Halloween Costume Update: Round Eared Cap

I've finally completed  my daughter's Colonial American girl costume.  Here is the completed outfit.  One piece was particularly difficult to make; the round eared cap.  It's not that the actual project was difficult, just figuring out how to make it.  Overall, I'm happy with the end result.  Although, there were some hiccups along the way.  It's not quite as historically accurate as I'd like it to be, but this was a faster, more cost effective version.

Historically, women and girls wore these caps from the 1740's through the 1820's.  They were made of white linen, and obviously hand sewn.  There are historical patterns available, but I didn't want to spend the money on a pattern.  I looked at some pictures of finished caps, and a wonderfully helpful website with general instructions for making historical caps.

Mine, on the other hand, is made from an old white cotton pillow case.  It is mostly hand sewn.  I did use the machine to sew the draw strings.  I also machine sewed the casing for the draw strings, however my stitches were too close to the raw edge and it pulled out.  So, I ended up hand sewing that part, too.

I didn't follow any particular pattern.  I just took a few measurements of my daughter's head and cut pieces out of paper to try on her.  If I make another one in the future, I will definitely make it bigger.  What I thought would be the right size, ended up a little too small for her.  It would probably fit a 4-5 year old much better (she's 9).  

Here is my paper pattern with a 12 inch ruler for scale.  From top to bottom the pieces are the crown, ruffle, then band.  I cut two pieces of the ruffle.  If your fabric has a finished edge (selvedge), use that edge for the front edge of your ruffle. That eliminates the need to hem it.  I did not make a pattern for my drawstrings.  I simply cut two strips of fabric about 1/2 inch wide and 8-10 inches long.

Fold your drawstring pieces in half, lengthwise.  Stitch them shut.  Because they are so narrow, it is very difficult to turn them inside out.  My quick fix solution was to trim the raw edges, and seal them with clear nail polish.  I'm not sure how effective a solution this is for the long term, but it will at least get us through Halloween.

On to the crown...Because I didn't allow for extra room for a hem, I machine sewed my hem much too close to the raw edge and ended up having to hand sew it after it unraveled on me.  You can choose to either add an extra 1/4 inch or so to the bottom of your crown and machine sew the hem (or casing), or leave it as is and hand stitch it.  

Next, cut a small slit at the center of the casing.  Use needle & thread to wrap the hole like a button hole.  Use a safety pin to feed the drawstrings through the casing, letting the extra length hang out of the center hole.  

For the top of the crown, hand sew a running stitch for your gather.  I cut a piece of thread the same length as the length of the band.  That made it easy to fit the two pieces together.  Evenly distribute the gather and pin the two pieces together.  Be sure to include the drawstrings.  Whipstitch the crown and the band together using very small, close stitches.  After you have attached the two pieces, remove your gather thread.

Now for the ruffle...As I stated before, if you have a nice finished edge that you can use for the front of your ruffle, do it!  Since I made my cap out of a pillowcase, I had no nice edge.  I did not want to hem the front of the ruffle, so I again used clear nail polish to seal my freshly cut edge.  Attach the two ruffle pieces, end to end, with a couple of small stitches.  Next, cut another length of thread the same length as your band and gather the back edge of your ruffle.  Again, pin the two pieces together and use a small, close whipstitch to attach the ruffle to the band, removing the gather thread when you are done.

 

There you have it, a genuine fake Colonial America era historical-ish round eared cap!  I hope your hands and eyes don't hurt from all those whipstitches as much as mine do.  More importantly, I hope this tutorial helps make your project a little easier.

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: Talk Like a Pirate Day, It Be Me Hearties!

Shiver me timbers! Tomorrow is talk like a pirate day.  It's a great day to act silly and have some fun.  It's also a great day to sneak in a little history and science...along with the fun.  I've found the motherload of pirate resources for your little lads and lasses.

Before you can be a pirate, you need to learn about pirates.  Older pirates will get a real feel for the life of a pirate by watching any of the pirate documentaries a available on YouTube.  After that, let them learn which flags various pirates flew and what those images meant.

Younger pirates will get a thrill out of learning to talk like a pirate, and generating their own pirate names.  Disney has an entire subsite dedicated to pirate crafts & activities for younger children.

To be a pirate, you need pirate gear.  Younger pirates will enjoy this adorable yet simple duct tape sword.  This homemade compass is a great science lesson on magnetism.  Every pirate needs a telescope to see far off treasure.  I've found one tutorial that looks more like a pirate spyglass, but does not have lenses, and one less traditional looking telescope that gives a great explanation of how the lenses work to magnify distant objects.  Finally, pirates must love the water, and your little pirate will absolutely love making his own ocean in a bottle.

So smartly get yerself ready to be a pirate, or the youngsters may send you to Davy Jones' Locker!

Karissa
(Sal "One-Legged" Curnow)

All About Time

What time is it?  It's time to spring forward for Daylight Saving Time, which makes it the perfect time for some lessons all about time.  For many children, telling time is a milestone on their way to becoming more independent.  There are steps you can take to help even children too young to really tell time get a little closer to that milestone.  One step is to use a clock that chimes on the hour.  Chances are your child will notice a pattern on his own.  This will give you the opportunity to talk about time and introduce the concept that time can be measured.  Another step, which I used regularly with my sons when they were little, is to post a practice clock beside our wall clock.  Set the time on the practice clock to whatever time something important would happen (such as bedtime, time for a friend to come over, etc.).  Instead of asking if it's time yet, they can simply compare the two clocks to see if they match.  Even though they can't actually tell time yet, it gives them a sense of independence (and minimizes their asking, "Is it time yet?"  If you don't have a practice clock, here is a free one I posted last fall.

