World Book Day

For most people this strikes fear into the heart - the letter arrives home informing you that it is "World Book Day" and  your child needs to dress up as a book character for the day!

My girls are it seems not alone in choosing the  just off the beaten track characters - those that aren't in the dressing up box or readily available at Asda!!

For me provided they give me some notice this is a challenge to be embraced and as with most things the girls have clear ideas about what they want and how it should look. They also know just how to convince Mum to create their outfit - I tried to persuade Rebecca not to be a ginger cat this year - she didn't argue but quietly waited till we got home - went upstairs and presented me with a book - "this is who I would  like to be Mum" -  guess what  - she got her cat costume!!

Sophie decided on the fairy godmother with dress and cape! fortunately Annie is still into Cinderella big time  though why she added her homemade crown is  best known to her!
 I still need to take some lessons to enable me to use my sewing machine without major distress so I sewed them by hand - its kind of therapeutic and  portable so the costumes travelled with me for a couple of weeks.

Rebecca's Ginger Cat

I saw a mask on Martha Stewart's website but unfortunately the template was no longer available - so I sketched half of a mask on a folded piece of paper then cut it out to ensure it was symmetrical. I then cut the two halves out of felt and stitched them together down the nose and ears to give it definition. Once I had sown it together I adjusted it to fit her face trimming the eye holes where needed. I glued some nylon thread carefully removed from an optic fibre lamp!! to create whiskers and a pink button for the nose - I used elastic to join it at the back so she could easily remove it and put it on at school.

The mask made the costume and  actually could have been teamed effectively with an orange  T and Jeans.

 Rebecca  however found some orange fabric all be herself when I was out getting Sophie's fabric and I just couldn't disappoint her - does that make me a soft touch - probably.
I made a simple T shaped tunic and trimmed the neck and  sleeves with some fluffy orange trim - which I also used to create a tail - stitching some bias binding on to the end to make a loop which I attached to a belt.

It was very orange but it was fun.






Coming soon - The fairy godmother