Home-made Robinson Crusoe Costume (from recycled school clothes)

My kids celebrated World Book Day at school this week. After much discussion, my older son decided to dress up as Robinson Crusoe the shipwrecked hero of his favourite (audio)book.

I used some outgrown school clothes to make his costume.

First I found one of his old school shirts from last year  that was on the grubby side anyway... 

I threw three black teabags into about 1.5-2 liters of boiling water. 

 I put shirt into the tea-dye and let the pot boil for a couple of minutes before turning the heat off and leaving the shirt to soak for an hour or so.

I then rinsed the shirt in cold water and hung it out to dry.

When it dried, I ripped off parts of the sleeves, and tore into the pocket. (As it is still cold out I was concerned A would freeze with too many tears...)

The shirt turned out really well, much better than I had hoped for.

For the bottom part of the costume I used a pair of scruffy P.E trousers that were already riddled with holes for some reason.

I cut the cuffs off the legs in a zigzag fashion. And cut a few holes into it.

A added an old scarf as a belt onto which he strung the pouch he uses for Cubs and tucked in a wooden knife S lent him. Alternatively it's quite easy to make a weapon from sticks and rope.

What I really like about this costume is that I could recycle old clothes that we no longer have a use for, my only added cost was 3 teabags, and the fact that the costume is comfortable to wear, its not made of that clingy polyester material like most of the cheaper costumes you can buy in shops.

Home-made Captain America Costume/1

My younger son does not really love dressing up. So when it was Hero Day at school , I was a bit worried about how he would take to the idea. He did not want to be Spiderman or Batman, a brave knight or any other of the costumes we had at home.
We were discussing the options on our way home from school. When we got home my older son noticed a blue hoodie on the banister. "Well...actually this would make a great Captain America costume... would you like that S?" he said. And he would, so I got down to making the costume.
I used white felt for the A on the hood and the star. I attached the felt with Bondaweb and subsequently sewed it on. (I cut the star out in one and cut it in half and lined it up on either side of the zip.)

The shield was made out of a cereal box. I used a plate as a template , and cut two circle shapes.
I also cut a longer rectangular shape for the handle that I covered in duct tape, to make the handle stronger.
I cut two slots into one of the circles and pushed the handle through both holes.

The handle from the back

And duct taped the ends of the rectangle on the other side.

I painted and varnished the Captain America sign on the other circle and glue-gunned the two sides of the shield together. I wanted to make sure the shield does not fall apart at school, and result was a shield that the kids have played with a lot in last few months and is still intact.

And S has been wearing the hoodie a lot too, and not only for dressing up. 

Infact, A has also requested and recieved his own Captain America hoodie....

coming soon to Feverish Feltist :)