Ancient Mongolia??

Like most mothers who have put a child through primary school I am used to requests for costumes. This year my ingenuity has been tested by a Victorian outfit and a costume inspired by art for DS. However I was completely stymied when DD came home from Guides claiming she needed an ancient Mongolian costume for camp! She is off to a large Scout and Guide camp; each section of which is named after an ancient civilization.

When I had recovered the power of speech, my initial reaction was "No, you have got to be joking!" followed by "Why couldn't we get Rome?". An internet search revealed that ancient Mongolians favoured heavily embroidered, brightly coloured tunics. My mood was not improved, but eventually I decided to give it a shot and trawl the charity shops for inspiration. Surprisingly quickly I found a double duvet cover which had an embroidery inspired print:

Before!

I have blogged before about conquering my fear of sewing machines. I would now call it a mild anxiety as opposed to a full-on dread, thanks mainly to the encouragement of other bloggers. I can now thread it and sew in a straight line. This is Major Progress in my world!

Fortunately I only needed to produce a shapeless tunic. I created a pattern by the crude method of lying DD on the duvet and drawing around her. Not a method I've seen on the Great British Sewing Bee, but I wasn't going to spend hours faffing with a tape measure, thank you very much!  The only difficult part of the actual sewing was the neck-line, and I remembered enough of my needlework lessons to negotiate that one.

After!

Quite what it will look like after being in DD's camp bag for a week is anyone's guess. Ancient Mongolians didn't have steam irons so she will look authentically creased!