar to make the whole thing less overwhelming around their face. I'm not really sure what I'm doing at this point, but I lay out the original pattern pieces on some butcher paper and start drawing lines where I think they should go. By Saturday night, I have a pattern.
Sunday was church, cleaning house and football, but a little bit of time was available to get one bodice cut out and sewn up to prove that it fit. It did. Whoa. Adding sleeves to the bodice proved that I was on the right track there also. Still, I had nothing for the collar. I cut out a square and sized it to look okay. Then laid out the bodice pattern pieces and figured out what the neck opening should look like. I tried the result on my youngest and seemed okay. Cut two pieces, added lace, sew up, attach. Hey! It works! More whoa. (In hindsight, I should have added some interfacing to the collar to give it more body. Oh well, lesson for the next project)
Once the week was underway, time became precious. Between work, homeschool and sleep, there's not a lot left for creativity. I put my wife to work cutting out skirt panels, whilst I got the second bodice and sleeves together. By Friday, I was hemming skirts and sleeves and the girls were going wild with anticipation. We had done it. The girls had blast tossing candy from the float. Daddy got lots of compliments from the other D.A.R. folks and the girls insisted on wearing their dresses the entire day.