Yesterday my son’s school had their Book Week parade. Technically it’s not Book Week for another few weeks, but ours was combined with Open Day. There was so much colour, lots of great costumes, plenty of happy kids, and many parents and grandparents who came to support the kids. Even the teachers dress up. It was a wonderful morning!
So, what costume did we come up with?
How to Train Your Dragon is very popular in our house at the moment. Luckily, the movies and tv series are based on a book series by Cressida Cowell, so we were good to go with Hiccup, the young Viking dragon trainer!
You can see my Book Week costume ideas Pinterest board here.
The elements we needed to come up with were:
A brown vest, belt and boot cuffs.
A dragon shield.
We already had black boots, brown pants, and a green top. I added the lace to the green top with safety pins. From a distance it looks ok 😉
Here is my Hiccup striking a pose:
I bought some brown polar fleece as it had a good texture.
To make the vest, I folded the fleece in half, measured across my son’s shoulders, and cut. The folded bit was at the top – across the top of his shoulders. So I just had to cut a hole for his head, and sew down the sides leaving space for armholes. Then I cut down the middle of the front, and shaped it around the corners.
I hope the photo gives you an idea of what I did. There was not a lot of exact measuring.
The belt was just another strip of fabric, fastened at the back with a safety pin.
For the boot cuffs, I measured (again, very roughly – there was no tape measure involved) around the ankle and cut a wide piece of fabric. I folded that in half lengthwise and sewed it to make a tube. I turned that inside out so the seam was inside. I sewed the ends together and cut off the excess, and turned it inside out again. All the seams are now hidden. The bottom of his pants were tucked into his socks to keep the pants secure. He pulled on the cuffs, and lastly the boots.
I searched for images of Hiccup’s shield, and found several examples. I went with the one with a Toothless-style dragon.
http://howtotrainyourdragon.wikia.com/wiki/File:Gronckle_Iron_Plating.png
I cut two circles out of corrugated cardboard and glued them together. This was for added strength. Then I got to work drawing the design. I think I did ok 😉
My son helped painting the dragon. There are two strips of cardboard on the back to hold it on his arm.
I took this photo today – the day after the parade, and after a day at school. It is a little rougher around the edges that it was originally!
Here is an action shot, just before the pose of the first photo in this post. It was a bit windy today, hence all the leaves. I should have removed them before taking the photo. Oh well.
So the Book Week costume is done for another year. What will your child wear for their parade?
Saw it, Pinned it, Did it! 
