To Strive [And Not To Yield]

"Strive" is the motto of Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches in the series of books by Jill Murphy. I'm not really into witches myself, but the heroine [Mildred Hubble] is more like Blyton's  Darrell Rivers at Malory Towers, but with a cat and a broomstick [and better written imho] Rosie loves them.

Rosie has a party to go to at the end of the month, and needs a costume. She told me she wants to be Mildred and has got the cat sorted out! So on Friday I visited the charity shops in Dereham and came home with all I needed [total spend £9:50]  The family arrived on Saturday. Unfortunately Jess was not too well - so Rosie had a sleepover with us Sunday night, and we spent Monday working on the costume.

I did  not have any striped ribbon, so set Rosie up to colour black stripes on a wide pale grey ribbon, using a fabric pen. We then ironed that to fix the colour. Although the TV Witch has a cloak with a collar, I decided to make one with a hood [using half a black sheet and a red curtain from my stash] I made it reversible [see yesterday's picture of Jess, modelling it!]. You never know when you will need a red cloak.
The M&S pinafore dress [RSPCA] was a little big, and the straps had D ring adjustment. So fiddly* - I swapped them out for dungaree clips and buttons from my stash. The hat was £1 [PACT], and I made a Strive badge from felt, and a slightly larger one to appliqué to the tunic. The over the knee socks [Cancer Research] and the tie [EACH] and I was almost there. I found a white school shirt in Poundland sale for £1. I made a red sash too.

I know I spent more time than I needed, making this. Rosie would have been happy with a plain hat, and a simple black cloak. But her holiday has been a bit thwarted as activities had to be curtailed whilst Jess was sick. And I wanted to encourage Rosie, she had a good half term report at Parents' Evening.

But the costume is done and dusted - and can go into the dressing up bag afterwards. * I loathe D rings on garments - they often slip and sag. I'm not sure it is fair to expect children to manage them. 

I have shown Rio how to twist the wire edge of the hat into a figure eight then fold in half. The hat is then flat and can be slipped into a small square bag. But Abracadabra! when you get it out, it pings magically back into shape. Much easier to transport to the party if it is a windy day.