The theme was the late 1800's, and fortunately I remembered that last time she visited, my Mum had given me a calico mop hat that she had made for a similar dress up when I was little. It's essentially an 18" diameter circle of calico, with hat elastic sewn on the inside (using a zig-zag stitch) about 2" from the edge and finished with some lace around the brim.

Further investigation revealed a red velvet dress I grabbed at an op-shop about a year ago for $4 - it took my eye because I thought it would be suitable for any princess/ medieval/ Christmas type of costume. As you can see, it's a little large for her, but she pushed the sleeves up :-)
Lastly, it needed a pinafore and although I would have liked to make a 'proper' calico pinny, I didn't have a pattern, nor much unbleached calico, just a smallish remnant. So I sewed up a very simple apron - an 8" square sewn to the middle top of a 19" x 12" rectangle of calico. It should really have been longer but that's all the calico I had, and I wanted to utilise the lower selvedge (less hemming!). I used some bias binding I had on hand for the straps, and voila!
It's more of a maid outfit than a school girl, but hey, it did the job - and all for about $5!

5 comments:
It's fabulous! Besides, in the late 1800s most of us would have been maids, if we were lucky. She looks beautiful, and there's nothing better than a school day in costume!
love the outfit, love how you pulled it together! especially the hat, I think my daughter definitely needs one, how simple.
I'd take her on as a maid any day! Well done.
Amazing! Great work Julie. : )
Hello everyone,
Thank you for your kind words :-) She had a great day!
Cheers, Julie
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