Little House on the Prairie Dressing Up Clothes

One of the most magical parts of a Little House on the Prairie Unit Study is bringing history off the page and into your children’s hands. Few things do this better than Prairie Dressing Up Clothes, not just wearing costumes, but understanding why people dressed the way they did and how resourceful pioneer families had to be.

When we began our own prairie dress-up project, I faced a familiar homeschool dilemma:
I could have made everything from scratch… but I also wanted to protect my energy, my time, and my budget. At the same time, I didn’t want to rely on store-bought costumes that lacked authenticity or heart.

So I found a middle ground, one that turned out to be far more meaningful than I expected.

Catch Up! If you haven’t read all about our first week on the prairie, I would encourage you to go and read my Little House in the Big woods post. This covers everything we did from making nightdresses, to prairie cooking and making button strings. It also gives you a good idea of everything we achieved with our own little house on the prairie renovations!

Prairie Dressing Up Clothes on a Budget: A Pioneer-Style Compromise

Rather than buying new materials, I started where the pioneers themselves would have: with what we already had.

I went through:

• A basket of mending (including clothes ripped beyond saving)
• Old aprons
• Worn dresses
• A pair of unused curtains
• Clothing handed down from older siblings

Using these items, I pinned, sewed, trimmed, and altered until each child had something that felt right for the prairie era. The only items I purchased were bonnets at £2.39 each. This brought the total cost of all our Prairie Dressing Up Clothes to under £10.

The results were practical, charming, and, most importantly, beloved by the children.

Check out week two! Last week we focused on Farmer Boy. This is the second book in the Little House on the Prairie book set. During the week we did lots of prairie cooking (hasty pudding, making a sour dough starter and some prairie bread) and also made some button lamps, a prairie ladder, and some peg hooks. Gary and the little ones did some gardening in our prairie garden and we tried to make some more of our rag rug.

Our Little House on the Prairie Dressing Up Clothes

Mrs. Ingalls

Lillie’s outfit was the easiest to assemble. I already owned a prairie-style shirt and an apron. We had also been given a large, semi-transparent white skirt. By pulling the waistband in significantly, I was able to:

• Make it fit properly
• Increase the folds
• Reduce how see-through it was

A perfect example of how function guided pioneer clothing choices.

Mary Ingalls

Charlotte’s costume was a favourite. Her top was already her own. The skirt began life as a dress, I removed the straps and formed a new waistband using the top portion. Her apron came from one panel of an old curtain, with apron ties salvaged from my own worn aprons.

This outfit sparked some wonderful discussions about modesty, simplicity, and careful handiwork.

Laura Ingalls

Abigail wore her own top, paired with a dress originally made for a 9–10-year-old. I altered it to fit her, and her apron came from the second curtain panel (a lovely bit of sibling symmetry). Aside from shortening the length and adding ties, it remained mostly unchanged, just as a pioneer mother might have done.

Carrie Ingalls

Becca’s outfit may have been my favourite. The dress and top once belonged to Abigail. Her apron was made from a reconditioned adult waist apron:

• I shortened the waist ties so it could fasten at the back
• The trimmed pieces were sewn onto the top as neck ties

It turned out better than I imagined, and Becca absolutely loved it, which felt like the truest measure of success.

Check out week three! We focused on The Little House on the Prairie. This is the third book in the Little House on the Prairie book set. During the week we did some of prairie cooking (soda biscuits) and also made some curtains, hay sticks and a hammock net. Gary and the little ones did some gardening in our prairie garden and we tried to make some more of our rag rug.

Why Prairie Dressing Up Clothes Matters in a Unit Study

Little House on the Prairie: Dressing Up Clothes isn’t just a craft, it’s a history lesson, a life skills lesson, and a character lesson all rolled into one.

Through this project, children naturally explore:

• Resourcefulness and thrift
• Family cooperation
• Clothing as protection, not fashion
• How age and gender influenced dress
• The value of mending instead of replacing

And best of all, they live the lesson rather than memorizing it.

Week four we focused on ‘On the Banks of Plum Creek’ and the children learnt about herbal medicine, stained a rocking chair for the corner of the house, made some baskets and began a productive Little House vegetable garden. And lastly, we made some home-made yogurt and a blueberry pie.

Hands-On Activities to Extend the Lesson

Here are some simple, meaningful activities to pair with your Prairie Dressing Up Clothes experience:

🧵 Practical Life Skills

• Teach basic hand-stitching (running stitch, backstitch)
• Practice sewing on a button or mending a tear
• Compare hand sewing to modern machines

🧺 History & Daily Life

• Have children wash a small garment by hand
• Try hanging clothes to dry outdoors
• Iron with a modern iron while discussing flat irons of the past

📖 Literature Connection

• Re-read scenes in Little House on the Prairie that describe clothing
• Act out a chapter while wearing the Dressing Up Clothes
• Illustrate favorite outfits from the book

🧮 Math & Economics

• Calculate the cost of making vs. buying costumes
• Discuss budgeting then and now
• Weigh fabric scraps to estimate material use

During week six, we focused on By the Shores of the Silver Lake. We made signs for over the front door and inside the cottage, wove our own baskets, Thomas began building a stove for the cottage, made some molasses popcorn balls and a very tasty prairie chicken with home grown green beans.

Reflection Questions for Your Homeschool

Use these at the end of your lesson or during a quiet read-aloud time:

1. Why do you think pioneer families reused clothing so often?
2. How would your daily life change if you only had two outfits?
3. What skills did children need to learn at a young age on the prairie?
4. How does making or mending clothes help a family work together?
5. What modern conveniences make clothing easier today?

Encourage narration, journaling, or oral discussion, whatever best suits your homeschool style.

Last week, our focus was on The Long Winter. We made this tea towel and dish cloth (I’m posting about them a bit later), did some prairie cooking and made butter, bread, and jam. Thomas also completed the Little House stove and Lillie made a table cloth.

Final Thoughts on Prairie Dressing Up Clothes

This Little House on the Prairie Unit Study reminded me that meaningful homeschool moments don’t come from perfection, they come from intention. Prairie Dressing Up doesn’t require elaborate sewing skills or expensive supplies. It simply asks us to slow down, use what we have, and invite our children into the story.

And honestly? Seeing them twirl in their handmade Prairie Dressing Up Clothes, fully immersed in pioneer life, made every pinned hem worth it.