youth pioneer handcart trek 2013 - pioneer clothes

when we go on our pioneer trek this june, everyone will be wearing pioneer clothes!  everyone!  if you are out of your tent, you're in pioneer clothes. basically there are two options when it comes to clothing for trek - make it or buy it.

making the clothing is the cheaper route.  so we needed to make pioneer clothes for our 50+ youth.  we set aside one of the combined young men/young women activities to cut out fabric and start the sewing.  whatever is isn't finished will need to be done by the ma's and pa's and the kids' real moms.  the boys' clothing is pretty straight-forward.  they have all been told to get a couple of pairs of light colored dockers from second-hand store to wear.  for shirts, we had them gather up 2 light colored button down shirts (either old ones or from a second-hand store).  we had them unstitch the collars and then sew them back up, creating a sort of mandarin collar.  (there is a great tutorial here, although we didn't make them into henley shirts.)

the girls takes a little more work.  we found a pattern for a bonnet, and apron and a skirt.  there are a couple of great websites here and here that have patterns and more on clothing.  our fearless trek committee chair went and bought a bunch of inexpensive cotton fabric for the girls to use.

i ended up buying one set of clothing and then making the other.  we have a store locally that sells clothes, and you can purchase clothing on the internet from them too at white elegance.  they have a whole selection of pioneer clothing for men, women and children.

for our kick-off fireside, i needed clothes and fast! so, i went to the store and purchased one set.  here i am in the dressing room with my pioneer clothes on.  i did buy two pairs of pantaloons because i didn't even want to try and make those.  i bought one shirt and am going to use another white button down shirt that i already own.

i didn't end up buying the shawl that you see around my neck. i made my own!i used a tutorial that i found here.  i'll have to post a picture of it later.

anyway, so i made one set of clothes.  i am pretty proud of myself.  sorry for all of the mirror shots, i didn't have a cameraman handy when i took these.

here is my skirt and apron that i made.

and here is my bonnet.

i am not a sewer by any length of the imagination!  i knew this going into the project, so i decided to make it a personal progress goal.  it used it as my value project for knowledge. it took me a couple hours to cut out the fabric and an entire day just to sew these 3 items!  i felt so accomplished when i finished, i can't even tell you.  plus, i even told someone that i would help them sew some of their clothes.