Across the Story Bridge....

I love Book Week. It takes me back to when I was younger and dressing up in something that my mum had made for either myself or my sister and getting to parade around with all the other excited children. The costume I most remember was a colonial dress that my mum originally made for my older sister, I couldn't wait to grow taller so that I too could one day wear that special dress for my own book week character. I know there are some traditions that have gotten lost along the years, but I'm very thankful that Book Week hasn't been one of them.


This year's theme was "Across the Story Bridge" which was interpreted as being any story book character. Jai showed how similar he is to his big brother and wanted to dress up as Rascal from Paul Jennings "Rascal the Dragon" series. This is the same character Jordan chose for his own very first book week years ago. I followed a basic Burda pattern for the pull on pants and my trusty Burda hooded top pattern for the top (the one I used for Jordan's last top blogged here). I sewed the spikes down the centre of the hood and also in the seam I added into the middle of the back pattern. The tail is a separate piece which I attached to a belt I made so that he could take it off if he wanted too (but he didn't). The wings are also removable, they attach to a button in the middle of the back and then have an elastic wrist band. Seeing Jai love this costume so much was the best reward for all the time I spent sewing it - he barely took it off after the days that followed.


Jordan took a bit longer to decide who to go as, I think it's harder for the older ones as they don't want to choose a character that is seen as being 'babyish'. Around a week before the big event, I walked into Jordan's room to see him reading Roald Dahl's book "The Twits" and I mentioned that Mr Twit could be a good option (Jordan had previously rejected my earlier suggestions of 'Captain Underpants' or David from "The Fire Within") Jordan thankfully thought this was a good idea so off to the op shop we went in search of a suit and then I bought the wig from Spotlight and made the beard from wool and some off cuts of the wig as it was originally too long.

I got off quite lightly for Jordan's costume, the only sewing was attaching the elastic to the felt base for the beard and some hand sewing to hem up the pants!

Here is Jordan's very first book week in the Rascal dress up I made for him. Gosh, that was so long ago now, I didn't even own a sewing machine. I bought the top and pants (I remember orange being quite the "In" colour back then). The tail is all hand sewn and I ended up buying fairy wings and spray painting them and adding the spikes down the middle. Interesting to see how far I've come in 5 years!

Hee hee, he was quite the poser back then!

Natalie
xx