Like a million other children this month, my kids have celebrated "book week" by wearing costumes to school today, dressed up as their favourite book character. The kids have known about this event for quite some weeks. And admittedly - so have I. Cadyn decided from the day he knew, that he would be going as Specky Magee, basically because he is not a fan of getting dressed up, God forbid he would draw any attention to himself! So, his costume was easy - his football gear already sitting in his wardrobe. Chelsea, on the other hand, could not decide whom her favourite character was, because she reads so many bloody books it's almost impossible. BUT, Sunday afternoon she decided on Chinky the Pixie - from The Magic Wishing Chair book, by Enid Blyton.
Let me paint a picture for you...... It's 2pm Sunday afternoon. We begin googling images of Chinky. By 2.15pm I'm admitting defeat, and telling Chelsea she will have to find something else, because there's no way I'm going to have time to sort a bloody pixie outfit! Come 3pm and I've got some ideas from my sewing group on FB, and I'm in the car on the way to the shops. Half an hour later I'm home with supplies and making a bloody pixie outfit. I thought I would share, basically because it had me stumped for a bit until my brain warmed up! So here it is......A quick and easy book week costume.
MATERIALS USED - 1.5metres Homespun Cotton $9.00; 50cm felt $6.00; Tights on sale $1! Cotton, pencil, pins, scissors, sewing machine!
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| 1. Grab a good shorts pattern. The one I use is actually the bottom half of the Bailey Romper pattern, and it is THE easiest shorts pattern EVER. You can purchase the pattern HERE. |
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| 2. The PDF pattern goes up to a size 5, I have upsized it to a size 7, as shown in this photo, but given that Chelsea is a size 8-9, I upsized it a little bit more! You can see my post about upsizing HERE. |
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| 3. To change your shorts from regular to Pixie style, just draw some jagged lines at the bottom and add a little length if needed. |
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| 4. If you have pinking shears (jagged edged scissors) cut your edges as shown above. This will lessen any fraying. I made the edges uneven on purpose! |
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| 5. Two pattern pieces required now done. |
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| 6. I was directed to THIS FREE PDF for a pixie/elf hat. It's super simple! I used felt for the hat as it has a little more stiffness/body than the homespun cotton. |
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| 7. The PDF is for a toddler size hat, so once again I upsized it a bit more to fit Chelsea's head. |
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| 8. Cut out hat pieces. Then just a matter of sewing all around the edges, trim the curves and turn right side out. Then hem the bottom. |
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| 9. Done! |
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| 10. Shorts all sewn up! |
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| 11. For the top I used another PDF pattern, this time it's the Whimsy Couture Easy Peasant Top, which you can get HERE. This takes very little time to whip up! |
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| 12. Instead of hemming the bottom and sleeves, I got out the pinking shears again and did the same jagged effect. |
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| The End Result! And yes - I know there's now a red hat - further googling yesterday found that Chinky in fact wears a red hat, so thankfully my good Mother had some red felt and I was sewing that at 9pm last night! Phew! |
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| One very happy Pixie! |
Chelsea was very happy to report this afternoon there were NO other pixies at school today!
Do your kids have dress ups for Book Week? Are you a last minute costume gatherer, or far more organised than me??
Looks great.
ReplyDeleteThe best ever costume I ever made was a brown unitard. It did double duty as a bird, a cow, a platypus and a dog. All I had to do was add the appropriate tail.