diy dressing up: mr gum

After complaining about how often my kiddos have to dress up for school, it seems that months have gone by without any calls for last minute crafty mummy to come to the rescue, so last week's World Book Day found me a little rusty. As usual, despite the 3 week warning we had from school, the numerous reminder letters, and even the discussions around who or what to be, we still left organising the outfit until the night before.

I'm afraid that I'm a sucker for a homemade outfit, they look so much cuter, and let's face it teachers must look favourably on the obvious effort involved! It's OK though, I have a tried and tested system now for school dress up days - make one thing, this gives the impression of being homemade without too much stress, and it never fails to impress - bingo! So after deciding on what/who to be, we hunt around the house to put together the basics. Then to add that little bit of pizzazz, crafty mummy steps in.

This time Freddie wanted to be Mr Gum, I was surprised, he normally goes for low key, but he insisted. Oversized jacket (my little vintage Italian number - yes I was worried about it all day!), green top, too-short trousers, all easy to find. The crafty problem was all about the head gear. But a quick trip to my local haberdashery/craft store proved to be the answer to my prayers - orange bobbly wool, card and black paint ... the result, not perfect, but not bad under time pressure ... and I love the way he got into character!

Did anyone else do anything fun for World Book Day ... the cutest thing I saw (apart from my boy, of course) were these utterly gorgeous biscuits ...