World Book Day

Apparently this was the 17th World Book Day (the fourth since I first heard about it – when Matthew started school) and I love it. The notion of having a day to celebrate the joy of reading a book, and even better, going to school in costume to illustrate it and to share new books and characters with your friends!
This year Matthew and Piper both came up with really clear ideas of which characters they wanted to go as. And posed for LOTS of photos.

Piper chose Katie Morag (recently made into a TV series, but we have a couple of the original books at home too). The key items of this costume are a cream chunky knit sweater (with some blue detailing), a green check skirt and a pair of wellies. Well, the boots we already had and the basic jumper I found in Tesco marked down from £10 to £4! The skirt was trickier though as it is a very green on green check, and didn’t quite fit any of the tartans or checked fabrics I could find locally. It also bugged me that I wasn’t going to be able to use anything out of my stash – until I realised I had the perfect base fabric for the skirt. Then I just cut out the pieces I needed (traced from one of her school skirts) and I used fabric paints to print the squares and draw the lines. A few hours later and I had the perfect print, mimicking the watercolour style of the original illustrations! The skirt then just needed sewing together,  I couched a length of blue yard onto the jumper to create the decorative element Katie Morag has on her sweater and I had one happy Piper.

Matthew selected a brilliant character costume that is completely his style, and couldn’t have been more obscure if he tried! One of his most read books is one I bought when I was his age called “Aliens in the Family” by Margaret Mahy. Bond is a shape changing alien sent to Earth on a fact finding mission. He disguises himself as a human in order to not stand out. His clothing is described in detail: “Pockets of orange, green and gold, all differently shaped, were sewn down the legs of his blue jeans, and there were others like bright windows on his brown shirt.” The book also makes reference to his white hair and the red and black tattoos on his neck which in his real form are his gills and there is a plot element where he acquires a transistor radio with ear piece which he carries around everywhere.
One charity shop shirt, one existing pair of jeans, and some more wedding linen from the stash (plus some junk from Robert's collection of broken tech that he hasn't thrown away yet) and we had it!

	In progress shot – tattoos applied, and hair spray in progress – outside!

I love World Book Day, and I think they did too.