A Summer Frock for Benjamin

It looks like we will be going to Gettysburg this summer. For real! I'm so excited! (huge understatement!) We will be there for at least 3 days so the kidlets will need extra clothes. It will be during the hottest part of summer so cool things are a must.

Drawing on my past experiences with my oldest three, I don't need multiples of everything. Back then, I thought I did. A full chemise/petticoat/drawers/dress/pinafore set for each day. That translated into a lot of stress, a lot of sewing and a lot of laundry. And that was just three kids.

This time around I'm thinking a set of the skin touching layer of undergarments per person per day, (for the littles, this means drawers and a shirt and for the boys, a regular shirt) and one extra outerwear item (dress or pinafore, or trousers) per person. This will cut down on a lot of stuff to haul and makes my pre trip sewing list doable.

This week I worked on making a new basic bodice pattern for Benjamin. He is almost three so he is at an age where dresses are still the most likely thing to wear, but he could be moving into shorter frocks/tunics and little trousers if he wanted to. I recently tried on last years dress and he reacted pretty negatively. He's extremely vocal and definitely opinionated about his clothes! (In real life, it's gotta have a tractor, car, or Thomas the Train on it to be worthy of being worn.) ;)

A basic bodice pattern is so useful to have for each child. For Benjamin this can be made into a tunic by adding short skirts and sleeves of whatever style he likes. It can be made into a dress. It can work as a base for outerwear. It can be used in the future for a different child if I label it with the approximate modern size its made to.

I decided to bring up dresses one last time since any dresses that fit Benjamin this year can be worn by Rose next year. I used a different term this time; "Frock". He was cool with that. He picked out some grey striped cotton shirting I recently got and we made up a test of his bodice pattern as a dress. Today he got to try it on and I think he likes it!

The shirting is really lightweight so will be absolutely wonderful for wear at Gettysburg! It's light and breezy and cool. It fits him well right now so my only fear is that he will outgrow it before then. (At a recent doctor visit it was confirmed that yes, he has grown three inches since late last fall!)

Malachi solemnly bequeathed his red cap to Benjamin a few weeks ago. Although its a bit big, Benjamin is very happy with it as it makes him feel like he is one of the big boys.

I think he looks adorable and am glad that he is going to wear dresses this year - I'm not quite ready for him to grow up! What a funny, delightful little fellow he is!