Last week, I read my Monday email from the teacher on Tuesday, and discovered that Thursday was a Spirit Day called "Around the World" day. The students were to wear traditional clothing from around the world. That's a really neat idea! Aside from reading the email on Tuesday, I was too busy to do anything more about it except let the idea simmer on my mind for a while.
Libby was easy. She decided to wear her Chinese Hanfu. It's her Princess Mulan dress that she loves to wear any chance she gets. Wear her princess costume to school? Why, yes!
Gracie has a Merida dress, but it's not all that representative of Scotland. She also has the Cinderelly working dress which we could say is a German, Dutch, Norweigian style of traditional dress. It's close. She really didn't want to wear a princess costume though. She had her heart set on me making her something. She looked on Google Images for ideas. Germany, Holland, France, Lakota, Sioux, hmmm.... she liked them all but Renaissance France was what she really wanted. Well, gee, kid, I would love to but I have limited time. We looked up USA and those were cute. I told her I could probably make something red, white and blue and that would work. Maybe some other time she could be France. She said, no.... How about Cambodia. Hmm, ok, let's look. Cambodia girls wear very pretty outfits. Yes, she wants to be Cambodia!
Since my serger isn't working, there's no way I could whip up a dazzling colorful Cambodian dress. I would have to use poly-satin and it frays so bad, I just wouldn't want to make anything using satin without my serger. Sorry, Cambodia, but we'll have to make a Sampot (dress) another time.
Wednesday came along and I was again too busy to sew anything for Around the World day. The girls were excited for it, but I was drawing a complete blank. I didn't have anything at all to make and I didn't have a chance to run out and buy something that was Red, White and Blue for the USA. I told Gracie that she just wasn't going to be able to participate because she doesn't have anything and I didn't have time to make anything. She was disappointed, but I told her that I'm pretty sure they'll honor Dr. Seuss' birthday in March so I'll start working on something for her to wear for that day. She was fine with that. Whew!
Wednesday night I thought about what I could do for Gracie to Around the World day. Seems like USA should be simple enough. And I started to dig around my sewing area. I was hoping to find an old 4th of July Tshirt that I could resize for her, or maybe some red, white, and blue ribbon that I could sew onto a plain Tshirt, something, anything? And then I found some flag print fabric! Score! I quickly made a Tshirt style top for her out of it and was very happy with myself! In less than an hour, I worried, searched, found and made a USA top! It turned out pretty cute too.
I went to bed happy and relieved, even though I know she didn't want to be USA, but she'd rather be something different, something exotic and foreign and exciting. I was just drifting off to sleep after 11 pm when it hit me. I have France fabric!!! I bolted out of bed and dug through my fabric stash. Eureka! I found it! Fabric that I bought a while back that has the Eiffel Tower on it! France!!! Thank you, Fabric Gods!
I cut out and sewed up another top. Cute! Glittery Eiffel Towers, cute little coffee shops, and the word "Paris" all over the top. Now, she had two countries to choose from for Around the World Day. I think I just saved the world! Unless of course, she wakes up grumpy, the tops don't fit, or she dreams about Cambodia and their beautiful Sampot gowns. By no means am I in the clear. It's worth a shot though. If it's a total flop at least I can take pride in the fact that I made two tops in under two hours! And that includes going to bed and relaxing in between them. The last one only took me 30 minutes from finding the fabric to completion.
Luckily, Gracie woke up and found her surprise shirts to be very exciting! They fit and she was super happy. She knew I made them after she went to bed and she was so happy! Yay! Of course, she chose France because France is her vacation dream and it had glitter. It was itchy though. We found an old tank top to put underneath, it's an ugly battered tank top, but it's white and soft. She was comfy! I pretended not to notice that it hung down on one side. It wasn't a full traditional costume from France, but it represented the country well and she could wear it anytime too. Perfect.
The girls were so excited for school that they were ready early! Taking advantage of that, I shooed them out the door before they could unravel themselves or decide they needed to do or play something. With time to spare, I took the girls to the donut shop for a treat. The donut shop has a world map on the wall so we sat at the table under the map and found China and France. While we were at it, we looked at the oceans and continents. It was a nice little geography lesson before school. Yummy too!
As it turned out, Libby and her friend were the only two in their classroom who participated. Libby wore her hanfu and Riley wore a Tshirt that said Vancouver on it. In Gracie's class, only four kids participated. The teacher forgot too. I didn't see many kids in the other classes dressed up neither. Riley's brothers are both in upper elementary and they wore Canada Tshirts as well, but we didn't see any traditional costumes. It was disappointing, but not surprising since there was such a short notice to the parents. A couple of girls in Gracie's class wore Flamenco dresses. They looked very pretty! Gracie was thrilled to participate too, and I thought it was age appropriate for her to decide against a Disney princess dress.
I used this pattern: It's an oldie, but it's very basic and it fit great. She's growing so fast that I am always just guessing about how big to make things for her. I got lucky and the shirt fit great. It was quick and easy too. I think I'll whip up a few more shirts for her with this pattern just to build up her wardrobe.
I really like Gracie's shirts. Hope she wears them often.
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