1 Mar 2012

Hestia and World Book Day

I know, I've been shamefully neglecting you because of boring tat like tidying up for Tartarus coming home and because, rather spectacularly, I've made Sonshine's outfit for World Book Day.

The theme that the school set for today's celebrations was 'Nautical' and other than Captain Jack Sparrow ('mum, there will be hundreds of Captain Jacks'), Long John Silver (suggestion met with an interested eyebrow lift but I didn't think I could whittle a wooden leg in time) or Jim the cabin boy ('mum, no one knows what Jim the Cabin Boy should look like')....he opted to go as his father.

Tartarus may be many things but a character in a book or indeed the skill of authorship are not on his horizon.  Plus, his Chief Engineer's hat (think: officer and gentleman) is languishing in a brothel in Chile and his blazer has an ominously fousty-orange smell from hanging in the wardrobe for the best part of 30 years without being worn.  Plus, if Sonshine took his Chief Engineer stripes to school and lost them, I would be a dead woman.

So he reconsidered his options and went for Popeye.

I have NO clue whether he's ever featured in a book, but I'm pretty sure that there's a DC Comic out there somewhere featuring the spinach-swigging sailor.  Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And here he is:

I do not know what has happened to the focus, but it's the best I could come up with.  Maybe my batteries are flat.  The answer to most of my life's problems, methinks.

Let me take you through the costume.  The hat was purchased from the only shopping emporium in town, The Factory Shop, for £1.00.  It is too small for him, but it was all they had.  It was this hat or a motorbike helmet - which I'm pretty sure Popeye did not wear.

The top is his black KISS concert t-shirt turned inside out with two yellow buttons (40p for two) from the shop that sells wool and patterns from 1972.

The red material I actually bought from Remant Kings in Glasgow on Saturday when I was up there leading a Tarot workshop.... along with some black ribbon.  None of it is sewn - that God for Wundaweb and a hot iron!  Think the material and ribbon totalled about £6.

I stood in the middle of the shop and said 'I don't know what to do, can someone help me?' and a very nice girl led me to the red cotton and the black ribbon and cut me various lengths.  I hereby recommend them to dress-making virgins everywhere.

The pale blue sleeve edges are a baby's t-shirt from the Oxfam shop that was cut up and pressed into service  at the cost of £1.00.

The spinach tin is actually a tin of butter beans with a spinach label, created by Sonshine.  The Tattoos are biro pen.

THE PIPE is actually made out of a corn on the cob (yes, just like the real one) that I dried in the oven and sanded into a pipe barrel.  I even carved out the inside like a real pipe.  The stalk is a pencil covered in parcel tape.

I actually need to lie down now.

Before I go:  He came home from school and announced that he was playing Barnaby in the Easter Story.  'Barrabas?' I suggested.  Yes! he replied.  Apparently he had wanted to be Judas Priest but someone else got the role.  'Judas Iscariot?' I offered.  'Yes, that's what I said.'

Christianity clearly features somewhere far away from his Heavy Metal ipod playlist.

What are you doing for World Book Day?


19 comments:

  1. LOL Barnaby and Judas Priest! Love it :D Great costume too

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    1. When I told his father, he didn't even flicker any registration that either name was wrong.

      Ali x

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  2. LOL about Judas :-) And great job on the pipe !

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    1. I have a whole bag of corn on the cob now to eat :-)

      Ali x

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  3. Wow, you did a bang-up job, Ali, congratulations. I live in terror of when Big Boy gets old enough to ask for costumes *hides behind the hoover in hopes of not being found*

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    1. Fret not - I have a Thunderbirds outfit and a pirate's outfit that I am happy to send down to you when he gets a little bigger!

      Ali x

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  4. ha ha Judas Priest love it!! He makes a fabulous Popeye, very impressed with your costume making skills. And the corn pipe????? Blimey, I nearly fell off my chair. That's something else. My costume skills have never reached that level of research or effort - A-mazing!!! xx

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    1. I was dead impressed with the pipe - until about half an hour ago when I realised that you could buy little plastic corn pipes on line for about £3.

      Well, at least I have learned a new skill - corn whittling :-)

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  5. Great job on the costume - tell me clean Amy was Olive Oyle! He has got Popeye's rougish look down and the anchor tatts are very artistic.

    Barnaby and Judas Priest? Sounds like a bizarre episode of Midsomer Murders. I remember fondly Sonshine's last Easter story - I can't wait for this one! xxx

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    1. Hardly anyone in his class dressed up - but they all knew who he was, so he was happy! The Easter story this year will feature Sonshine as Barrabas . It's a non-speaking part, but he seems keen to totally ham it up while the crowd are baying for Jesus to be crucified. I'm not sure that humour is called for at that particular juncture in the story, but anything that gets him on a stage and happy has got to be good :-)

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  6. Did he save any damsels in distress, or just go to the pub to get oiled?

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    1. Came straight home, got changed, got fed, went to Warhammer. It's alllllll ahead of you Wally!

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  7. Am wincing with comparing my past efforts with this masterpiece - even trimming the sleeves with blue material, the pipe... awesome! Sonshine looks a very happy Popeye indeed.

    The last WBD costume I made was D'Artagnan. All fine - old black cape made into jacket, frilly charity shop net curtain ruffles... and then the hat. Left that til the night before and it had to be cobbled together Very Badly. And I gave him an old metal baroque-style belt for the trousers. Course, when I picked him up at the end of the day he hadn't been able to work out how the belt undid and hadn't been able to pee all day!

    Could they not write a special part into the production so that Sonshine COULD be Judas Priest? ;) x

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    1. I think a spot of black leather and studs and rock music would be something he would enjoy a great deal. Not sure about the Minister though!

      Re costume - most years I just sit in the bedroom with my face into a corner and make scared noises. And then try to fit him into the previous year's outfit :-)

      Ali x

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  8. Can't...stop...laughing....

    Great costume!

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    1. It's very high-brow in here. Not! Thanks for stopping by the blog - appreciate it!!!!

      Ali x

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  9. I'm sure that Popeye was created bythe American Canned Spinach Company to promotethe consumption fo the bloody ghastly stuff. Love fresh spinach, but the canned stuff is more like post diigested algal bloom.

    Full marks to your efforts for the costume.

    Who's playing Shelley Duvall?

    Clean Amy?

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    1. Spinach makes my teeth feel funny. Think it's something to do with the acid in the leaves. You end up with a mouthful of things that feel like they belong to someone else.

      And he no longer fancies Clean Amy. So he says. I don't believe him.

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  10. It's great that everyone knew who he had gone as. I would have agreed with him that there would have been hundreds of Captain Jacks and suggested my own favourite pirate Captain Pugwash, but I doubt if kids today know who he is. ("Kids today" - yes, I am turning into my mother).

    Your costume was great, much more fun than a generic pirate costume, though much more work too of course. I'm particularly impressed with the corn pipe.

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