p p p pick up a penguin

It's time for the third and final installment of my 'British Icons' costume posts, and it's the turn of my own costume (which I am most excited about!)

In the run up to the party I was racking my brains trying to decide which British icon I wanted to be, but all the people I came up with were unsuitable for someone on the plumper side, like myself. So I decided that I would be an iconic object, rather than a person. 

 

I looked for inspiration from around my own home and came up with the idea of going as one of my favourite things to collect- a mid century Penguin paperback book. For me, the Penguin book is one of the most iconic items of the 20th century- everyone instantly recognises the brightly coloured, simple cover designs and they are internationally celebrated for having brought good quality, contemporary and affordable fiction to the masses.

After a bit of thought, I chose the most infamous and revolutionary of all the Penguin paperbacks- Lady Chatterley's Lover, whose publication led to the company being charged under the Obscene Publications Act in 1960. Penguin was subsequently acquitted, marking a turning point in British censorship laws. The British public could not get their hands on a copy fast enough, with queues in bookshops up and down the land- two million copies sold in six weeks!

 

I had the idea to use Pearl's old cot mattress as the base of my costume, which I cut to a suitable size with sharp scissors. I'm pleased that I thought of a way to repurpose the cot mattress, as charity shops don't accept them on health guidance, so it would have just ended up in a landfill.

I bought some cheap lengths of polycotton in both white and bright orange and machine-sewed them together, to look like the book cover. I then cut some strips of the white fabric and ran it up and down my sewing machine with black cotton, to look like the pages of the book. These strips formed the top, bottom and one of the side ends of the book, which I stitched all together to cover the entire piece of mattress foam.

As I was sewing the pieces together, I stitched in some thick elastic cross-over straps, so that I would be able to wear the giant book as a costume.

Then it was time for the details on the book cover and spine. I cut out the letters and logo shapes from thick felt and then appliqued them by hand to the book cover.

I will confess that I got halfway through the rather tedious job of cutting out and stitching on the lettering and wondered why on earth I hadn't chosen to make 1984 instead!

But when I'd eventually finished it all, I was really pleased with the finished costume and it seemed to go down well at the party (although it was a little bit awkward to help myself to the buffet!)

After all that work I think I'm trying to think of another use for it- maybe a big floor cushion, or wall hanging? I'll let you know when I decide!

Have a lovely week everyone xx

my mate

Thank you for all your lovely comments about the girls' Where's Wally costumes, I had so much fun making them, so I'm glad you think they looked effective!

Now for the second installment- my husband's costume. He really isn't very keen on fancy dress at the best of times, so I needed to think of something a little bit more low-key, but clearly iconically British. I drew inspiration from the kitchen cupboard and decided that a jar of Marmite was just the thing.

I cut out shapes from brightly coloured felt to create the basic elements of the jar and label, overlaid them and then hand-stitched them all into place with blending cotton.

I then just stitched the jar onto an old white tee shirt and- voila! What could be more iconic than a trusty jar of Britain's favourite yeast extract?

Hope you all have had a super weekend- I hope yours didn't fly by as quickly as ours. I'll be back tomorrow with the third and final (and most exciting, in my opinion) installment of British Icons costumes- mine!

where's wally and wenda

As promised, this is the first installment of my 'British Icons' fancy dress costume bonanza.

I'll start with the girls, who chose to be Wally and Wenda from the 'Where's Wally' books (or Waldo for my readers on the other side of the Atlantic!). 

I bought their stripey top and dress for next to nothing on ebay and knitted them both red and white bobble hats, based on this very simple pattern. 

I then used felt to stitch up a soft, cartoon style camera for Wenda and binoculars for Wally, with thick black cord for the neck straps and stuffed them with foam.

Rather than buy them plastic glasses to wear, I decided it would be much more fun to try and recreate Wally and Wenda's own cartoon eyes. I stitched up the eyes and glasses in black and white felt and glued them to cardboard, before mounting them on wooden skewers and gluing more felt to the back. I was really delighted with the result and the girls looked so funny!

 

They had such a lovely time at the party, dancing away at the disco and scoffing party food- they're now sound asleep, snoring away in their comfy beds.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. I'll be back tomorrow with the second installment!

the lion, the witch and the birthday girl

This afternoon was Flora's long-awaited birthday party and, as she'd requested, our home was transformed into the Kingdom of Narnia for the afternoon. We hung up lengths of icicle bunting and paper snowflakes around the house...

and the girls and I had made a life-sized lamp post from scrap wood and papier maché to complete the Narnian look...

Flora had asked to be Lucy so I had been busy making her costume and she was really delighted with the result...

The body of the dress was a sleeveless satin party dress that I picked up for next to nothing in Oxfam. I sewed on some big red velvet sleeves, gold leafy rickrack on the cuffs and a plastic 'ruby' embellishment on the bodice to make it more regal.

I put little plaits in her hair and tied a bit more of the leafy rickrack round her head for a pretty crown.

At her waist I sewed on a little pouch for her 'juice of Fire-Flowers' (which was just a little lip gloss with shiny stars stuck on)...

