Recently, Anna's second grade class had to do a book report on a famous person. The children were given a list of characters to choose from and Anna picked Queen Elizabeth I. I must say that I am super impressed with the fact that her class often requires the students to orally present poems and book reports. What great public speaking practice at an age where they don't yet know to be shy in front of a group. I'll be forty this year and I shake like a leaf if I have to get up and speak. Anyway, we planned to order the Elizabeth I costume from Chasing Fireflies but they no longer had the costume in stock, only the wig. We sent off for the wig and then I attempted to make the dress myself.
I used upholstery fabric which I knew wasn't the most brilliant idea but I thought I could pull it off. I ended up having to go to a friend that owns an alteration shop and ask for help when attaching the skirt to the bodice as my sewing machine just couldn't cut it. To embellish, we recycled some old costume jewelry and clipped one strand to remove the pearls to use on the bodice. The day of the presentation, the lace stood up more like an Elizabethan ruff but unfortunately seemed to lose its luster once I put in a bag to transport it.
When I finished the dress, it really needed a hoopskirt to make it look the part. I was out of time and so the day before her presentation, I googled "hoop skirt tutorial" and came across the best site called
Funky Horror. She called her tutorial "How to make a cheap, fast hoopskirt (that doesn't suck). It was just what I needed. The skirt turned out to be so easy. It was just a strip of muslin with wide ribbon sewn across it to make casings that held soaker hose (like you use in your garden). Easy and affordable!
I wonder if the real Elizabeth had this many freckles.
I was so proud of our little girl on the day of the presentation. She walked up there like it was just another day and gave her speech as if she were the real Queen Elizabeth. It was incredibly sweet. I have it on video but am apparently too technologically inept to get it from my video camera onto the computer. Hopefully, I can get it figured out in the next few days to share with you.
