Fancy dress ideas?

[mimimomma]

I'm keen on making my dd a fancy dress costume for a party at the end of Oct, she's 1 year old and I have a sewing machine and moderate sewing ability! Any ideas? I'm stuck on Paddington Bear at the moment (after buying her a duffle coat yesterday!).

Is there a theme?

Won't she be too hot as Paddington - she will have to take her coat off at some point?

what about Max from 'Where The Wild Things Are'?

There's no theme, it's a birthday party that happens to fall on 31st Oct.

How about a cavewoman / Flintstone? Just buy half metre of animal print cloth from the fabric shop and cut it so it hangs from one shoulder. Ragged-cut the edges (less sewing!!). Wear over her normal t-shirt and leggings. This way you can just whip the layer off if it gets too hot at the party.

Just remembered...we had a fancy dress party for my 30th when dd was 9 months old. We dressed as Star Wars characters - I was Leah, DH was Hans, my brother was Chewbacca (poor guy) and dd was Yoda!

All you need for the Yoda costume is some white cotton cloth. Lay it flat on the floor and put dd on it. Mark where her knees come on the cloth - this will be the bottom of the cape. You will find lots of patterns on the web to make a cape (look for Red Riding Hood patterns) - it's literally a cone shape with a triangle sewn on the neck for the hood. Cut holes for dd's arms to go through. Ta-dah! Cut Yoda-ears out of green card and stick on an Alice band.

As in my previous post, this is easy to whip off if your dd gets fractious (which she will, trust me!) and then she can toddle around in her regular lightweight clothes once everyone has done ooh-ing over her costume and the photos have been taken