World Book Day Costumes

Our school is one of those enthusiastic ones that goes in for fancy dress on World Book Day. Now, I know the cool parent response is to roll my eyes at being asked to come up with an outfit, but the fact is, I *love* making costumes, although having been a working parent I appreciate that finding time to do it is always an issue.

And never forget that you can get canny and develop a range of 'costumes' which are basically normal clothes plus some accessories. Step forward Charlie Bucket (t-shirt and jeans plus a golden ticket) and honourable mention to Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs (t-shirt and jeans plus... well I think you can fill in the rest). Last year I'd primed youngest child to go as Little Red Riding Hoody, minimum effort from me, only to be disappointed when the school decided they weren't 'doing' WBD that year...

This year we had a theme, which was SciFi or Superheroes. Oldest is really into Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy at the moment and gave consideration to being Zaphod Beeblebrox, but this was dismissed for practical reasons of having to manage an extra head and arm during the school day. So instead we went for Han Solo, which I refuse to be apologetic about (there are Star Wars spin-off books, deal with it). Mainly though, I think he looked pretty cool. He wore his jeans with red bias binding tacked down the outside seam, with a white long-sleeve top from H&M (which I did buy specially, but he will wear again). I then made a little waistcoat from black cotton twill fabric, with a few pocket and loop details. Husband made the belt out of brown leatherette fabric and duct tape, decorated with Sharpie pens. He also made a blaster out of cardboard, and I tried not to be all liberal hand-wringing about my child playing with a toy gun.

Youngest was keen to be Catwoman, and to be honest the choices for female superheroes are a little limited, some of them are a little bit on the sexy side for a six year old. When she was younger my daughter spent quite a bit of time 'being' a character called Red Cat, so anything feline was always going to be popular. I made her a little velvet top with stand-up collar and an over-the-head mask complete with ears stiffened with cardboard. I have to confess that I mucked up the top a little. The zip was supposed to be at the back of the garment, but when Youngest tried it on it was just too tight across the shoulders (even though the velvet had a bit of stretch to it. But when we flipped it round so that the zip was at the front it was a much better fit, and even looked quite cool that way round.

I like making costumes because of the freedom it gives me to create, but also I often find I learn a new technique which helps in my other sewing. This time for example, I created my own bias binding to finish the neckline of Han's waistcoat. And Catwoman's costume taught me some useful things about accuracy in measuring and making patterns (ahem), as well as more practise with accursed zips.

And now that World Book Day is safely out of the way for another year, I can focus my efforts on sewing for ME! I've got a few projects on the go and will update soon...

Presenting Mr Wonka!

It's done, phew! Ok, so maybe a cardboard top hat of unusual size is not the most practical of headgear on a rainy day in Bristol, but we got there...

Willy Wonka

Hat: made from A2 piece of black card, lots of sellotape and swearing
Bow-tie: yellow spotty ribbon hastily stitched to a piece of elastic
Coat: purple velvet, lapels and everything, hurrah
Waistcoat: silky gold dragon fabric, made from my old dressing gown
Golden ticket: model's own

Very Hungry Caterpillar

And not wishing to be left out, youngest was happy to reuse a Very Hungry Caterpillar costume that I made a few years ago (we made a new hat together, so that cutting and sticking ain't faux naive it's just plain naive). The body bit is basically a sack with an elasticated neck and seams popped at judicious points to make arm holes. Thanks to Aunty C for coming up with the idea in the first place.

Next year I'm totally stitching gert big leaves to this costume and calling it a Beanstalk...

You can read more about creating the Wonka costume here. And Mumsnet is hosting a Blog Hop about World Book Day costumes here.

World Book Day

My son and I have a deal for World Book Day. He's just got into reading Roald Dahl, and one of his favourite books (I've read it at least 10 times mum!) is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So the deal is... I will attempt to make a Willy Wonka costume for him, but if it doesn't work or doesn't get finished in time then he can go as Charlie Bucket - which is basically your own clothes plus a golden ticket. Excellent.

