My son’s dream has come true…at least one of them.
He now has a second Lafayette coat that is more accurate than the first.
However, it is still a costume, but at least it looks better despite my cheats.
Shadowing me all week, he has been looking over my shoulder to make corrections, suggestions, and requests.
Even when I made his first coat a year ago, he had wanted it to look exactly like the one the Colonial Williamsburg Lafayette wears but I had no historical patterns and only pictures to go by…and three days in which to sew it.
Never did I dream that we would move to Northern Virginia, and he’d be walking the streets of the CW historic area in this costume.
Growing five inches this year, my son quickly outgrew his Yorktown boy costume, so he wore his larger Lafayette coat.
However he soon wanted a more accurate coat.
With winter coming, I wanted him to have something warmer than a cotton costume.
So like any frugal mom, I sewed him a felt Lafayette coat!
Using a historic pattern to create the base, I did a lot of research and photo analysis to try to create the proper look.
Although disappointed it wasn’t completely historically accurate, he was elated to have a coat that looked closer to accurate.
He will be ready to debut at Grand Illumination in Colonial Williamsburg.
Despite being a costume, I hope he has fun in it!
Epilogue
We never thought to take a picture of him in the Lafayette costume because he was always wearing the black cloak to stay warm.
For more photos check my Flickr set.
