DIY Crochet Filipiniana Costume

The first quarter of the schoolyear is almost over, it's exams week plus one final presentation. I think I may have put too much pressure on me and my daughter because I was too worried that we may be a little behind on the lessons when we started, we ended up finishing the lessons for the first quarter 3 weeks early. We have moved on to the next lessons for the second quarter while waiting for our exams to be sent by the school. We're still also waiting on the lesson plans but I understand it's still a bit early to expect that.

While waiting on things, my daughter and I kept ourselves busy with learning new things. I let her have a break from school stuff but since we've already established the habit of studying, she still grabs a book from our mini library when it's study time. It helps that we have a lot of kiddie activity workbooks, coloring books, and lots of art stuff.

The Script

It's a good thing the little human became busy for a bit, I was able to work on her costume for her UN Celebration presentation. We were informed last October 11 that the online presentation will be on October 23. This meant that I have less than 2 weeks to produce a costume for the country we'll be choosing. To be honest, we originally chose the Philippines as our country to force her into speaking Tagalog. I can see she's been trying to learn how to converse in Tagalog she's been actively asking what the Tagalog term of a lot of English words. She then would try to repeat every word she learns. We ended up having an English script for her presentation. Well, she's five, she tried, we'll get there. Baby steps.

We had the option to present live on the day itself or to send a video presentation prior. Because of the costume and the materials we selected for the costume, presenting live is not an option. Especially seeing how she was on the last online presentation the school had, I'm sure her costume will be ruined by the time she gets her turn to present. We were given a 2 minute limit for our video presentation. With all the beauty in the Philippines, we only selected those that she will be able to happily present.

The Costume

The requirement was for the costume to be DIY and made of recycled materials. I could easily just have made an entire costume made of recycled papers - which we have a surplus of - but I chose to make a crochet filipiniana bolero. It's been a long time since I wanted to make something different for my daughter. I've always wondered how a Filipiniana sleeve is done so I watched a video on youtube. Now, all I have to do is to translate the fabric into crochet.

I worked on the sleeves first because I'm really very much excited about them. It took an all-nighter to finish both sleeves. Originally, I wanted to make the sleeves detachable so that they could be used for other outfits. After seeing them though, I decided on making them permanently attached to the entire top.

To complete the crochet Filipiniana bolero, I created a granny rectangle. A new kind of stitch I learned from one of the books I bought from the Big Bad Wolf sale a couple of months ago. This is one of the projects where I know the end product I want but I did not give that much thought as to the specifics. Finishing this project quickly is of the essence, I did take it one step at a time though, basically since I'm not sure exactly what to do next.

As soon as I finished the back part, the front flaps were pretty much straightforward. Just triangle flaps made of double crochets crisscrossing in front. I knew I wanted to make the crochet filipiniana bolero to look elegant so I added a little detail on the edging. I found this pattern on the internet. I thought it was complicated and I thought it would take more time than I need. Then again, I put more pressure to myself than I really should. Lately it feels like I am stressing myself out more than I really should. But I figure I accomplish more by doing this so I guess, at a safe limit, I can keep doing this to myself since I complete more task effectively.

The skirt is made up of recycled papers. My daughter loves drawing and doodling a lot, we piled up a lot of papers over time. There's a tier by tier system of storing her doodles and arts. Some make it to the wall, some to the clearbook, then some to the pile of papers that she does not want me to throw away because of sentimental reasons. The only way she'd let me throw away all her discarded trial and error art is if I could trick her into making it into another art project. And we did so for her UN Celebration presentation.

A Filipiniana costume will not be complete without the native fan that women back in the day always have on hand. I bought a pack of drinking straw before, I couldn't really remember why. I used the straws and formed them into a fan. Then added some leftover ribbons from my stash. And that completes my daughter's presentation for their UN celebration.

Image sources:

Boracay
Mt. Apo
Pahiyas

Music:
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_{@romeskie is a full-time stay-at-home mom to a homeschooling toddler. Loves crocheting as a hobby. Maintains a mini food forest, aiming to grow more to achieve that farm-to-table homesteading. Learned how to cook after leaving the corporate world to take care of her family and is now starting to acquire basic baking skills. Learn more about her adventures and misadventures in the world of motherhood.
Connect with her through her Facebook Page: The Leftie Crocheter and on Instagram. Feel free to subscribe to her Youtube Channel: The Leftie Crocheter}