Friday, August 30, 2013

I Spy Book Costume

 Recently Bubble had Book Week at school and needed a costume for the Book Fair Parade. I asked her which book she would like to be and she answered me right away with her all time favourite series;
"I want to be an I Spy book!"
I Spy books don't really have any characters, just a bunch of random objects on each page and a list of things to find. The costume ended up being very easy to make and Bubble loved it so much she wants to wear it again for Halloween - double score!

WE USED:
* plain white t-shirt
(I bought ours at KMart for $2)
* random small objects
(we went through all of our drawers and toy boxes for small parts we didn't need any more, it was a great recycling project)
* hot glue gun 
* laundry marker
(we used Sharpie brand)
* old chopping board, thick card or something you can use as a barrier between the shirt layers. It must be something that can withstand the hot glue.

 First, I ironed our plain t-shirt and then slid an old glass chopping board inside it, between the front and back of the shirt. This was to stop the glue seeping through and joining them together!

It took me about ten minutes to attach the objects we had collected to the front of the shirt using the hot glue gun.
I would advise doing this activity in a well ventilated area as some objects were a bit stinky when the hot glue was applied.
Some of our objects got stuck to the glass chopping board through the t-shirt but they were very easily removed using a spatula and stayed attached to the shirt.

Using a laundry marker I wrote out a list of things for people to search for on the front of the shirt. This was a big hit, Bubble's friends really enjoyed finding all of the items.

To finish off her costume we found a detectives hat in the dress up section of a dollar shop and used foam stickers to write 'I Spy' across the front. I also hot glued a mini magnifying glass to the front which was a left over party favour.
Bubble carried her full sized magnifying glass for the parade and wore some pretend glasses because she wanted to look 'scientific' :)
The outfit came together really well and all of the objects stayed put for the whole day. I did put another shirt on underneath her I Spy one though so she could take it off during class, all of those little bits and pieces would have been a bit distracting!

7 comments:

  1. That is so creative!! I love it! My son loves the I Spy books. Maybe I can talk him into doing that for Halloween.

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  2. What a really clever costume! It is fantastic, well done! I love that the other kids were engaged in finding the items.

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  3. I am new to your site...found you through pinterest. I am going to feature this pos this week on HammockTracks. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. What an AWESOME idea!!! I love it. I can imagine kids loving it too.

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  5. Oh man coolest costume idea ever!!!!!

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  6. I teach second grade and my kids love these books. I'm going to have to do this.

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  7. I love this idea! I'm an elementary school librarian and I just created this costume for our halloween parade! Thanks for sharing!

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