Project time!

This blog is not typically a source of craft or hobby tips. However, I just finished a project I have been working on intermittently for a number of months. 

It was fun. 

It was easy.

 I think it will provide hours of creativity for the children at the preschool. 

With all those thoughts in mind, I decided to share about the simple dress-up costumes I made. The idea was not my own. A couple of my colleagues went to the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) convention last year and came back with this great idea from Amy Weaver, a presenter. As with most craft projects, in my experience anyway, I started with a basic idea and then I made it my own. The initial idea was to make dress-up time at the preschool a more independent activity. Often, children are interrupted in their creativity by needing buttons to be buttoned, ties to be tied, or requiring other assistance with getting the costumes on or off.  Also, the dress-up clothes are often housed in a huge tub, taking up a lot of valuable play space. Conversely, these costumes were to be simple rectangles of fabric with a hole cut for the head. Because the costumes were made from a variety of fabrics, the children could use their imaginations to pretend to be a variety of things, easily slipping the costumes over their heads and back off again when they were done. When not in use, the simple fabric rectangles could be stored in a Ziploc bag and take up virtually no space at all. Sounds great, right? There were almost no directions (beyond “rectangle of fabric with a hole cut for the head”) for making these costumes, so I just made things up as I went along.

With no dimensions provided, I did some experimentation. My costumes are a variety of lengths and widths. Some are as narrow as about 13” across, some as wide as 30” across. I think 30” is too wide, but I still left that one in the mix. Length varied as well, from about 16” to about 30” (from shoulder to hem). A variety of lengths and widths is a desirable, as children come in a variety of sizes. However, with no side seams, these costumes really will “fit” any child – and many teachers/parents as well, if they are so inclined as to want to wear costumes! I’m too practical not to finish the edges of the fabric; I want the costumes to hold up to use. Also, strings everywhere from frayed edges kind of get on my nerves. I decided to finish the edges as simply as possible. I just turned the raw edge under a little bit and zigzagged all along it. I cut a curved neck hole with a slit down the front to make it easy to pull over the head, and then I turned down the edge of that opening and zig-zagged it as well. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy, as my preschoolers would say!

That would have been all I needed to do, but I decided to add some embellishments to some of the costumes, just for fun. 

I zigzagged some pockets on a few. 

I added a star.

I attached some wings,

or a ruffle,

or some tulle.

I even made a couple of the costumes short on one side and long on the other, with an “S” on the long side – sort of like a superhero cape, when wearing the long side in the back, or maybe a knight’s armor when wearing the long side in the front.

Let imagination be your guide!

You  could create one of these costumes, from the first snip of fabric to the last stitch, in under 20 minutes.  I went a little crazy and sewed 58 of them (not recommended, as you may lose an entire room to fabric stashes), and I actually have thoughts for a few more. I have cut myself off for now, so it’s your turn. Plain and simple or with added embellishments, these costumes are an easy and enjoyable project. Let me know if you decide to make some!

These are the simplest of the costumes, on some really fun animal prints.

I added some simple embellishments on a few of these.

This shows a couple of long costumes and some shorter ones as well.

Go! Sew! Have fun!