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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Australian/Austrian Costume

I'll be honest - I'm looking for a huge atta-girl here. Callie's teacher sent home a note from school last week saying that for their Christmas party they were going to do a celebration of countries around the world. Callie's assignment was Austria (which Callie kept telling me was Australia before I actually saw the paper), and the teacher wanted the kids to come to school in a costume that represented the country. Seriously?! This is 1st grade! I was feeling quite put out but I didn't want my kid to be the only one to show up without her country's costume!

I did what any awesome mom would do and put together a costume. My total cost was about $5.50 & tons of frustration! I bought a yard of black felt for her "vest" - whatever it's called, & a few yards of ribbon. We had the skirt. I used one of her shirts to trace the basic size/shape for the vest, then guessed on the neck. Turns out the shoulders were way too wide but oh well. I was going to just sew up the sides & attach the eyelets for lacing it up & call it good, but I sort of got into it & decided to see what some extra stitching would look like. Before long I was committed to a bunch of decorative stitching! And then I had all kinds of eyelet issues. I have an eyelet setting plier tool made for fabric eyelets & snaps & it didn't work. I gave up after ruining all but the eyelets I definitely needed plus 2 extra. I had to get creative & go through Jeremiah's toolbox to find something that would work to set the eyelets, but I finally got them done.

Callie was so excited about her costume. Even with the extra wide shoulders on her vest she looked cute. I even braided ribbon into her hair & we practiced saying "Merry Christmas" in German for a couple days before. Turns out the teacher never had the kids say Merry Christmas in their languages. Oh well. Anyway, don't I totally rock as a mom for throwing together a freaking Austrian costume the night before her Christmas party? I mean, seriously!





Fröhliche Weihnachten!

6 talk to me:

Kayleigh said...

Okay, Callie's teacher sucks. But her costume is awesome!! And it could be a Halloween costume next year if it fits. If not, Ellie can use it!

Chelsea said...

it looks great! Callie told me about it on the phone the other day and she was totally impressed you made it for her. she told me.

Heidi said...

You totally rock!!!! And really, what WAS that 1st grade teacher thinking?? I would never ask my parents to do something so difficult!! Who does she have, anyway? Regardless, it looks like it turned out adorably!

Dansie Family said...

arra girl!! you've got skills.

Mirjam said...

I love her costume!
Fröhliche Weihnachten to you too! ;-)

Tara said...

You should include your close up picture of the vest! The stitching detail was my favorite part!