My nephew, Reuben, celebrated his birthday a week ago with a costume party (or as they say here "fancy dress" party). Sarah and I went as a cowgirls and Mariah went as a pirate princess. Turns out, the adults weren't supposed to dress up. Oops...(cricket's chirping, awkwardness, etc) But oh well, the kids thought that we were hilarious, so that's good, I guess.

We decided sort of last minute to go, so I was desperately scrounging up this outfit for Mariah. I have to admit, though, that it was rather fun to do. I started with the stripy tights and the red head scarf and went from there. The white jaggy under skirt was from an old tank top that I was going to throw away. I cut up the bottom to make it look pirate-y and ragged. They belt is an old broken one of mine that I had saved (thank you grandma for teaching me to save everything in case I "might need it someday" and yes, I wash plastic "CoolWhip" containers). Anyway, back to the belt...I poked a new hole in it and cut it to fit her pudgy little middle.

The vest is cut from some scrap material and ironed to look like it has a collar. The whole thing required no sewing at all. It's amazing what you can throw together from stuff around the house. I totally thought this was fun...Mariah was wonderfully tolerant of it all.

Such a darling pirate princess. Love her to pieces!

Argh!