15 Quick and Easy Last Minute World Book Day Costumes

Matilda 

• Red bow, ribbon or cut a strip of red cloth/old t-shirt.
• School shirt
• Dress
• A few books, possibly tied into a pile with string
• Jam jar with some water and ideally a plastic newt (any small bath toy animal or dinosaur or a jelly slug in our case, will do!).
• Glasses if possible, but not essential

Tintin

• Plain jumper (ideally blue)
• Shorts (ideally brown and baggy)
• Hair product to quiff up the front of you hair
• A teddy (ideally white dog) on a lead or string
• Magnifying glass if you have one, or cut one out of some old cardboard.

Gangsta Granny

• Floral blouse
• Cardigan
• Skirt
• Tights
• Pearl necklace
• Black robber’s mask, made with a strip of black material, holes cut in an eye mask or black paper cut to shape with string to hold it in place. 
• Ideally a grey wig or hair spray
• A bag with swag written on or a biscuit tin with gems inside

Bruce Bogtrotter

• Old white/school shirt
• Chocolate/nutella spread on the shirt and face!
• A cushion stuffed up the front of the shirt.

Mr Men and Little Miss

• Mr bump: blue clothes and bandages
• Little miss sunshine: yellow clothes and bunches

Spider - James and the Giant peach

• Dark top
• Dark trousers
• 3 x pairs of tights stuffed with newspaper
• 6 x safety pins to attach the pairs of legs
• 2 x 1m long bits of string to attach the ends of the legs to the wrists

Centipede - James and Giant peach

• Green/brown top
• Green/brown trousers 
• Lots of socks stuffed with newspaper
• Lots of safety pins to attach the little legs
• A set of antennae, either 2 pipe cleaners on a hair band or molded from tin foil.

The Boy in the dress

• A dress
• A football

The lost boys  

• PJs
• A teddy
• Ideally a bow and arrow of some sort

BFG

• Massive ears, ideally made by cutting a paper plate in half and connecting the halves with a strip of card that sits over the top of the BFG’s head. If you have time, paint or colour in the ears and fix in place with hair clips. 
• A cape or large coat hung over the shoulders
• A dream trumpet made by rolling some sheets of newspaper into a stiff cone and wrapping with tin foil. 
• A dream jar, either a small bottle with some water and glitter in it, or a jam jar with coloured paper or cotton wool that’s been roughly coloured with felt tip and any small battery light you can find, a bike light, glow stick, battery fairy lights.

The Twits 

• Draw on a thick monobrow with felt tip or face paint.
• Make your hair as scruffy as possible, brush it the wrong way and ideally put sticks ans leaves in it. 
• If you can, try to create a beard from coloured in cotton wool, or out of cardboard with shredded cardboard stuck to it, with small birds and bits of scrambled eggs in it!

Pippi Longstocking

• Odd socks
• Odd shoes
• Random miss matched clothes
• Freckles 
• Rosie red cheeks
• Ideally a red wig with sticky out plaits or if you have long hair, plait it onto a metal coat hanger taped onto a hair band to keep in place.

Charlie Bucket

• Dress in scruffy clothes
• Make a golden ticket using yellow card or paper and a black felt tip. 

Mr Stink 

• Draw on stubble with felt tip or thick pencil. 
• A scruffy coat
• A teddy (ideally a dog) on a lead as The Duchess
• A DIY cardboard badge or sash with “Stink for Prime Minister” on it