Hello there!
I knew what I wanted to wear or make for World Book Day this year quite a long time ago.
Char shared
this post of her amazing felt parrot costume
and I decided, since I had a large piece of red felt and lots of smaller sheets of reds, oranges and yellows, that I wanted to dress up as a Phoenix or the Firebird. Phoenixes feature in several books - E Nesbit's
Phoenix and the Carpet,
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix amongst others. This is an idea, I've shared on my World Book day post because I was dressed as the Firebird at my music camp for a silly challenge some 12 years ago or so where we were the Order of the Firebird in the year it came out.
However, the reality of the situation was...
1. I'm really not good at sewing.
2. I don't have a sewing machine.
3. I left it to the last minute
4. I can't find the large piece of felt that was supposed to be my base.
So... on Friday last week, I decided to think of another way of making this costume.
It involved
1. Cycling home with an absolutely enormous cardboard box, flattened and stuffed in my Brompton pannier.
2. Taking, with permission, lots of offcuts of orange, yellow, red paper from school that are put on a shelf in case they fill in a gap.
And here's my costume:
Let me talk about what I did.
I had a look at some links on the internet after searching for 'cardboard bird costume' for inspiration (this one
https://www.curbly.com/17490-colorful-cardboard-bird-costume-diy-for-halloween was quite good)
Next, I got CBC to measure my arms against my cardboard box and he then drew me a curved wing shape which I cut out twice.
I then made myself a curved feather shape template out of a cardboard scrap and proceeded to cut my 3 coloured papers into strips the length of the feather shape. I then piled 5-6 strips on top of each other and cut around the template- this meant it was much quicker than having to cut each one separately (and didn't bother drawing around it)
After they were all cut, I then started from the bottom of a wing and stuck feathers in rows on top of each other. The process was repeated on the other wing. I just used Pritt Stick which meant the feathers stuck nice and flat.
It was very, very late on Sunday night by the time I finished that part so I didn't manage to do anything about how to attach them to me.
The next part of my costume took place on Tuesday evening on the train home from my orchestra in London (I say my orchestra- I've been playing with 4 orchestras recently but this is my most regular orchestra).
I was quite pleased to discover a red velvet fascinator base in my craft stash that I'd ordered ages ago (I mean at least 10 years) and forgot I had. I then cut a beak shape out of orange felt and then some feather shapes from the other colours. I sewed these on and then I sewed three pieces of of thin elastic onto it to make it like a headband. Don't look too closely as the thread got a massive knot in it and I never got around to trying to do something about it. I didn't want to make a mask as I really dislike masks!
Very late on Wednesday night (as in 1.45am) after I'd returned from taking my school choir to the Royal Albert Hall and the train I was waiting for at 11.30am had broken down.... I searched for the orange and yellow clothes I could combine. It's a pretty motley collection.
I DID buy a pair of orange trousers from the charity shop on Saturday for the costume but everything else - yellow blouse, red skirt, red leg warmers, red boots, red scarf - were in my wardrobe already.
I took the orange cord from my Corduroy dress to school and then attached a bunch of yellow chiffon scarves (I use them with year 1 & Reception for dancing in music) to my waist so they hung like a tail. I also remembered a pair of red crepe home-made pom poms from the Royal Albert Hall festival 6 years ago, which I'd saved and attached those with string to my shoulders.
The final, frustrating part was trying to attach the wings. I cut some cardboard strips and attached them with parcel tape and staples to the back (along with orange paper to cover the underside) but they KEPT falling off. Suffice to say, I wore the wings for a very short amount of time as they were incredibly impractical and I couldn't teach year 1 music with them on! Ah well!
A small note on Sustainability. I think it is a great shame that there are SO many 'ready-made' costumes in horrid synthetic fabrics that get bought and wish people could/would have a go at making something. A cardboard box can be made into MANY different costume ideas! It doesn't have to cost much, if anything!
This blog tutorial uses all old boxes to make a bird costume.
Our SMT team all made themselves Mr Men and Little Miss costumes out of cardboard boxes, coloured paper and paint and very good they looked too!
I LOVE the excitement of World Book Day and I really like dressing up but I DO get the stress of getting together a costume for parents but actually I do think it is really fun to try and make or cobble something together from what you've got or something from the Jumble sale/Boot sale or charity shop, not to go and buy something ready made (which I have never done!) . Mags writes about it
here and linked to this excellent article about it
here on the Curiosity Approach.
It should be ABOUT the books, not JUST about the dressing up but I DO love the dressing up. My school likes to dress up but we do book activities during the day. In Singing Assembly, I usually try to do a book themed song. This time, I ended up continuing with the Women's week theme and finishing teaching the song I'd written for them about Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks, Rosalind Franklin and Marie Curie. I did, however, point them in the direction of a very good children's book about inspirational women.
I decided this year to construct some small costumes from cardboard so I can offer those to children who aren't able to dress up. In one year 2 class, my colleague used a piece of red paper to make a 'The day the crayons quit' costume for a child who had no costume- she made a red cone for his head and a sign to pin to his jumper which was red and said RED in black letters.
Another colleague made a wonderful costume which was a GOLDEN ticket from Willy Wonka. She got a golden yellow pillow case and carefully drew a Golden Ticket illustration on it in black pen (she has beautiful writing) and she wore her golden highlighter make-up on her face.
I loved one girl's costume which was a cardboard box covered in white paper - she was a card from Alice in Wonderland.
Another little girl had a very special costume as her uncle was the illustrator of a picture book and she had dressed up as the little girl in the story and looked exactly the same!!! I was so excited when she showed me her book!
Here's my little niece who dressed up as Bob, a Street Cat. She's wearing a costume of mine from when I was a child! My sister always makes her costumes or reuses our own carefully kept dancing costumes.
I'd quite like to copy Bronte's costume here below- I have bear ears, a red hat wellies AND a duffle coat so I am tempted to use this as my inspiration next year!
Next year, I am planning to make some small cardboard costumes for children to wear who don't have a costume such a my Gingerbread House idea, my rainbow fish idea (my musical chiffon scarves are great for this), Alice in the House and a few others.
Did you acknowledge World Book Day in any way?
xx
