All My Children

Pooh Costumes

Fancy dress is fun, and although not every family has time or talent to make costumes which will be worn once only, some Pooh characters can be very simply made. Christopher Robin, for example, needs little more than shorts, a shirt and sandals, plus a soft hat. Or when guests arrive you could give them all ears and a tail to show which of the Pooh book characters they are.

Eats are surprisingly easy to make. Take an oblong piece of thin card, an inch or so longer than the ear you are making. Fold it in half lengthwise, and shape the ear — long and narrow for Rabbit, short and round for Pooh etc. Fold and staple or stitch to a band of stiff material or card, and fasten as indicated. Paint the ears the appropriate colour, or glue soft material over them. Eeyore’s ears must be floppy, so should be made entirely of material to the same pattern as Rabbit’s.

Rabbit’s tail could be made of cotton wool glued to a round of material to which a safety pin has already been attached with sticky tape. The tail is then pinned in place.

For Eeyore’s tail, stuff part of the leg of a pair of old tights with cut-up old stockings, dip in coffee or a dye or poster paint, dry and add a tassel. Tigger would have a similar tail, but without a tassel, dyed yellow (onion skins are useful for making the dye) and striped with dark poster paint.

If you want more ‘dressing’ up for a Pooh Party, most households could supply a striped T-shirt for Piglet, and perhaps a yellow jersey for Pooh — padded with cushions at front and back, these held in place with wide tape or material over each shoulder, safety-pinned to make them removable if Pooh gets too hot!

Kanga could wear a large rounded apron made of an old white sheet, with a pocket to fit the lower half. If you happened to have a toy kangaroo to put into the pocket, it would make it even clearer who she is.

For an owl costume you make a mask out of a paper bag. The kind with a gusset is best. Try it on over your head to find out where to cut holes for eyes, nose and mouth. Then take it off and draw Owl’s face. You could also make a wide circular collar of brown paper, and draw feathers on it with a felt pen, or make separate paper feathers and stick them on. If you are feeling ambitious you could make it full-length.

Party Hats

Margarine containers, round or oblong, make very jaunty hats. Make two holes on either side and thread elastic through, knotted at each end. The elastic should fit comfortably under the chin. If the containers are plain, decorate them by drawing patterns with a felt-tipped pen, or sticking on coloured motifs. Write each guest’s name on a hat. The containers could be covered with silver foil, with a gold star in front. They could have a tassel on top, or hanging down one side. This is made by fringing and rolling a strip of crepe paper and tying it with coloured cord.

Paper hats are easy to make, and a party table looks gay if there is one by each guest’s plate. Cut strips of paper (crepe is stronger than plain) 7 or 8 inches deep and long enough to go round your head, with an overlap for gumming to form a circle. Before you gum, cut along the upper edge into points to look like a crown, or fringe the edge and turn it down. These are basic designs, but there is endless scope for variety. You could stick coloured gummed shapes round the hat. It should fit fairly loosely on the head — this allows for someone else’s head being a bit larger than your own!

For a Hallowe’en Party you need witches’ and warlocks’ hats. Try them first in newspaper. In fact, painted newspaper — two sheets gummed together to give strength — makes excellent hats. For each hat you need a quarter of a circle of paper. Cut a 15 inch square of paper. Take a piece of string I5 inches long, pin or hold it at one corner of the paper and swing the other end of the string in an arc, marking the curve with a pencil. Cut out and make a cone, joining the straight edges together with tape. Try it on your head. If it fits too loosely you can overlap the edges or cut a piece off. And if it is too small, which is unlikely, you try again with a 16 inch square !

For the brim you need a large circle. If you haven’t got a suitable tray or waste-paper basket about 15 inches in diameter to use as pattern, use a dustbin lid and cut away about 2 inches all round the resulting circle of paper. Using a pudding basin for guide, cut a 5 inch hole in the centre, and snip inwards all round this hole. Turn up these snipped portions. You’ll have to experiment to get the snips the right length, but they should not be less than i inch — preferably more. The brim of the hat should be about 3 inches wide, and the snipped portions are gummed into the inside of the cone.

Paint the hats black, or gum black paper over them, and decorate with signs suggesting witchcraft: new moons, stars, black cats and so on.

Warlocks wear hats without brims. Brims are for witches !

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