ECO-FRIENDLY WORLD BOOK DAY COSTUMES
For the last few years I have sat back feeling smug and hugely relieved when our school has neglected to jump onto the "let's all dress up for World Book Day" bandwagon. Until this year. When they gave us 10 days notice that our little darlings could come to school on World Book Day (7th March) dressed up as one of their favourite book characters "if they liked".
Now obviously in reality that means it's obligatory - unless you want to be the parent who looks like they forgot. Or the very mean 'bah humbug' parent.
And I'm not 'bah humbug' - I love the idea of World Book Day, and anything that gets kids excited about books and reading is a Good Thing. I just hate the need to dress up for it. Or more specifically the fact that time poor parents faced with yet another thing to cram into their lives will probably just hit Amazon or the supermarket for a mass produced plastic monstrosity that will be worn once, and then condemned to landfill to sit for centuries to come.
When you can pick up a costume that looks about a gazillion times better than anything you could cobble together yourself at home, for less than a tenner, why would you go to the hassle of trying to make a papier mâché spaceman's helmet, or forage the woods for sticks to make a bonafide witches broomstick?
Well I'm glad you asked. The costumes that you see online (I'm looking at you Amazon) and in the shops are the very epitome of fast fashion (ok, maybe not strictly 'fashion'). They're designed and made to be almost throwaway - low quality, mass produced, intended to be worn once (or at the very most twice) and then discarded. But just as with all our clothes, the raw materials had to come from somewhere (usually oil as most of these are synthetic fabrics) and have to be made by someone. They aren't magic-ed out of thin air by machines. Real people will have sewn every seam. And then to top it all off they're all treated with chemicals to make them fire-proof.
Soooo... how can you send your little darling to school in a costume that hasn't cost the earth?
REUSE
If you've already got a costume from previous parties or World Book Days, drag it out and use it again. Chances are your kids can't even remember what they went as last time, let alone any of their friends.
BORROW
Ask around friends and family if they have a costume you can borrow.
We have a class FB group, and everyone shared in there what outfits they had, or what they were looking for. There's no need to go and buy an Alice in Wonderland outfit - chances are someone you know already has one.
I saw a post on FB where someone said their school was having a 'costume swap shop' in the run up to World Book Day - this is GENIUS!
RECYCLE/UPCYCLE
Have a quick scout around the charity shops and see what you can find. I once found a fake fur gilet thing that has been an Asterix outfit, and this year is going to be re-utilised for our youngest to be "Hiccup the Horrendous Haddock III" from How to Train your Dragon. You honestly don't need to be an expert at sewing either - very basic hand sewing is all that's required, or failing that getting happy with a glue gun...
GO EASY
Loads of characters have pretty easy costumes that you can rustle up from things you already have at home. Check out this list from ArtVenturers for no-stress (no spend, no landfill) costume ideas.
If you're still short on inspiration, pop into the A Sustainable Life FB group and use the search function to look for the World Book Day thread - loads of brilliant ideas in there, with not a nylon monstrosity in sight!
Ahaaaaa me hearties! This pirate outfit is SO easy and saw us through several parties and dress up days. Old jeans cut off, striped t-shirt the boys already had, red t-shirt from a charity shop chopped into a waistcoat, eye patch from a party bag and a headscarf from a charity shop. Boom.
"Asterix" - Paper mache hat and 'gourd' (hubby did these), and fake fur gilet from the charity shop that's been roped into all kinds of fancy dress!
