Gold Rush!

Friday was the 4th Grade Gold Rush Day! It's a day of gold-rush themed activities such as panning for gold, playing with hoops and sticks, building clipper ships from tin foil, all intended to reinforce the history that the 4th grade have been studying.

Both the children and parent volunteers are encouraged to dress up, and you know that I never need asking twice to put on a costume. Actually I think since I was a girl I have always wanted a "Little House on the Prarie" outfit so it was the ideal opportunity to make one.

This is McCalls pattern #9423 and is intended to be a wrapper or prarie dress - the sort of dress you would wear to do your housework rather than go into town. I used some lightweight cotton print for the dress and some Kaffe Fasset shot cotton for the bonnet.



I found wearing the bonnet all day rather a strange experience as I had almost no peripheral vision and felt like the children were suddenly appearing out of nowhere. I chickened out of making the petticoats and bloomers for fear that it would be too hot.

I spent the morning talking to the children about clipper ships and their role in the development of California, the whole of 4th grade rotated through each station so it was fun to see all Adam's friends show up in turn.




Of course I also made Adam a costume:



This tunic is Butterick Historic pattern number #B4486, although I simplified the sleeves to a simple t-shape rather than a gathered sleeve. I used the leftover cotton/linen mix from the study curtains - which seemed sufficiently rustic for the purpose.