The making of a shepherd costume

I actually dug out the sewing machine and made the shepherd costume for the nativity play, which oddly is an experience I have felt cheated of before. Previous schools and nurseries have provided suitable garb for plays my daughter was in, and I suppose it makes sense. Some parents might not have the time or inclination to make costumes, and bought ones look strange intermingled with the homemade. If the school provides, then no-one forgets their costume or writes in complaining that they had to make one.

But it's something I have a strange yearning to do, even though my skills are not great. I remember my mum having to make a policeman's outfit for me and rolling her eyes a lot, and I guess I aspire to that. With less of the eye-rolling.

Anyway, I made the costume from a pillow-case and old sheet. In case you couldn't tell.

The pillow-case I snipped in half, and then hemmed along the edges to create the head-cover, as I had no suitable tea-towels for the purpose.

The sheet was a small one from a cot-bed, and I folded it in half and cut out a simple robe shape, with the fold at the top, thus making both front and back at the same time. I then stitched along the outsides.

Spot the mistake!

I realised afterwards that my time-saving/sewing-avoiding idea of using the material doubled up, simply made it much much harder to do the neckline. I would have been better cutting out the two sides altogether, instead of leaving them joined at the top in the humorous belief that this would save me a bit of sewing. The seaming of the neck problem never occurred to me until I thought, "Ooh, I've just about finished.. Hang on, where's his head going to come out?" However, I cut a slit in the top edge for his head, and because it was too gappy when worn, put in a couple of pieces of velcro to make it more snug. This worked reasonably well and certainly did fine for a one-off costume.

Heh, I never pretended to any skills in the clothes-making department, I just wanted to have a go, and frankly I wouldn't dream of learning other than by trial and error. Patterns, preparation, knowing what the hell you're doing: I scoff at such notions!

And well, it turned out rather well, for a "hey let's just chop and sew and see what happens" thing from a person who but rarely, but rarely touches a sewing machine. Passable. It passes muster, mister.

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