My Little Orphan Annie . . .



Emily Ann as
Little Orphan Annie

Emily showing off her
"Annie Attitude"

Amazing how time flies! 

I recently received a few requests to make Little Orphan Annie costumes for Halloween based off the pictures of my Emily on my website. It feels like just yesterday I was making that Annie costume for Emily. 

Now when I look at the pictures she seems like a totally different little girl.  The same spunk and fire!  But more grown-up.  Hard to beleive she was ever this little - but she made the PERFECT  Little Orphan Annie! 

It's going to be fun to see the costume on some new little girls - can't wait for Halloween!





Sully Plantation - Emily's Dress

Emily has graciously permitted me to dress her up for this event. (I had to bribe her with an entire pack of gum!)

Her dress and drawers were made using the Elizabeth Stewart Clark pattern. I chose the open sleeves because I knew it would be a hot event and because I know Emily hates anything tight on her. The fabric was a 100% cotton homespun with ivory background and green, blue and burgundy woven plaid. Her apron is a pale green cotton calico with small "dot" print in ivory. It is a large chemise type apron gathered about the neck. It makes great coverage and could be used for a boy or a girl - but in the end I think it was a little wasteful to use so much fabric for this. The upside surely is that there are virtually no cuts in the fabric and it could be cut down in future for baby dresses.

About an hour into the event, the heat had totally overwhelmed Emily. She had already eaten two ice creams and stood under the water spritzer three times. We removed the apron and eventually the dress down to her chimie by the time we were on our way home. Good girl Emily!

Emily with wooden toy and bean bag

Good view of Emily's long, lace-edged drawers

Renton and Emily eating icecream (couldn't resist this picture)

Back view of dress (button closure)

Emily "Holding Down the Fort"

Disclaimer: (Emily's Hair) While many young girl's wore their hair chin length in the Victorian era, longer hair was also quite common and in the 1860s girls NEVER wore bangs. Hair was parted in the middle and often pulled back with a pretty ribbon, hairnet or other method. Often the middle part was the only way to tell little girls apart from their skirt wearing little brothers (whose hair was parted on the side). HOWEVER, it is like pulling teeth to put these clothes on my firely little Emily, who also detests anything being put in her hair let alone it being parted in the middle and pulled back. I did start with a pretty little black velvet ribbon, but I'm not sure it lasted beyond the parking lot. REALITY CHECK - not a battle I'm going to fight with a three year old in public, even in the name of authenticity.

Sully Plantation - Renton's Tunic

The tunic is made of varying shades of blue fine cotton cambric. I turned the fabric to the bias so the plaid would run on the diagonal (common for boys). It is lined in a simple blue cotton (scraps left from other projects). The short pants are made of dark royal blue cotton velvetten and are unlines. They feature two bands on the side of each leg of self fabric to match the tunic. The bands are pointed on each end and decorated with a button to match the tunic. I had velvet left over from the pants and made an extra bolero jacket for Renton, too. (Not pictured) Renton is wearing a separate white cotton shirt under the jacket. The jacket could also be worn without the shirt, with just an undershirt on which the short pants would be buttoned.

If you look closely, you can see the shadow of Renton's sleeveless, batteau cut undershirt. His underdrawers would have been buttoned to this, but because of the extreme heat we opted to go without. The undershirt still served to keep Renton's outer shirt free from the sweat. When we were getting ready to go home, I removed his outer shirt and buttoned his pants to the undershirt so he could be as cool as possible.

The pants were made following the Elizabeth Stewart Clark pattern. They are nice and roomy and made up very easily. I wanted short pants, so I chose the shortest option (did not add any additional "leggings" before cutting).

Full length view of plaid tunic and velvet short pants

Close-up of Shirt

Short pants buttoned to shirt

Disclaimer #1 (Renton's Hair) - While there is much exigent documentation to show very short hair on boys during the Victorian era, most wore their hair longer (often curly) and always parted on the side. In fact, the side part on very young boys still in skirts was often the only thing that distinguished them from their female counterparts of the same age.

Disclaimer #2 (Renton's Boots) - The zip laces on Renton's boots are not accurate for this period. HOWEVER, when you are outfitting (on a budget) quickly growing children with footwear that they will not wear anywhere or anytime else, you get what you can. :)

Victorian Suit

Emily (1yr old) and Peter at Cedar Creek (or was it Anteitam?) , 2007

Don't you love the plastic bottle and the cars in the background? Very authentic, no?

This was the first outfit I made for Peter in the hopes that he would dress out with me for an event (This was the only one he's dressed up for - 2 years ago!). I use the Buckaroo Bobbins coat, trousers and vest pattern. The shirt (I think) was a Past Patterns, but may also have been the Buckaroo Bobbins (I had it in my collection for a while).

From my memory, the patterns all worked up very nicely. I definitely suggest using all the interfacing and padding as the pattern suggests (or did I get this from another book?). It really helps with the shaping. I find that the coat patterns can often run narrow in the shoulders and across the chest - this is a great place to use a muslin mock up first.

The shirt was collarless and I didn't have time to make a collar, so Peter is wearing a black silk cravat loosely tied. That and his big "gambler's" hat make him look more Wild West than Civil War, but the look is still accurate according to my research.

I have just made him a collar (again from Buckaroo Bobbins). The collar was very easy to make. It called for interfacing, but since I didn't have any available at 2am when I was sewing, I just put an extra layer of white cotton muslin in -worked perfectly.

Front of collar with black cotton "tie"

This is a fold-down style collar I see a lot in pictures. I'd like to add a wing tip or stand up collar as well for a different look.

Back center with button hole. The small pearl button is attached to the shirt and the collar buttons on here so it does not "ride" up.

Now it's all ready for the next time he'll dress up and come out with us. . . .

New Market

Just to get the "flavor" out there, I'll include a few recent pictures of me and the kids (Renton, Emily and Micky). . . .

The fuschia dress, alas, I did not make although the idea of it has been in my head for years. It was a stunning creation by Anna Allen (of The Graceful Lady). I made Emily's dress and underthings, and the apron is an original.

This is Micky in an original white gown. He looks like the little angel he is here. (And, yes, I know the buggy is too late for this time period. (New mother's will hopefully sympathize - sometimes you just gotta make due the best you can :)

Renton's outfit was his first out of a tunic - I was/am not thrilled with it. My original plan was nickers, vest and jacket based on an original pattern. However, I ran out of fabric (as usually happens when I am creating from scraps at 2am). So the vest became the jacket with the addition of sleeves. The result is that the armholes are too vertical, the neckline is too low and the front closure isn't really right for a jacket.

In the end, I still prefer the tunic style for Renton anyway and will probably make another one for him this summer - one of my many projects!

Our shoes after New Market. Just couldn't resist - this is such a funny picture. It was soooo muddy! I thougt I had ruined my new silk dress. Tried to wash it by hand and almost did ruin it (watered silk was not the look I was going for). But took it to the drycleaners and it came right back to it's original look - whew!