I was working on the World’s Heaviest Tree Skirt recently, when my son presented me with an alternate project. He is reading the book Killer Angels in English, and his group needs to re-enact the battle of Gettysburg from the Civil War. With props. And costumes. Son Mark is in charge of the army costumes. This type of thing used to strike terror in my heart, before I started working here at C&T and became inspired by the creativity around me.
5 generals costumes. We check the internet for pictures. We make a quick run to Goodwill and buy 5 grayish men’s blazers. A trip to the fabric store turned up yards of yellow fabric on sale for the jacket cuffs and trim.
Problem. Updated team meeting mandates that some of the generals need to be in the Union army. We return to Goodwill and convince the Manager to exchange some gray blazers for blue. We go back to the fabric store for gray fabric on sale for jacket cuffs and trim. Found gold felt also, and lots of Wonder-Under. He starts by cutting out lots and lots of gold felt “buttons” to be glued on the front of the jackets. Ok, under control.
He also needs hats for the enlisted soldiers in a “slouch hat” style as shown on the internet. How to make a stiff flat top with sagging sides and a bill? Thank goodness for fast2fuse! I have tons of gray felt in my stash, originally to be used in the World’s Heaviest Tree Skirt, which is great, since the whole class needs to participate, and we need 25. Well, another updated team meeting mandates that half of the participants need to be in the Union army, so we go back to the fabric store for blue felt. Mark starts cutting the fast2fuse shapes with my rotary cutter. Fingers intact. Moves on to felt shapes for the hats. Fingers still intact. We tried hot gluing the sides of the hat to the top, but glue ended up all over the place. We had better results with fabric glue. Hats look ok.
He’s moving along on this project. Luckily, the project was NOT due the first day after winter vacation and we have a little more time. There was a day of panic when the teacher announced the project might be due in 3 days. Luckily, she pushed it back. You’ll find us with our fast2fuse every evening this week chipping away at the hats and generals costumes.
Best wishes.
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One Comment
Ha–this is a great story! Send us a photo of the “armies” in full regalia when they’re ready to join battle!