I love World Book day so much. Making is obviously my thing and so I know that I don't get the feeling of dread that fills some parents (for me that will happen with any maths/science/sport related school projects that require help!) but I just think its so wonderful the way that the children all get so enthusiastic about what character they are and what they'll be wearing for that part. Enthusiasm for books can only be a good thing I think.
Delilah gets fully on board with dressing up for this - she's had in mind for a long time that she wanted to be Madeline from the classic childrens books by Ludwig Bemelmans. If you haven't read them I would definitely urge you to, they are so lovely to read, funny and so beautifully illustrated. I remember them so clearly from when I was younger. Surely one of the loveliest things to do when having your own children is sharing some of your favourite stories with them, I can't wait to get onto each stage of reading with them - I'm thinking all my old Judy Blume books, the St. Clare's series and so many more!
So this was atually a pretty simple costume to make, I knew that basically we needed a school type look with a hat and a cape/cloak type of thing with a peter pan collar. Luckily we had this beige hat already and so I just added some black ribbon. And then I made two simple peter pan collars, one for her dress and one for the cloak. I made them using felt so that I didn't need to worry about turning under fabric or doing anything that would take too long.
If any of you are interested in how to make the collar let me know and I'll write up a tutorial for it, it really was so simple, and I can already think of lots of other potential costumes we could use it for. The cape was the simplest part, I basically cut a large square from a big piece of felt - this one was from a 2m piece and then folded it into quarters. I then got a plate and used it to draw a curved edge around the folded corner - I made sure to make it quite small as when it is opened out it would be 4 times the size. I then unfolded it and cut a line from the hole in the middle for the head to one of the corners of the square and there you have your cloak shape! I then attached my felt peter pan collar sandwiching in some red ribbon so that when pulled together you can bow the ribbon to close it.
Delilah was so pleased with it - she even suggested I cut her hair into a bob to finish the look! (I didn't, we just made a loose pony tailed it at the back in case she changed her mind about it the next day!) Sadly as we most schools I think our was actually closed on the day, but we still wore them at home and enjoyed savouring these lovely books.
CeCe chose Please Mr Panda for the inspiration behind her costume. We've all loved this book for a long time, such a simple and lovely story we reference alot at home! The panda part was pretty easy as we just used a long black sleeved top, leggings and a fluffy white top which has been used for both lambs and rabbit costumes in the past!
The panda hat was a lucky find from M&C in the sale but the donuts were where the making really began! I was inspired by these beautiful knitted ones I picked up in a sale at Creative Plus a while ago, we actually have these on display on CeCe's wall in her bedroom and she didn't want to loose them so I set about making some more. I'm not really a knitter so I decided to get the sewing box out instead.
I'm going to do a separate post on how to make them but they are so very simple and incredibly satisfying to make! And this little panda was so pleased to have them!
It turned out with all the snow we actually had three days at home, and while the first day was so lovely the next made me scramble about trying to find things for us to do. With one of the days at home being St. David's day on a whim I thought we'd try out making Welsh cakes, I'd never made them before but they were so easy and so delicious!
I followed the Jamie Oliver video here, we've already made them 2 more times and I think they might be our new favourite tea time treat!
I hope you're all having a lovely week. The weather here is pretty drizzly today, and its set for snow again this weekend, but I am so excited for Spring. We have loads of daffodils and muscari springing up in our front garden which is so cheering, I'm looking forward to taking some of them inside to enjoy. Have a lovely rest of the week xx
Posted under – Kids, Making, Baking
Tags – Live Creatively, Making, Kids, Live Colourfully, Baking, Inspiration, Bloggers, Make it yourself, Hobbycraft, Sweet Treats, Welsh Cakes, Jamie Oliver, Steve Anthony, Please Mr Panda, World Book Day, Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans
