Think, Julie Andrews

Our school’s fourth grade is by far the best grade ever! They study Medieval history during the last quarter, topping it off with a grand Medieval Feast, in full costume (is you would like).

Needless to say, my daughter and I are thrilled at the prospect of dressing up, and my husband and son are willingly going along.

I have learned that buying costumes online can be very risky – I bought a Christopher Columbus costume for my son a few months back for a research project presentation, and ordered a size that sounded like it would be a bit too large, but they were out of the size that he supposedly needed. Well, when the costume came, it barely even fit him. It was a bit small, but we managed to squeeze him in, and since it was just for one afternoon, it was alright. I didn’t pay much for it, and you could tell by the flimsy fabric.

So for the Feast, I decided to sew. But as anyone who sews knows, that is not the cheap way to go, unless you happen to find a really good deal, or are able to buy a little at a time with weekly coupons. I do have two months to get ready, but didn’t have the patience for those options, so decided to look around the house.

Curtains! Several years ago I bought some curtains that I was going to alter in an effort to save money. Well, after years of starting and stopping the project, so I would never know where I was in it, and then would mess things up, and just wasn’t getting it done, and the family really wanted curtains on several of the windows to block the sun that reflected on the TV making it impossible to watch at certain times of the day, I finally gave up and bought curtains that didn’t need altering.

This left me with a bunch of cut up curtain panels stacked neatly in my craft closet. Deep brown and reddish curtain panels with brocadish patterns. Yards and yards. Hmmmm. Cue music for, “These are a few of my favorite things.”

The fabric is much too heavy for my kids to wear, so I splurged on new for them. But my husband and I will be wearing old curtains.