Laura Days

Earlier this summer, I thought about going to Pepin, WI to see Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthplace and museum, but when I looked up their website, I saw that they had a two-day event in September called Laura Days to celebrate her.  I turned to my eldest and asked if she'd want to dress up as Laura with a bonnet and an apron.  She looked at me and said, "Do I get a basket?  A basket with berries?"  Yes!!  

Calico fabrics!  This was about the extent of them in my stash and I had enough of the light blue and the brown to make dresses for the girls.

I used a nightgown pattern from Butterick (B4910) because of the elastic neckline.  I couldn't find any good apron patterns for the style I was looking for, so I drafted my own patterns for those.  There was no actual pattern, I just cut some fabric and hoped it would work.  I felt like I could have been on PR.

Here's the blue:

And the brown:

Forgive the crappy background.  This was as soon as they were dressed out of the car and the last time they would be in full costume (Z quickly shed bits of hers - stinker).

Instead of a ruffle - because I did not have enough fabric - I used lace for the bottoms of both dresses.   I like the back of the apron with the brown dress:

The bonnets were just smaller ones from an adult McCall's pattern that I used for my dress.

Yes, you heard right, I dressed up, too.  I used McCalls 7220.  I did not have enough calico, so I went with some gray fabric that I bought at the thrift store for $3.99.  Here I am in all of my voluminous glory:

It gets better with this angle:

Husband said they wore clothes back then to prevent pregnancy (because I am obviously so enticing in these layers and layers of fabric).

Here's my hulking back:

And another very flattering shot:

The bonnet was a white with blue polka dots.  A dress in that would have been pretty, but I didn't have enough.  

I think my prairie dress could be used in many other costume variations, as follows:

Austere Pilgrim

Mole Woman

Wolf-as-Grandma

Drab Bo Peep

Dowdy Scullery Maid

Hester Prynne (need to embellish the chest, of course) and this is currently the leader for Halloween 2019.