When the nursery Hannah attends sent out information regarding planned activities for August I was quite excited they would be having a fancy dress day on one of the days she attends! The initial excitement soon changed to apprehension as I tried to decide what on earth she could wear! So after much searching (and time wasting!) on Pinterest I came up with the idea of Little Red Riding Hood.

I still wasn’t sure how I was going to pull this off but had a few ideas in mind……..

Alter a red gingham school dress to fit….

Make a red cape and a white apron…..

Find a small basket….

Sounds simple enough, right!?!

Anyway, whilst pottering around our local Tesco I purchased a red gingham school dress for £4.

I also randomly noticed a red duvet cover which was on offer at the time, it was just the right colour, see here.  (the remainder of it has been added to my fabric collection!) Alternatively you could purchase some fabric or perhaps buy a sheet.

Mum found the pretty broderie anglaise fabric and trim in Mrs Sew ‘n’ Sew in Portadown, see details here and she kindly ordered a cute little basket from Amazon, see similar here.

So with all my bits and bobs gathered I just needed to put it all together! So out came the scissors and the sewing machine and I set to work…….

The dress was the smallest I could get at age 3-4 so i cut the middle out of it to shorten the bodice and the skirt and then reattached it again, I am no sewing expert so it’s well the seams are hidden in the inside!

The little broderie anglaise apron was made by cutting out a square of fabric and edging it with a trim and then adding a long folded strip at the top to tie around the waist.

My favourite piece of the outfit is most definitely the cape! I found a fabulous tutorial online over on a lovely blog www.stitchedbycrystal.com the link to the tutorial is here. This could be customised for so many outfits, superman, batman etc

I really enjoyed making this costume and Hannah rather liked it too, she wore her cape and apron all afternoon at nursery and dear help anyone who thought for one minute she had any intention of sharing her basket!!

I imagine in another few years a little voice will be saying ‘I would like a ……… costume’ and I will be very sorry I ever got the sewing machine out!!

Maybe this will inspire you to try your hand at some fancy dress costumes for your own little ones!

Thanks for reading!

Christine xx