For children old enough to start learning to tell time, I have found a nice collection of lesson plans.  The general idea is to start with telling time to the hour.  Then practice telling time to the half-hour, quarter-hour, five minutes, and finally to the minute.  Here are links to some ready-made lesson plans from Teachers.net, Teach-nology, and Lesson Corner.

Children are inquisitive creatures, so you are bound to get questions about time.  I can't tell you how many times over the years my children have come up with questions that I just didn't know how to answer.  Keeping that in mind, I tried to anticipate some of the questions you might hear when talking about time.  I found a concise summary of the history of telling time on ThinkQuest.org.  Time for Time offers a more in-depth look at the history of time.  For visual learners, BritishMuseum.org has a video covering the history of telling time.

Once children have learned to tell time, they can move on to other lessons involving time, such as understanding time zones and Daylight Saving Time.  World Time Zone has pages for time zone maps, Daylight Saving Time, a sun clock, and more.  Both Time & Date, and About's Geography site tell the history of how time zones came to be.  If you are looking for information about Daylight Saving Time, visit either WebExhibits.org or DaylightSavingTime.com.  

I know this is a lot of information.  It may take some time to get through it all.  ;-)  And by the way, don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed tonight.

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: The Art of African Masks

A Pende mask (or is it Yoda?)

Whether your children are home schooled, virtually schooled, or attend a traditional school parents tend to teach their children about art at home.  It is a great way to teach them about history and culture while sparking their creativity and imagination.  Each year in art class my daughter has had some sort of lesson about masks, usually when the class is learning about symmetry.  This year the lesson directed her to a website called ArtyFactory. She learned all about African Masks; the purpose of the masks and the materials used to make them, in addition to learning about the elements of art built into the design of the masks.  Being a Star Wars fanatic, she had fun deciding which Star Wars characters could have been inspired by the examples of African Masks displayed on the website.  ArtyFactory also has lessons about Egyptian art, drawing & painting lessons, lessons on graphic design, and information on art history & appreciation.  Visit ArtyFactory and turn a stuck-in-the-house, nothing-to-do day into an educational and creative art day.

Karissa

Presidents' Day Fun and Activities

Monday is Presidents' Day (and my birthday) and most students have the day off.  All too often holidays are taken for granted as simply a day off.  We don't take the time to ponder why the day is special, let alone do anything to celebrate it.  I've done some research on our presidents recently, and the first thing I can tell you is that there is a ton of information out there.  I research a lot of topics.  I'm always looking something up.  Usually, I search through page after page of results before I find enough information to satisfy me.  This time, however, I found great resources right on the first page of my search results, and even more on the pages that followed.  So, this year, take advantage of the extra time with your little ones and spend some time exploring the lives of the our presidents.


Biographical Information
The Internet Public Library (IPL2) has links to biographies, historical documents, audio & video files, and other presidential sites are also included.

The Biography channel's website has full episodes, mini biography videos and more biographical information about all 44 presidents.

The PBS series American Experience has 33 hours of streaming documentaries on 8 20th century presidents, biographies of every U.S. President, original interviews, articles, photo galleries, timelines and extensive teacher guides.

Songs

YouTube has a couple fun versions of songs to help teach the names of the presidents in order, one set to the tune of Yankee Doodle, and the other by the Animaniacs.  Please note that these songs are a little old; the Yankee Doodle song ends with George W. Bush, and the Animaniacs' song ends with Bill Clinton.


Games
Learning Games for Kids has a collection of presidential online games including word searches and a hangman style game.

Primary Games has a few president-themed puzzle games.

Activities
Enchanted learning has a 2 pages full of crafts and printables, and historical information.

Family Education created a whole page of crafts, activities, printables, and crossword puzzles about our presidents.

Lesson Ideas
Scholastic's teacher website includes everything you need from lesson plans to activities & games to help students learn about past presidents and develop leadership skills.

The Home School Mom is offering 2 free presidential notebooking units.

Extras
Family Education has put together a 10 question quiz about presidential blooper and blunders, and slideshows about presidential pets, and first kids.

The History Channel has nearly 50 short video clips about the presidents.

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has a mystery for kids to solve involving a portrait of George Washington.

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: Remembering Frederick Douglass

The month of February holds the birthdays of three men who were integral in shaping our young country; George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass.  We will study Presidents Washington and Lincoln more this weekend for Presidents' Day, but for this week's Mid-week Morsel I want to acknowledge Frederick Douglass.  Though he didn't know his actual date of birth, he celebrated it on February 14th.  He was an inspirational American who escaped from slavery and dedicated his life to freedom and equality for all people.  Having taught himself to read and write, he published an anti-slavery newspaper, was an eloquent lecturer on the topics of women's rights and the abolishment of slavery, and wrote three auto-biographies.  This week, get inspired by listening to a reading of Douglass' story My Escape From Slavery and by reading his third auto-biography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass: From 1817-1882.

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: Warfare by Duct Tape!

As a continuation of last week's theme, this week's slice of the good life has more home made fun for children.  A few years ago I found the website, Warfare by Duct Tape.  I loved it!  What could make little (and big) boys happier than weapons and duct tape!  It is run by two creative and enterprising brothers who have created how-to ebooks on making your own duct tape weapons.  The ebooks are available for purchase from their website and also on CurrClick.  Normally I only recommend resources that are free, however I feel that if you have a child who is interested in historical arms and armament, then these ebooks are well worth the price.  Also, if you'd like a sneak peek, they offer a free Throwing Axe booklet as a sample of what you'll find in the ebooks for sale.