This year, World Book Day was so much fun. For the past couple of years my daughter has dressed up in shop-bought costumes – I think she’s been a fairy and Snow White. They weren’t the most imaginative costumes ever, but she was happy enough. This year was different.
On the 1st of January I made some sewing goals; one of them was to actually make a costume for WBD.
Now, a couple of weeks ago I asked my daughter what her favourite book is. She replied with “Cinderella.” Hmm. That could be true; we are looking forward to seeing the new film in the cinema soon. But, like Snow White and fairies, it’s not very original. She has a nice Cinderella dress in her dressing-up box. I guess I could have made her an outfit for another character from the story, but I had a different idea…
Elmer. [Image pinched from Google Images!]
I’ve not met a child who doesn’t like Elmer. Did you know it was originally published in 1968? And there are now nearly 30 spin-offs!
Elmer is a colourful patchwork elephant. He is the joker in the herd, but he wants to blend in with the other elephants. However he comes to realise that his colours are what makes him him, and that his friends love him in spite of his difference in appearance. It’s a sweet tale; I’m not sure that my eldest ‘gets’ the underlying message, but she enjoys the colourful pictures and humour.
So, I made an Elmer costume – here she is!
Are you thinking ‘OH MY GOODNESS HOW CUTE!!’??!
I LOVE it, and luckily so does my daughter. She was so excited to wear it. And didn’t seem self-conscious at all… I’m not sure I would pull off that trunk!
So, how did I make it? I totally made it up as I went along.
I wanted some kind of dress, but I just dove in and started sewing together squares to make a big piece of patchwork fabric. I just guessed about the size – I kept going until I had a feeling that I had made enough!! I thought I could make a tabard sort of thing – a piece for the back, a piece for the front, and two tabs at the sides holding it together, but…. I should have bought a Lotto ticket that day because I made just the right amount of pieces to make a rectangular shape that could be turned into a tube and wrapped around my daughter. I did just that and thought – aha! Pillowcase dress!
So I sewed the sides together and cut curves out of the edges to make armholes. I totally winged it; I didn’t use a pattern, but luckily I cut them about the right size!
That’s the only in-progress photo I have – I was far too busy to stop to take any more!
I sewed some bias binding round the armholes, and made casings at the front and back for a strip of ribbon to run through. I hemmed it, and it was finished!
The construction of the actual dress was really straightforward – it was the piecing of all those squares that took forever. I did have a little helper who was passing the squares to me to sew. I also had a little monster who kept walking aimlessly through the carefully laid out pieces on the floor…
I was very aware that I was making it for one day’s wear so didn’t stress about matching the squares exactly – which was just as well, really. Also I didn’t finish any of the seams, so I’m glad it came home from school clean as it’ll probably fall apart in the wash!
The night before dress-up day I realised that the elephant dress was missing a vital part – a tail! So I grabbed a strip of fabric (a red piece just the right kind of size was at the top of the bag!) and folded, sewed and knotted to make a cute little tail. I unpicked a hole at the back of the dress and stuffed neatly sewed it in.
That’s better!
Next up: ears. This was a job for my glue gun. I literally glued squares of felt on to both sides of pieces of card that I had cut into big ear shapes. I also glued tabs in loops on to the card, wrapping them around a hairband. I finished by handsewing some little stitches on the tabs to tighten their grip on the hairband.
The ears are big and floppy – a bit heavy, perhaps; my daughter didn’t wear them all day, but I couldn’t make a funky elephant costume with small ears!
And finally – the trunk. Made out of a kitchen roll tube, of course! At this point, I’d had enough of cutting fabric squares out. So I got the kids’ felt tips and did some colouring in! I cut a curve at the top for nose space; it tilts down a little instead of sticking straight out like Pinocchio’s nose!
My colouring is quite shameful but in my defence the pens were running out!
I punched a couple of holes, tied some elastic on and that was that…
The costume was complete!
The icing on the cake was the fact that my girls got a free Elmer book with the £1 voucher.
If you didn’t know about Elmer before – you do now! 🙂
Beth x
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Amazing! I still have my Elmer books and hot drinks flask many years after growing up.
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Thank you 🙂 Haha you’re never too old for Elmer! There are good messages in the story!
