Hello friends. Monday again. I hope you all had wonderful weekends. I had such a great weekend. On Saturday we went to our town’s craft and book fair and had a fun time browsing the crafts, booths and books. Then we went for a short bike ride on the backroads near our house so Julius could practice road biking. On Sunday we went to the local renaissance faire, which after our shenanigans a couple years ago you probably thought I might never go to again. Actually, it has been 7 years since I had the shop at the faire! Time really flies.
My renaissance family
Laughing at the jousting
This guy was a little taller than Julius. (Will and I think it was John Mulaney under that costume.)
Julius’s favorite part – the fairy circle. Fun fact – I used to tie a wish on the fairy circle every single day of the faire that we worked there.
Voyage to the new world
Why yes that is the underdress I made a few years ago… and the dress I made in high school… (And the hat I made in between.)
I spent the week before the faire making Patricia a costume. I thought it was really darn cute. She, however, was being very her usual contrarian self and refused to put it on for the final fitting. Julius wanted to put it on, so he tried it on instead. That’s how we know it fits either a size 3T/4T Patricia or a size 5T Julius. Julius afterwards told us he wanted to keep it and wished boys wore dresses so he could have one. I never know how to respond in these scenarios. Last year I made him a tutu when he was sad that Patricia got a tutu, but he never wears it. I would love to make him a dress to make him happy and f**k the status quo, but I am being cautious to avoid making him a subject of ridicule at school (kids are mean and he may not yet realize that). Ultimately I resorted to saying something like, ‘you tell me if you really want one and I’ll work on it’. We shall see what he decides.
My beautiful boy modeling Patricia’s outfit.
Patricia on the other hand is a complete gender conformist and has always been into dolls. (Much the opposite of me as a child.) She carries a baby doll around with her everywhere she goes. It’s wild. At the faire she carried around a stuffed baby doll she named “baby Sydney” (after my cousin’s adorable baby who she met in real life a couple months ago). She also has another baby (girl) doll named George who she used to carry around all the time. George seems to have fallen out of favor in recent weeks. Patricia actually told us the other day “George died”. Which was a bit disturbing, but she’s probably just processing my grandpa’s death. When she told us George died, Julius looked at us shocked. Julius is still Patricia’s favorite. Patricia won’t let anyone hold her baby dolls except Julius because “my baby likes just only me and Julius”. When asked this morning what she did over the weekend during her round table at preschool, she said “I played with my brother”. Clearly that is the highlight of her weekend.
Two love bugs
My highlight of the weekend? Probably when Patricia and Julius went into “the Jester’s maze” by themselves and Patricia came out a solid 5 minutes before Julius did. I have no idea how she found her way to the end before he did but it was hilarious. When asked where Julius was she responded, “Julius wouldn’t listen”. Not sure what that meant!
Patricia down the slide first
Toddler Medieval Underdress
What you’ll need:
- about 1.5 yards of linen shirting (or cotton)
- about 1 yard of 1/2″ twill tape
- 1 foot of 1/4″ elastic.
- I followed the instructions I used for my medieval overdress except I made a couple of modifications for the neckline and sleeve ruffles. I actually might make these modifications to my own dress I was so pleased with them!
- I followed steps 1&2 and plugged in Patricia’s measurements and came out with the following. The only adjustments I made were to add 2″ for ruffles in the arm. (Obviously it is not drawn to scale.) Note the arms came out about 3/4 length! If you want them longer, you will need to add more length!
- I followed steps 3-5. Then instead of step 6 I did the following…
- Cut a 4″ slit in the center neckline on one side.
- Fold the side areas of the slit under so the unfinished edges are inside and stitch.
- Next fold under the top hem by 1/4″ then fold over again by 3/4″ Stitch close to the bottom fold line.
- Instead of inserting elastic, insert twill tape through the hem. Make sure the tape is a few inches longer than the entire neckline. Gather.
- Skip steps 6-9 in the adult medieval underdress pattern.
- After hemming the sleeves, add some twill tape on the end of the sleeve hem inside the shirt. Sew close to the edges of the twill tape to form a casing for the elastic. Be sure to leave a gap to insert the elastic.
- Feed elastic into the casing you just made, pull it tightly so it forms a ruffle and then tie or stitch the elastic together at your desired length.
- You can then finish enclosing the elastic in the tape by stitching the ends closed. Repeat for second sleeve.
