Working mother’s World Book Day survival guide

[BeesAndChiscuits]

Posting in AIBU for traffic. But also because I know IABU not to want to devote hours of my time to crafting costumes for my precious dc.

What I want is costume ideas which optimise the effort to results ratio: good costumes, looking like the family has made a modicum of effort, which minimally tax my time and finances.

I ordered a Willy Wonka costume - £20 from tesco, top hat included. I'm pleasantly surprised that the detail and material quality isn't totally horrendous. My 7yo is chuffed to bits with it, he couldn't give a shit if I made it or Tescos.

I don't understand why anyone strapped for time would fanny around making something complicated.

80% of KS2 kids last year were in a black cape and claiming to be a Harry Potter character. The other boys were mostly in football kit claiming to be someone in any book or annual about football, and most other girls some princess from some book. About 20 kids out of 300 had anything bought specially or elaborately home made.

Dd is wearing her dog onsie as she already has one, and has found one of the millions of books about dogs that's she's got. Sorted. We've done this most years, look at what dressing up clothes/normal clothes/pyjamas she already had and find a book that suits it.

Amazon has great stuff very cheap.

George from George’s Marvellous Medicine - red jumper from Asdas school uniform range £3, pair of jeans, plastic bottle filled with stewed tea (they will try to drink it at some point during the day so don’t put anything else in that you wouldn’t want them swallowing) and a label saying George’s Marvellous Medicine either printed from t’internet or hand drawn. Easy peasy.

Easy to do nursery rhymes - Bo Peep = party dress and toy sheep, miss muffet = ditto but carry spider, Angelina ballerina = ballet uniform with mouse ears etc. My boy is going as a bear. Loads of books with bears!!

Oh fuck

Thanks for the reminder

DD’s nursery is bloody doing world book week!
I expected them to do the actual day so have a costume sorted - Little red riding hood from eBay. But she’s there for 3 days.
After reading this thread will send her in last years halloween costume as room on the broom for one day. Disney princess dress it will have to be for the other!

I won an award last year! Well ds did... he was fantastic mr fox, ears and a tail off eBay, checked shirt and waistcoat with jeans. I drew on a black nose and whiskers with a eyeliner pen that morning.

His brother was Charlie Bucket, jeans, jumper and a golden ticket attached to a lanyard.

Dd was Hermoine, but came home grumbling as there were loads of Hermoines and none of the others had read the books.

Wear their own clothes- Horrid Henry

DD will be the Captain from "Pirates love Underpants".

Black leggings, black long boots, white tshirt ripped up a little, grey and silver striped scarf fer her head, black leather belt and of course some funky underpants :)

All stuff I have in already.

Ours is optional

DD1 went as Tracey Beaker, normal clothes and brown curly hair of her own. Our school are very relaxed about dress up days. DD2 had a list of characters from a book the whole year were reading that they had to choose from, all really easy. No angst here. At their last school the parents were stressing out on FB over having to find £20 x number of children for supermarket costumes while the better off parents sent kids in crappy home made numbers.

Yellow leggings + long sleeve yellow T shirt + red short sleeved T shirt = Winnie the Pooh. That’s us this year.

Best one I did was nicked from MSE. DD1 wore a cardboard box on which she had glued 2 cardboard doors. She drew handles on the doors and an inlay round them. She wore her Halloween witch hat and carried a small toy lion - the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She won a prize as well!

Not to be outdone, DD2 saved some mince pie foils and glued them onto another cardboard box as headlights. I printed her a numberplate saying TOAD1, she wore my dad's flat cap, some knee-length socks over her trousers and green face-paint and went as Mr Toad from the Wind in the Willows. She won too. The brat whose father had spent all the previous day assembling her intricate and expensive costume was devastated not to win the prize when we had spent nothing....

George red top (and empty food colouring bottle for medicine jar if you want to push the boat out.

Matilda _ dress and books

Charlie - scruffy clothes and golden ticket

Harry Potter - School clothes, adults black cardigan for cloak, cheap wand from an old party bag and scar

Charlie (bucket of dinosaurs

One year I pushed the boat out and bought an outfit in the sale

Dd is going as Lola from Charlie and Lola (she is indeed small and very funny, plus has blonde, slightly scruffy hair, which helps). Orange flowery top that she already has, black leggings and I'm hoping that even someone of my limited artistic ability will be able to copy the outline of Lola's face onto a piece of card to make a mask. I may even stretch to a cardboard cut out of Soren Laurenson if I'm feeling particularly creative.

Green shirt, belt, yellow scarf, red rose - Le Petit Prince

Top tip: £5 in Aldi.

DAD is going as Sophie from The Tiger Who Came to Tea- she has long blonde hair and is just wearing a dress, t shirt, tights and her school shoes and taking a toy tiger.

DD, my dad isn't dressing up!

This year I just got a cheap Alice costume from Amazon - as that's who she wanted to go as

last year involved cutting up pillow cases and some poster paint to make 'purple crayon'!

Mine want to be
Peter Rabbit (you can get a costume in supermarkets, but I'm going for eBay brown leggings and blue cardigan, which she can wear again, and I'm knitting a hat but you can get bunny ears on a headband lots of places)

Willy Wonka (again you can get a supermarket costume but I'm going for re-wearable from eBay, the top hat is obviously not an everyday item but he likes it and it was 2.99)

Plasticgold, we did that one year.

We bought a pair of white tights and DD and I spent a nice Sunday afternoon colouring them in with Sharpies to look like Sophie's checked tights. Give it a go, it looked fab!