The dagger I'd bought her had pirate patterns all over the handle, so I covered it with some gold ribbon, stitching it in place. I popped on some shiny star stickers for added detail and tied on some ribbon so that it would attach to her costume.

Pearl was Aslan and I made her costume from a charity shop-bought furry gilet, a lion mask, fur sewn into a giant elastic 'scrunchie' for the mane and a tassely curtain cord for the tail. She had a great time prowling round roaring at the other children, trying to scare them!

Steve was Mr Tumnus with silicone horns and ear-tips, a scarf, umbrella and a furry tail. His costume made me laugh so much- it looked so good with his beard!

I dressed as the Jadis the White Witch, in a sliver dress that I picked up on ebay (I felt like a turkey in bacofoil, hence the head and shoulders only shot!), a furry collar I'd bought in the sales, a foam crown and white and silver face paint on my eyes to make them look frosty.

The children had some completely fabulous costumes too- it was so wonderful to see them all dressed up and having fun zooming around acting out battles! We mainly left the children to their own games as it was a lovely day and they were enjoying haring about in the yard with the bubble-machine...

but we did do a few activities with them- I'd pre-made some shields from craft foam for the children to decorate with their own coat of arms...

and we also did 'sleeping Aslans' (lions) and 'pass Mr Tumnus's parcel'- I'd wrapped every layer in brown paper and string, with a chocolate coin and forfeit in each layer, so it kept them busy for quite a while!

At tea time we laid out very basic party fodder and let the children help themsleves...

For her cake, my dad had baked the most marvelous chocolate sandwich cake, which tasted divine.

I decorated it with a little lamp post and trees that I bought from ebay (originally purposed for accessorising model train sets) and a small plastic toy lion, finishing with a dusting of icing sugar 'snow'. I was really pleased with how it turned out- a proper mini Narnia...

For the party bags we had more Mr Tumnus's parcels (I cheated and just used brown A5 self-sealing envelopes wrapped with string, as I was sick of the sight of brown paper after wrapping the pass-the parcel!) which contained some bubbles, obligatory sweets, more chocolate coins, a packet of sunflower seeds and a temporary tattoo (crowns for the girls and roaring lions for the boys). I packed their piece of cake separately in a freezer bag and they had their shields to take home too.

We all had such a fantastic time, although I was completely shattered by the end of it all, despite all the wonderful family helpers we had! Part of me is hoping that Flora just wants to take a couple of friends to the cinema next year, but I'm sure I will have changed my mind by then and will be up for another creative challenge!

Good times x

ps hello to all my new followers and thank you so much for helping me make it to over 100! I must organise a little giveaway soon to say thanks.

can you tell what it is yet?

This evening my creative juices are free flowing and there's a lot of busy preparation going on in our household. But I'm afraid you will have to wait a few more days to find out what I'm doing.

Here's a sneaky peek...

Not long, I promise xxx

an invitation to narnia

Flora's 6th birthday is coming up in March and I've been pressing her for the last couple of weeks to think of what she wants to do for her party. She has decided she wants a Narnia theme and is keen that I make her a Lucy Pevensie outfit.

I was quite excited about kitting her out in 40s clothes and knitting her an evacuee cardigan. But no, of course she wants to be Lucy the Valiant, Queen of Narnia complete with cape and potion.



I'm thinking snow-scene decorations and a cardboard lamp post. I'm going to order some latex horns for Steve, so he can be Mr Tumnus and probably a Snow Queen outfit for me.

I've also found lots of lovely inspiration over on Etsy

I'm a bit worried that Flora's friends might not be so enthusiastic about Narnia fancy dress as she is, but I will put a few suggestions on the invites - knights, lions, and, if in doubt, standard princesses wouldn't be out of place, would they?

Good job I've got 5 weeks or so to get organised!

PS updated to include the invitation I just designed...

little princess

Last night I finally finished Flora's Princess Leia costume. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and Flora is bowled over!

I drafted the pattern for the dress myself- heeding Flaming Nora's helpful advice of lying Flora out on newspaper and drawing round her. The whole with was a huge learning curve, especially as I've only ever made one dress before, but it was surprisingly easy once I got going. I did make one silly mistake with my first attempt at the sleeves- I drew them out upside-down, so that the seams were at the top of the arm and only noticed when I was sewing them on- doh!

I also cheated with the neck a bit, buying a polar-neck tshirt to go underneath the dress to save me having to work out how to do a roll neck, although I did work out the hood myself.

I managed to keep the cost down by picking up everything except the polar-neck tee (ebay £2.99) in charity shops- 

white sheet for dress £1.50

totes slipper socks for buns £1

silver belt £2

grand total  £7.49!!

How funky is the belt? what a lucky find...

Pureists- all I ask is you overlook the Sith-coloured light sabre, Flora was very insistent in Toys R Us that red was the colour she must have!

 

I will admit to being a little jealous, as have always wanted to be Leia- I will have to restrain myself from making another outfit for myself!