Mr Clicketty Cane

Connor is my creative little 5 year old. He started school this year and has been loving it so far. The other day he had a dress up day at school, where the kindergarten children got to come as their favourite character in a book. We got the note weeks ago, and I thought I had convinced Connor to go as a pirate, or a Ninja Turtle, or something easy from his box of costumes. The kids have been taking it turns of being sick lately, and Zoe in particular has been very very sick. I can't remember when I last got a full nights sleep and I am tired and vague at the moment and had completely forgotten about dress up day, until Connor reminded me, at 5pm on Monday, that it was tomorrow.  We went to choose an outfit and they were all met with disapproval. Sensing he was getting close to tears, I asked what he wanted to wear. He stated that he wanted to be Mr Clicketty Cane, which is one of his favourite stores.

The fact that Mr Clicketty Cane appeals to Connor is no real surprise to anyone who knows him. However, I did not find clicketty cane all that appealing at that point in time. We did not have a crocodile costume and I had no desire to make one, especially the night before he needed it. But there was no convincing him otherwise, and so Cocketty Cane it was.

I used one of his PJ onesies as a pattern and made up a onesie from it with a zipper down the front so that he could still go to the toilet. I put a contrasting circle on the front, half of it was sewn down, and the other half had velcro so that he could pull it aside to get to the zipper.

I used a scuba knit that I had sitting in the stash - it does pay to be a fabric hoarder at times. I bought it from Spotlight and had no idea what I would do with it, but was kind of curious about it. I have made a dress out of patterened scuba knit for myself, but the plain......hmmm I remain unconvinced. For cosumes though it is really great. So easy to sew with.

The hat was a bit trickier, and I don't even really know what I did now. Lets just say that at some point I abandoned the sewing machine and pulled the glue gun out. I went though an awful lot of glue sticks!

The tail was on elastic so that he could take it off easily to sit down at school and the cane was an assignment I gave his father because I was too tired to come up with anything. It took Scott all of two seconds to do.

My Clicketty Cane was very happy when he woke up the next morninga nd proudly strutted into school. And when he got there, I was glad I had taken some time and effort to put together a home made costume.

I do love having a child who is confident enough to be an individual without worrying about what others think. He had a lovely day with all of his friends.

Here he is with his class

And even though Clicketty Can took some effort (but not that much really), I at least didn't get the battle that one of the other mums had because her child wanted to come as Mr McGee from Mr McGee and the Biting Flee. Specifically this picture:

It caused quite the argument apparently when she said no!!

Hope you are all surviving winter Marnie