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Want to make my 21 month old granddaughter an Elmer costume for next WBD, as she’ll be in nursery that day. I have loads of materials scraps, but very few in plain colours. How did you manage to get so many plain colours?! I did think I might buy a pile of cheap pillow cases in plain colours…
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I bought rainbow colours to make a rainbow dress so I guess most were from that! But the cheap pillowcase idea sounds brilliant!
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This costume is amazing – I bet she was the envy of her classmates! Homemade costumes are the best, and I think highly preferable to the generic ones available on ebay 🙂 Well done.
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Thank you!! I’m sure every child went home asking for an Elmer outfit 🙂 haha 🙂
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What a great outfit and instantly recognisable too – the ears and trunk are genius additions. I made a Cruela de Vil outfit years ago for my daughter and she got in the local paper for it!
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Thank you! 🙂 Wow, your outfit must have been amazing. One of the teachers dressed up as her this year but I didn’t see it! Oh so many ideas for coming years!
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This is just great. And I think it could certainly be worn as a dress (without the trunk and tail) this summer, if she wanted.
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Thank you. Yes, she could if I unpick the tail!
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She looks amazing! Well done you! I know you said it was just for WBD but I bet she wears it loads for dressing it 😀
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I hope she does! At least I have another daughter to wear it for another WBD too 😀 and thank you very much 🙂
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The costume is breathtaking, and your daughter looks so happy! 🙂 I am ashamed to confess that I haven’t heard of Elmer before. But now I know him and will keep my eyes open when walking into a bookstore the next time. Have a lovely week, Beth. Jana
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Thank you for your lovely compliment.
Don’t worry you’re not the only one not to have heard of him! 😀
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Those ears are magic! No wonder she’s smiling so brightly!
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She absolutely loved it. Thanks! 🙂
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I love this outfit! Well done for ticking off a new year resolution!
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Thank you! I nearly didn’t, you know – I didn’t realise World Book Day was in March and I hadn’t planned anything! Luckily I wasn’t having a busy week so managed it 😀
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Brilliant! I particularly love those ears! 🙂
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Thanks! I’m so happy with how the ears turned out! I’ve seen photos of other Elmer outfits and the ears are always small haha!
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The bigger, the better! 😉
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Brilliant, I love the trunk!! hSe looks gorgeous and rather cheeky! I did look for pics of Abi in her Elmer outfit but haven’t found any yet, I think I need to do a bit of organising, the trouble is crochet and sewing are much more interesting!! Sharon x
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Thank you! Haha she can be cheeky! Ah never mind, one will turn up one day when you’re not looking! I know exactly what you mean…
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Very cute! Bet she loved it. It’s a real event in our house too. My Mum made my daughter’s costume -a giraffe! And my son went in a shop-pieced-together Skulduggery Pleasant 🙂
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A giraffe! Wow! Why did your mum make it, not you, hmm??! I don’t know who Skulduggery Pleasant is… Should I or is it a boy thing… :S
Oh and thank you, yes she was so excited about it!
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My daughter knew I’d say no to making a giraffe and suggest something much more sensible, so she asked her nanny (Welsh) instead, knowing full well she hardly ever says no to her. She’s cunning, even at the age of six 😉
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Haha smart little giraffe!
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I’m dreading the teenage years already… 😉
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This is beautiful 🙂 It sounded pretty straightforward to make too! I love Elmer… I bought the full book collection from the Book People last year for mega cheap, and I got an Elmer bag with them too!
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Thank you 🙂 Yeah it was straightforward, I really enjoyed it! Wow we only have the original book! Oh and the free WBD one. All you need is an outfit now haha!
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That is fantastic! It puts my own bad-tempered ladybird outfit to shame! Good on you for making it all yourself!
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Thank you 😀 the bad tempered ladybird is a great idea, I might do that next year!
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Every time I see this one I love it more and more I think it is because I always wanted to be elmer. Would you like to make me one to match? I think this is my favourite sewing project of the year 🙂
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Lol thank you! The amount of squares needed for an adult one would make me crazy… However you could enlarge the squares I guess… You might get some funny looks!
It’s definitely my most rewarding project so far.
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