Please...

 Dear Grandma

I am writing to you to ask for some thing.
So for World Boock Day I would like to dress up as Penut Jones by Rob Biddulph so I’m asking if you would gladly make it for me

Yours sinserly Rosie

When you get a letter like this, from somebody special, you have to take it seriously. Somebody who has noticed that my response is frequently "I'll gladly do that for you" and takes the trouble to give 7 months notice and gives details of the author. I'd never heard of Peanut Jones. I searched the Net and discovered she was created by award winning artist Rob Biddulph.  He seems like a great guy, who wants to encourage children to draw and to write.

The intro to his first PJ book says

Drawing feels like magic to Peanut Jones. But art can't fix her problems. Her dad has gone missing, and she's stuck in a boring new school. Until the day she finds a unique pencil turbo-charged with special powers. Suddenly she's pulled into a world packed with more colour, creativity, excitement and danger than she could ever have imagined. And maybe, just maybe, she might find out what happened to her dad...

All good thus far - then I discovered this guy actually put out a tweet last February, helping people who wanted to dress as PJ for WBD. An illustration with notes. The main requirement was the bandolier. Rosie has the denim dungaree shorts and the red hair already. I ordered some stripey tights online.

So Rosie and I set to, with some rainbow coloured tape, scrap elastic, and some old crayons [really old - the sort that break when you try to sharpen them. One even said Stephanie Almond  and came from Auntie Steph's primary school pencil case c. 1991] Clever Grandad taped the long pencils tUPDATEher then cut them in half. I used the same technique as I rely on when making my pencil rolls, stitching up and down to make channels.

First trying on session - bandolier and topknot [dungarees, tights and blue tee shirt will come later] Rosie is extremely pleased with her outfit. I will be surprised if she waits till next March to wear it!

UPDATE : I just had a comment saying "Great costume Grandma, from Rob Biddulph" which really WAS there, honest. But disappeared when I tried to publish it! I am ridiculously excited that he noticed, and approves!!