It's World Book Day!

I really thought I'd got a free pass this year. Over half term I checked with all grandchildren and their mothers, in case costumes were needed. And then Sunday night, a message from my neighbour. Could I help with her daughter's costume, please? She wanted to go as the snake from the Gruffalo
It is her last year at the special school - and she has been upset by the recent deaths of two local boys on Yr Wyddfa [Snowdon] as one has been a friend since toddler group days. 

They'd sourced a dress online, but when it arrived it was too long, and too slim. She needed it shorter, and wider, so she could wear it comfortably in her wheelchair. 
Fortunately 'buffet' dresses, with their tiered skirts have a lot of fabric in the bottom frill. I measured all round and the hem was 204cm. I cut off the frill at a point which made the dress 100cm long. 

I ended up with a piece 200 x 20 cm. which I cut into two long narrow strips.
Her Mum had suggested 

putting a panel centre front and back - but that meant remaking the back of the collar, and a complicated double breasted set of buttons and buttonholes.
Instead I cut the dress in three - vertically from the shoulder seam along two lines either side of the collar and inserted the two panels. I was a bit nervous about cutting up the dress, but it has worked perfectly. Brooke is really pleased with her costume for Thursday, and her Mum is making the snake a 'logpile house' from loo rolls and cardboard to hang on the back of the wheelchair.

Have you been involved in World Book Day?
What costumes have you made?