Book Week 2014: DIY Book Parade Costume

PINKY PICK DIY BOOK PARADE COSTUME

Even though Book Week is now over (official dates were August 16-22), I’m not really ready for it be over. Book Week is perhaps one of my most favourite times of the school year, because I just love getting the kids so enthralled with the magic of reading and the wonder of a good old-fashioned book. But I do know some schools have delayed their Book Week a and will be enjoying the events over the next few days.

Last Friday, Miss 7 had her book parade at school for Book Week. And as I had predicted early on here, I was still up late the night before trying to pull together an appropriate costume, despite my best attempts to get us all ready with a little Book Parade Costume inspiration.

In the end I managed it, and Miss 7 was more than pleased with the result. Given she’d chosen to dress up as Pinky Pick from her current favourite book series, Geronimo Stilton, it was not an easy feat at times. Much red wine was consumed on thursday evening in the vain attempt to become less of a perfectionist – not sure if it helped.

So today I’m sharing my hot tips for how to pull together a DIY Book Parade Costume. It’s got all the fun things; fabric dye, squiggly scissors, paints, cardboard cutouts and even wire coat hangers twisted into tails. It’ll be even more helpful if you ever find yourself in the position of being required to pull together a mouse costume last-minute – because that’s a likely occurrence and all.

HERE’S HOW YOU MAKE THE DIY MOUSE MASK + TAIL

YOU’LL NEED:

1 Large sheet of cardboard or card stock
An idea of what a mouse looks like
^ or use pinterest, I found a pattern {here}
3 Pipe Cleaners, light pink coloured
Paint, grey & pink colours
^naturally, I mixed a little black with a lot of white to make grey
Paint Brushes
Scissors
Wire Coat Hanger
Crêpe Paper, light pink coloured
Elastic
Pink Ribbon
2 Safety Pins
Hot Glue Gun
Sharpie

TO MAKE:

1. Assemble all the items that you’ll need to make the mask and designate a clear work space.
2. First off, you’ll want to decide on how big you need the Mouse Mask to be. Then trace your shape onto the card-stock. When you’re happy with the design, use a Sharpie to go over the edges.
3. Mix up your paints to get the shade of grey that you like, so long as its not 50, and paint your mask. Then paint small pink triangles into the hears and a black or dark grey nose. Set aside and leave to dry.
4. Whilst the mask is drying, grab your wire coat hanger and carefully untwist into a straight line. Be careful when doing this, it’s sharp and may snap if twisted too far.
5. Using the pink crêpe paper, wind around the wire coat hanger really tight; overlapping in parts to give it that rubbery mouse-like look. Secure at the ends with sticky tape or masking tape. Then gently twist the wire at certain points along the length to make it curly.

| At this point you can turn on the hot glue gun and leave resting on a sheet of aluminium foil – this is so the hot glue doesn’t stick to something it shouldn’t.

To attach your mouse tail:
6. Cut a small length of pink ribbon and lay flat. Place a small bead of hot glue onto the middle of the ribbon and stick the top end of the mouse tail onto the bead of glue. Press down and then tie the ribbon in a not around the wire tail. Fasten a bow to make it pretty.
7. Pin two safety pins through the back of the ribbon and the wire tail – this will be used to attach onto your child’s outfit to secure the tail.

To finish the mask:
8. Once your mask is dry, cut it out from the sheet of card stock. Then cut two eye-holes.
9. Grab the pipe cleaners and cut in half. Using the glue gun, carefully pipe glue onto the bottom side of each pipe cleaner and stick onto the mask as whiskers.
10. Using a hole punch, punch a small circle at both sides of the mask near the edges and thread through a string of elastic (or ribbon) that will tie together and work to hold the mask in place.

NOTES:

To pull together the entire costume, I repurposed some old pink ballet “moon boots” and used white masking tape to make a line of white along the bottom. I then had to use green fabric dye to re-colour a pair of white tights (I couldn’t find green tights). To make the top, I bought a yellow hoodie and using 2 pieces of orange felt, I cut out circles and then glued onto the hoodie using a hot glue gun. Note, be careful with the glue gun. Late nights and red wine make using a hot glue gun risky – believe me! To finish it off, I sourced a black long-haired wig from the Dollar Store to complete the Pinky Pick “look”.

Has your child already had their Book Parade? Did you have a late night trying to pull together a costume last-minute? Ever attempted a DIY costume?

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BOOK WEEK 2014 SERIES:

Book Week 2014: Connect To Reading
Book Week 2014: Best Book Parade Costumes
Book Week 2014:DIY Photo Bookmarks
Book Week 2014: Press Here by Hervé Tullet
Book Week 2014: Geronimo Stilton Review

pinky pick image source