World Book Day approacheth... I need a Gruffalo and Very Hungry Caterpillar costume!

[fuzzPigwickPapers]

Can anyone advise a not-terribly-good-at-craft Fuzzpig?

DD (4) would like to be the Gruffalo. I'm thinking a brown pillowcase/smock thing, with purple spikes sewn on. Maybe knobbly knee patches sewn on to brown leggings. The most difficult thing being the horns/ears - how can I make a headband with those on?

I also have to dress up for work and I'm thinking the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Green clothes maybe with feet sewn on at the side? Also need antennae on a headband.

Eeeek.

Any ideas would be much appreciated!

I've been bookmarking hungry caterpillar costume ideas for dd. Most of them are based on a sleeping bag-type pattern which might be a bit warm, but how about this just made a bit bigger? Carry a bag of fruit and a lollipop to complete the outfit.

My brother bought DS a Gruffalo costume for Christmas, it was from Sainsburys. Although I have never seen them in my store you might be able to get online??

Make a VHC mask then dress in green. Bag of fruit etc is a great idea.

John Lewis sell a Gruffalo costume for £20 I think!

Gaaah well DD decided she doesn't want to be the Gruffalo, she wants to be the VHC like mummy (so we can be twins...)

So, two caterpillars it is then! At least then I only need to buy one set of felt etc.

Need to get some green clothes, will head to primark ASAP. I'm not good at crafty stuff, but I want to try rather than buying ready made costumes as I don't want to set a precedent we cannot afford!

Pretty sure I saw a gruffalo costume in Sainsburys the other wek...

oh god, when is world book day??

1 March isnt it?

Yep 1st march.

Found some green t-shirts for both of us last night.

Wondering how on earth to make headbands with VHCish antennae? Somehow cover a regular Alice band in felt?

Headband: could you use two contrasting strips of felt and wrap round attaching with pva? I don't think the glue would go through.
Wrap two pipe cleaners so they stick up and curl at the top?

would PVA be enough do you think? or is there some kind of fabric glue you can get?

I'm going to go to the cloth store soon and have a browse.

I saw a gruffallo made out of an old brown fluffy/faux fur stuff coat..put on with the buttons up the back and with orange felt for eyes etc..it looked really good.
Have a look on ebay, looking at the costumes can sometimes give you ideas, who knows might pick one up cheap!

Probably fabric glue now you mention it.
Hope the browsing is successful.

I had to make a cow outfit for ds for his nativity play (did try to chicken out and buy one from the supermarket but apparently there were no cows at the nativity, just equal numbers of Mary, Joseph, Kings, Shepherds, Camels, Donkeys and Stars...)

Ended up in hobbycraft and bought some sheets of that funny foamy stuff and a large (and cheap!) roll of double sided sticky tape to make a headband which worked really well - but that would work equally as well for a gruffalo or caterpillar just by tweaking shape of ears/antennae:

• cut a band to go around the head about 3 inches deep. sheet wasn't long enough for a single band so used two and joined just behind the ears so the front part was longer than the back. Copious amounts of double sided stickytape and a couple of staples held it really well (back of the staples on the outside so they didn't scratch but coloured in so they didn't show).

• foamy stuff good because it was comfy to wear unlike the card ones that school have previously made for similar things

• then attached cow ears and front bit made from more foamy stuff and bit of felt using more tape and staples

• used spare foamy stuff to make a tail which was then safety pinned onto tshirt

• tshirt also had front tummy patch of felt stuck on with plenty of tape.

Looked good in the end - will try to find the pic of the head gear and post it on my profile

The double sided tape from hobbycraft really is your friend - especially for patches and things on normal clothes - stayed stuck for several performances and survived ds1's yanking it on and off with all the regard a 6 yr old boy gives to clothes (ie none) and when I eventually pulled it off (I had used plenty) it didn't leave any residue. Huge big roll for a couple of quid. (no, I don't work for them, just very relieved to find something that works so easily! --also discovered it is good for sticking up the hem of ds1's trouser which keeps coming down and I haven't got around to stitching it yet)

If you want something easy - now is a good time to become fond of Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs (was in books before tv) - jeans, t shirt and little plastic bucket with a couple of toy dinosaurs in.

Tintin is another good one - brown trousers, blue jumper and hair sort of quiffed at the front. I drew and cut out a very rough Scotty dog on a sheet of white A4 paper so he had his dog with him too.

fuzzpp have stuck up the photo of the cow headband I made for ds1 - as per previous post.

Think it would be really easy to do a caterpillar version - just get green or red foamy sheets from a craft shop and double sided tape to make the headband, then a purple sheet to make the antennae from. Bit of judicious sticking around the back with scrap of foam would probably keep the antennae sticking straight up if you don't have any old pipe cleaners, straws or lolly sticks etc around to give it a boost!

You could even (if you do a red headband) add green eyes on to it too.