World Book Day Idea!

I have been reading so many tales of woe with the lead up to World Book Day, I thought I would share with you a "here's one I made earlier" world book day costume idea - and all you need is a load of brown paper and tape!

The book? The Paper Bag Princess!

 

For those of you who are not sure what World book day is, let me enlighten you a little:

Imagine choosing a favourite character from a book and then making a costume to dress up in for a day to celebrate and encourage a love of  books with numerous children.
We had Anne Frank, Harry Potter, Woody, Spiderman, Batman, Harrison Ford, Fairies, Alice in Wonderland, Princesses, Dr. Doolittle, Pirates, Snowmen, Handa from Handa's Surprise, Cruella, Little Red Riding Hood, Mr.Bond and a Granny to name but a few!

I chose to dress up as "The Paper Bag Princess" a character from the story book by Robert N. Munsch with fabulous line drawn illustrations by Michael Martchenko.

If you don't know this fun children's story then I will unravel the plot to you...

This is no ordinary dragon and princess tale but rather this has a fiery fun twist in the dragons tail! This feisty princess has her home destroyed by the dragon and she has nothing to wear to try and meet her prince. She makes a dress from a paper bag and tricks the dragon to show off his fiery prowess by setting fire to anything and everything on their way to find the prince. When the prince and princess meet, the dragon has no fire left! Does she marry the prince though? What does the prince think to his creative and resourceful and sassy princess? Do they live happily ever after?
Well of course, that would spoil the ending if I told you!
You will, of course, have to read the story to find out.
Look here for ideas of where to buy and see the front cover!

Anyway, back to my World Book Day:
I made my costume from brown paper on Wednesday evening. The cat "Smudge" kept skidding excitedly on the rolled out brown paper and diving into it and chewing edges.
He, at least, thought it was great!


I made my "dress" as a simple skirt and top 2 piece. I did a simple top with straps and tied loops with twine to tie it around me in the morning. I made a simple skirt in two pieces. I folded the main part of the skirt into zig zags or pleats and then taped them inside a large folded over panel piece for the belt.
Simple!
 I made a few more loops with twine to simply tie it on in the morning.
It was a bit crinkly and during the day the twine kept snapping away from the paper -so tape was never far away from me!
I wore a simple wire headband fit for a princess and carried along my dragon for the day. Perfect paper bag Princess!
Some thought I was Hiawatha or Pocahontas but one said they thought I was just a bag!
At least they didn't call me "old".

Happy World Book Day!