5 easy costume ideas for World Book Day
Image: Children wearing an assortment of superhero costumes.
1. Using own clothes
It’s worth remembering that plenty of our favourite characters dress in everyday clothes! For instance, put together a red and white stripey shirt, a red hat and a pair of glasses for an easily recognisable Where’s Wally? costume. Some denim overalls over a checked shirt, borrow dad’s toolbelt, and suddenly Bob the Builder is ready for the day. Match a blue overcoat, red hat and an old suitcase with a ‘Please look after this bear’ tag for Paddington Bear, and a simple blue dress, white apron and hair bow for Alice in Wonderland. How many characters can your child dress up as straight from their wardrobe?
2. Fabric offcuts
A little bit of spare or unused fabric can go a long way, and if you’re gifted with a needle, thread and scissors, you can create something amazing. Cut eyeholes into a white bedsheet, and you’ve got a costume to match any classic ghost story! Wrap that same sheet into a toga, and fix it with stitches or safety pins for a Horrible Histories Ancient Roman. Or, with a few simple cuts and stitches, a black bedsheet will make a great witch or wizard’s cloak.
3. Pyjama party
Have you ever noticed how many book characters dress in their pyjamas? From Sophie in The BFG and Tom from Tom’s Midnight Garden, to Wendy from Peter Pan and Max from Where the Wild Things Are, wearing a simple set of classic PJs with a couple of accessories (e.g. a jar for Sophie’s ‘jar of dreams’) will bring a character to life. Just make sure your child layers up underneath so they don’t get cold!
4. Halloween leftovers
If you took your little ones trick or treating in October and still have the costume, you might be in luck! Plenty of these costumes can be adapted for World Book Day looks. Add a red and yellow scarf to your witch costume to summon Hermione Granger, and fix some paper-maché bolts to a headband to transform a zombie costume into Frankenstein’s Monster. A fairy costume can easily become Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, and a vampire costume will make the perfect Dracula.
5. Quick crafts
If you’re the crafty type, there’s plenty you can do with everyday materials to create accessories, or even whole costumes. For the differently shaped characters of Mr Men and Little Miss, paint simple cardboard cut-outs or boxes and draw on the faces to recreate favourite characters. Couple some purple face paint with all-purple clothes to create a Violet Beauregarde costume, and match a white t‑shirt and black shorts with a hand-drawn mask of Greg Heffley for a quick Diary of a Wimpy Kid look. You can use all kinds of colours and designs to make big elephant ears, dapper top hats, swashbuckling pirate swords and much more!
