World Book Day Event Part 2

The week long World Book Day celebrations continue here on This is Wiss, and I am very happy to introduce the first of my very special guest bloggers!

Beth blogs about crafting and stitching by the sea over on Miss Magpie Makes. She is a mother of three, and now all children are at school she has found time to make more and blog about it. She can turn her hand to a whole range of crafts and is still keen to learn more skills. I love the wide variety of her posts, and look forward to seeing what she's been up to next.

To help me celebrate World Book Day she is going to share some of the outfits she has made for her children over the years. Maybe good inspiration for next year? Over to you, Beth...

"As the mother of three children, aged, 3, 9 and 15, I am well-accustomed to the annual ritual of book Day. For the first two or three years that my daughter took part, we got very excited about what she would dress up as and had lots of fun putting costumes together. My sewing skills were rather more limited in those days but we managed.

Over the last few years, my middle son has been less enthusiastic about dressing up but he informed me this year that he wanted to go as a ‘Bin Weevil’. I know it isn’t strictly a book character (although as Alfie informed me, he does have a book of Bin Weevils!) but frankly, anything that arouses his interest in dressing up and having fun is fine with me.

Over the years, Lauren has dressed as:

Rapunzel Alfie was about six months old at this time and I was still struggling to cope with going from one to two children. I took an easy option and made a very long plait out of some nasty yellow acrylic wool. This was a dressing up box favourite for a long time afterwards.

Roly Poly Bird (from The Twits by Roald Dahl) I’m not sure whose idea this one was! To make this outfit, I started by making a cape from some pink fabric. It fastened at the neck with some ribbon and I made two elastic loops at the sides for Lauren to put her arms through so that she could ‘spread her wings’! The beak was just made from card and elastic, while a few feathers stuck on a headband finished off the outfit.

Angelina Ballerina I must admit that the request of making a mouse-ballerina filled me with a certain sense of dread but in the end it was quicker than the previous costume. We borrowed a tutu, made the tail out of some white fabric and fashioned the ears and nose from card.

 

Hermione Granger  Lauren was the proud owner of a Harry Potter wand. We just messed up her hair and used a Halloween Cloak to finish off.

Mr Strong  During what would have been her last year of primary school, Lauren was home-educated so we decided not to dress up that year but instead made Alfie’s Mr Strong costume. Sadly no pictures were taken but the costume involved painting a large cardboard box red and fitting it with elastic shoulder hangers! We also made a funny hat out of a paper bowl and paper mache!

As well as Mr Strong, Alfie has also been:

Dennis The Menace We managed to borrow a stripey  jumper and then had fun with the hair gel to get Dennis’ coiffure.

Horrid Henry I bought a blue jumper and a yellow t-shirt cheaply from the supermarket and then cut the middle out of the t-shirt and sewed it to the jumper. I did it quite neatly, so much so that Alfie took to wearing the jumper as part of his normal wardrobe. It was quite big too, so it was resurrected as the following years’ costume.

This year Thom is in nursery and the children were asked to dress up. I was slightly dreading this as he is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine but he point blank refused to have anything to do with dressing up so I had to dress him up by stealth by putting a striped jumper on him and proclaiming him to be Chip from the Oxford Reading Tree books!

Finally as a chuckle-inducing treat for you all, here is a snap of myself, circa 1989 in my final book day costume!"

I think Beth looks fab as Noddy, don't you?! Thank you for sharing your photos, Beth. You can see how this years 'Bin Weevil' costume turned out by visiting Miss Magpie Makes.

And if you would like to share any Book Day costumes with me then please leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you.

Don't forget to look at the Official World Book Day website - there are lots of great downloads and printables in the Resources section.

Tomorrow's special guest will be sharing her Top 20 Kids Books, chosen with a keen eye for great design and illustrations. See you tomorrow!