Our DIY easy book week costumes
When it comes to creating a book week costume, I’m a big fan of DIY. I love the personal touch that comes with creating something for my kids. Some years I have way more time and energy for others. Though sometimes I do put some extra pressure on myself.
My rules with the kids are firstly, the character had to be in a book before they were in a tv show or movie and we have to have the book at home. I know each year there is a book week theme but to be honest I never really understand the theme let alone manage to come up with a costume that matches. Instead I like to go with books the kids enjoy and create a fun easy book week costume.
But, no matter what, we have a lot of fun when it comes to creating costumes and the ideas are thrown around all year long.
Our 2022 Easy book week costumes:
This is my fourth year of book week costumes so I’m going to film what I come up with for the boys.. at the moment Freddy wants to be Pig the Pug from Pig the Winner and PJ (his first time) wants to be the hippo from There’s a Hippopotamus on my Roof eating Cake. Check out our Instagram over the week/weekend to see how I go with that.
But here is a little recap of our costumes Of our easy book week costumes the last three years.
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Mowgli (Daycare): By far the easiest costume I’ve done. I went with the Disney inspired look but Mowgli was originally a book character from The Jungle Book, a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Freddy wore my skin coloured thermal because it was cold and he needed a shirt, red shorts and dark wig from the dress up box. So quick and easy and he loved it.
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Cat in a Hat (Kindy): By far the most effort of all the costumes I’ve made. I bought an off cut of white furry fabric from spotlight to sew on the front of a black t-shirt. Then I added white gloves, red hat and a red bow tie (which I stitched on) to complete the look. Still pretty easy on the effort stakes.
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Mr Strong (Prep): This one looks way harder than it was. I started painting a printer box but decided the paint was way too much effort so I went and grabbed two pieces of red cardboard from the newsagents. I drew a face on the front and left the back piece blank and glued them on. When I trimmed it to size I used the leftover pieces for the sides of the box. We added a green hat then raided the dress up box for some red tights. Done! It caused lots of giggles from the teachers.
Wish me luck for this year.
At home DIY costume ideas:
But if you aren’t a big book week costume creator because let's be honest, it’s a bit weird how much I like it, then below are some easy 5 min costume ideas made from items you hopefully already have at home. I even tested one out and it took me 2 mins so perfect for the morning of, if you forgot.
Costumes you already have that you didn’t know: yes they were books first!
- Polar express – a pair of pyjamas
- Peter pan - pirate costume from anything blue, red or stripy. Draw on a patch with eyeliner.
- Wizard of Oz – the scarecrow.. a flannel shirt, pair of overalls/jeans and some well placed straw makes a super easy scarecrow costume. Bonus if you add some facepaint.
- Where's wally – red and white striped t-shirt, jeans and a beanie, bonus if you add a pair of glasses frames
- Ninja Kid – Any outfit but a t-shirt or hoodie with shorts, add a ninja mask cut from blue fabric and a backpack.
- Thelma the unicorn – a pink outfit with a unicorn headband. Level up with a white/silver feather boa for the tail if you have one.
- Angelina ballerina – any ballet / tutu / pink dress or costume. Bonus with a set of mouse ears on a headband or a little nose and whiskers face paint.
- One fish two fish red fish blue fish – Anything yellow (dress, t-shirt etc) with 4 lots of fish cut out and pinned on. One white fish, two green fish side by side, a red fish and a blue fish…. Take it to the next level by printing actually images to pin on… https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/i8GxnF9WGcwzpA/kinder-red-fish-collage
- Diary of a wimpy kid – white t-shirt, black shorts, white socks, black shoes and a white paper plate to draw his face on… super easy.
