From the Vault

My parents made me thin out my collection of artwork in my bedroom last weekend, but they said I could take some pictures of things.  So here are a few things I've made in the past that had to go away.  I made these when I was about seven or eight.

This is my A-Frame where I was trying out different architectural styles to see what would hold the most weight for a catapult.

This is my sculpture of one of the terracotta soldiers from the Chinese emperor's tomb.

This is my Viking ship and it's oars.

This is my Chinese calligraphy mat.  It rolls up.

Revolutionary War : Patriot and Regular

 Patriot Costume 

Supplies :

• one blue jacket
• two black shoes
• two long white socks
• one white button down shirt
• one white button down vest
• one set of foot ball pants
• one leather or felt tricorn
• one powder horn 
• one cartridge bag
• one bayonet

Directions :

• scavenge the yard sales and thrift stores for as many of the above pieces as possible.  it's a lot easier to make a good costume if you already have the basics, but don't pay a lot for them.  mom can usually find stuff for a quarter or fifty cents.  she says it's worth her time not to start from scratch!  for this project, we found the jacket, vest, and football pants for about fifty cents each.  we found the socks in dad's drawer, and i had shoes and a shirt from church clothes.
• we got our tricorns in Boston and powder horns at Fort Ticonderoga, and we made our own muskets, cartridge bags, and bayonets.  mom sews a lot, but dad can make anything in the garage!  
• on another post, i'm going to show you how we made our muskets.
• on the jacket, we sewed on lots of star buttons and pulled up the sides to make them triangles, with more star buttons at the points.  that was the only change we made to the pieces of clothing we bought.  then we put it all together for a patriot costume.  

British Regular Soldier Costume  

Supplies :                                

• one red jacket
• two black shoes
• two long white socks
• one white button down shirt
• one leather or felt tricorn
• football pants (they make good breeches)
• one powder horn 
• one cartridge bag
• one bayonet & musket

 Directions :

• scavenge the yard sales and thrift stores for as many of the above pieces as possible.  it's a lot easier to make a good costume if you already have the basics, but don't pay a lot for them.  mom can usually find stuff for a quarter or fifty cents.  she says it's worth her time not to start from scratch!  for this project, we found the jacket and football pants for about fifty cents each.  we found the socks in dad's drawer, and i had shoes and a shirt from church clothes.
• we got our tricorns in Boston and powder horns at Fort Ticonderoga, and we made our own muskets, cartridge bags, and bayonets.  mom sews a lot, but dad can make anything in the garage!  
• on another post, i'm going to show you how we made our muskets.
• on the jacket, we sewed on lots of eagle & military-looking buttons and mom pulled in the back about four inches to make it fit my brother.  the cool thing about that was that it gave the back the flared out pieces like a real uniform.  that was the only change we made to the pieces of clothing we bought.  then we put it all together for a regular costume.