World Book Day - The perils of being a crafty mother

Don't get me wrong I love the idea of World Book Day.  Encouraging children to read and spend some time with their head stuck in the pages of a book instead of the influx of tecno gadgets they seem to play with all day long. But as a crafty Mum there is a certain level of expectation put on you by others.

Best friends at the World Book Day school assembly

I love getting creative, but when your child is fixated on being a certain character and you dare not head to the local fancy dress shop it's time to 'furiously' create and that's not quite so pleasurable.

finding the perfect article of clothing to customise or the right shade of felt/type of button/hat or accessory can be so stressful!
 

Mr Willy Wonka a.k.a Tom!

The crazy thing is I have known about World Book Day for a year already and Tom decided he wanted to be Willy Wonka this time last year, but I still left it to the lastminute!

The hardest part was finding a purple jacket, but thankfully just as I was about to get out the felt and start making one a lovely customer of mine saw my facebook appeal and found a ladies purple jacket in the charity shop she works in and we were saved!  A quick button change and a sleeve shorten and we were all good.

Raiding the button stash for some added embellishments

 The hat was simple, as you can see we were the Fat Controller last year so I simply chopped down the hat and covered it in felt. I whipped up the bowtie on my sewing machine and had hoped he could wear a waistcoat of Daddies but alas it swamped him!

Previous World Book Day efforts!

Back to the drawing board the day before and I chopped up some sample upholstery fabric I had in my stash and cobbled together a waistcoat on my overlocker.  The joy of his wonderful machine is that there is no need to worry about seams etc, after all it's only a fancy dress costume.

I added some wooden buttons and a piece of velcro to hold it together and we were all done.  Chuck in a mad afro wig stitched inside the rim of the hat to hold it all in place and ta da.............WILLY WONKA!

The best costume ever according to Tom!

I know I don't have to go to all that effort, I could buy a costume or simply send him in something a little simpler, but when crafts are your job there is definitely an expectation from our friends, family and other parents at school to come up with something fabulous.

I admit I quite like the challenge, as much as I moan about it every year, seeing him come home with a big smile on his face because he's won 1st prize in the costume competition fills me with pride.

We make a great team.

What did your little darlings dress as this year? Did you make their costumes or can you get away with shop bought?