Having never done any dressmaking (bar a circle skirt for a party last year), it seemed that a purple velvet tailcoat for a six year old was the perfect place to start. I made a paper pattern by drawing round the boy's school jumper, and worked out that one metre of fabric should do the job. Fabricland provided some fab velvet of just the right shade of purple. I cut out the pieces, and was even clever enough to cut out two sleeves.

Then I threaded up the trusty sewing machine with some purple thread and got going on all the seams. It was all pretty quick and dirty, as sewing a fancy dress outfit is all about what the costume looks like on the outside, for one day. Well, that's what I kept telling myself. Turns out velvet frays quite a bit, ho hum.

I re-used the jacket pattern to make a waistcoat from an old dressing gown of mine. Turns out (cheap) woven silk frays even more than velvet.

By this point I decided that velcro was the way to go for fastenings, as I'm not spending hours handcrafting buttonholes for a costume that will probably be trashed by the end of the day. As luck would have it I still had just enough left over from the Dolly Nappy.

Current state of play is that the waistcoat is finished, the coat is just waiting for final touches. When the boy gets home from school we're planning to wrestle with a large piece of black card and make a top hat. Oh and a bit of spotty ribbon has to transform itself into a bow-tie.

Only slight fly in the ointment is that youngest was sent home from preschool today with possible ear infection. Main symptoms seem to be lots of whinging/crying and clutching ears. I do so enjoy craft sessions with the accompaniment of a poorly child. Still, amazing what a dose of Calpol can achieve.*

Suddenly that Charlie Bucket costume is looking very attractive...

*other super sweet kiddie painkillers are available

Where's Wally Costume (part two)

I bet you've been on tenterhooks since the last thrilling instalment... so here is the Where's Wally costume in all its glory! Things were all going well on Thursday night, I had been in a knitting frenzy and had nearly finished the hat at my craft night round a mate's house.  I was also looking forward to a very rare child-free day on Friday with my husband; my parents were visiting and were booked in to look after the children.

But then I woke up at 5am yesterday feeling as sick as a dog, and not because of a wild party either.  So instead yesterday was spent horizontal in a darkened room with a bucket by the bed. I am so rarely ill that it was a bit of shock.

Luckily my lovely mum finished off the hat, I'd already done the bulk of it and had started the decreases, and The Boy and his dad had made an excellent pom-pom. The walking stick is also husband's work, made out of the cardboard tube from the inside of wrapping paper and LOTS of parcel tape (the man is a genius). Add in an old pair of specs with the lenses removed and the outfit is complete.

Felt much more human this morning so had time to tack up the sleeves of the t-shirt, but this project really has been a family effort. And considering that the hat was a bit of a guestimate, the sizing is just right (phew).

Where's Wally Costume

My children have been invited to a birthday party - it's fancy dress... It's also Halloween on Monday and while I am not quite convinced about the whole Trick or Treating thing, my five year old is desperately keen to go out. The Toddler is a bit of a diva and will probably refuse to wear anything apart from maybe a bit of face-paint, so I'm focussing my energies on the child that will most appreciate it.

So he would like to be Wally, from the Where's Wally books (I believe he is Waldo in the US). I am secretly pleased about this as the costume would also come in handy for World Book Day.  I have been scouring shops for a red/white striped t-shirt but no joy, and then today most serendipitously I happened to be talking about fancy dress with a friend over coffee. It so happened that she had a suitable t-shirt in a bag of stuff to go the charity shop - perfect!  It's a woman's long sleeve top so is a little big, but I'll tack up the sleeves and put a few stitches at the neck. The Boy has a new pair of jeans and from the illustrations Wally appears to be wearing blue trousers so I think we're sorted there.

Which leaves us with the hat... I've never knitted a hat before so it's a new one for me. I did think about knitting it in the round but I don't really have the right size needles. The yarn is some specially purchased 100% acrylic from the local cheapy shop, wasn't keen to use some of my lovely yarn stash for this project!

So the heat is on, can I produce a creditable Where's Wally bobble hat before Saturday afternoon? Tune in next time to find out...