DIY World Book Day CBeebies costume ideas

Supertato

Bing

Peter Rabbit

Octonauts

Postman Pat

Zog

Cardboard

Scissors

Paint

Glue or sticky tape

Green t-shirt

Red dungarees or red top and red trousers

Paper plate, paper or cardboard to create Bing's button

Orange pen or pencil

Cut out a circle or use a paper plate to create Bing's button. Use an orange coloured pen or pencil to colour in your circle then draw a cross on top with a black pen.

Cardboard or a brown t-shirt.

Black material, this can be an old t-shirt or top, or we've used an old sock.

Rubber gloves. Traditionally orange for Supertato, but any colour will look good.

Red material, red scarf, red jumper or hoody.

For the body, grab a large piece of cardboard. Measure the cardboard against your little one, you'll need enough to create a sandwich board that you can fold over their shoulders. Draw a large potato shape for the front of the sandwich board, keeping a small amount of card to lay across the shoulders, and then cut another potato shape for the back. Draw Supertato's belt onto the front and some brown spots to add to the potato effect - Easy! If you have no cardboard, but do have a brown t-shirt just draw Supertato's belt and some brown dots onto the t-shirt. You could get your child to wear tights and stuff the top of them with material, or tie a cushion around their waist (safely), to create a rounder potato shape.

For Supertato's eye mask, take a long strip of material, enough to tie around your little one's head and cut two eye holes in the front.

Tie your red material, or red jumper or hoody around your child's shoulders to make Supertato's cape.

Add rubber gloves to finish the look. 

If you happen to have some matching superhero boots hanging around you can add these to finish off the outfit.

Watch out for Evil Peas, as this costume could ruffle some feathers in the supermarket!

Check you have enough cardboard before starting this project.

Be careful when making the eye holes for the mask, it can be a bit fiddly and you need to make sure they are in the right place.

Attach pieces of ribbon to the sides of your sandwich board to give a more snug fit.

Brown trousers

A blue jacket or hoodie

1.5 metres of brown satin ribbon (should be at least 2cm wide)

White and brown paint

White and black paint

A pink dress and cardigan

1.5 metres of pink satin ribbon (should be at least 2cm wide)

White and red paint

White card

Crayons, felt tip marker pens, or paint

A headband

Craft glue 

Bunny ears template (loads of free ones available online)

Cotton wool balls

Trace your bunny ears onto card if using a template (or just freestyle it) 

Mix the brown paint with a little bit of the white to make a soft brown colour. Paint the ears brown and leave to dry. Mix red and white paint to make a soft pink. 

If you are steady with a paint brush, paint the inside of the ears pink. To make your bunny's ears really stand out, use a second printed template to make the inside of the ears - simply cut down a smaller version of the ears, trace onto card, paint, and then glue them onto the set of ears you’ve just painted.

Mix black and white paint together until you get a soft grey colour. (You only need a tiny amount of black paint!). Follow the same instructions for Peter. Draw or stencil a flower onto a piece of card. Colour the flower pink using crayons, felt tips, or paint.

To make the headbands: dot a bit of glue to the opaque side of the ribbon and stick it to the underside of the headband. Keeping the ribbon taut, wind it around the headband. As you wind the ribbon around the headband, don’t forget to secure the ribbon with a dot of glue at various intervals. Your last dot of glue will be when you reach the end of the headband. Cut off any excess ribbon. Use brown for Peter; pink for Lily. Leave to dry.

To attach the ears: fold the bottoms of ears under the headband and attach them with glue.

To make the cotton tails: Cut a circle out of card. Glue cotton wool balls to the circle. Add more glue to the first layer and cover again with more cotton wool balls.

Attach the tails carefully with safety pins or sticky tape.

If you have some spare felt, use it to make the ears and for a real 'wow' factor, use fake fur to line the insides of the ears.

If you can knit, why not knit a fluffy cotton tail?

Lightly pull apart the top layer of the cotton wool to give the tail a fluffier appearance.

Wide bridal headbands work really well for this make. You can find them in most craft shops or online. They are covered in white fabric and are lightly padded, and will be more comfortable for your little one to wear. You will also have an easier time attaching the ribbon to the headband as they are non-slip.

6 – 8 metres of green tulle

3 – 4 metres green ribbon

Green t-shirt

Leggings

Measure your child from armpit to knees (or longer, depending on the length you want)

Cut the tulle into strips that are twice as long as your measured length and around 8cm wide

Measure out a length of ribbon so that it fits around your child’s chest and leave another 30cm for a bow at the back

Take a piece of tulle and fold it in half so that it’s the length you want the dress to be, take the ribbon and position it just beneath the loop at the top of the dress (step 1). Loop the two ends of the tulle through the loop at the top creating a knot (step 2)

Continue knotting the strips of tulle onto the ribbon until you have enough to go around your little one (step 3)

Take the rest of the ribbon and tie a bow high on your child’s waist to create the perfect Tinker Bell dress!

Using two different colours of green tulle looks particularly pretty

Try to loop the tulle over the ribbon in the same direction each time, so that the knots all look the same

Octonauts Kwazii puppet instructions and template

Elastic

Glue

A craft knife or very sharp pointed scissors

Orange paint, felt tip marker pens, crayons

An orange top and orange trousers

Download the instructions and template. The activity has the list of materials you need to make the mask. You won't need bottle tops or the black sock.

Using the craft knife or scissors, cut two eye holes in the plate. Cut the bottom half of the plate in an arc shape so your child’s mouth can be seen.

Paint Kwazii’s face as described in the activity sheet

While the face is drying, cut out Kwazii’s ears, hat and mouth from the template. To make them look really great, trace the paper cut-outs on to card and cut them out.

Colour in the paper cut-outs using felt tips or crayons. Glue the paper on to the card cut-outs

When the main face of the mask is dry, glue Kwazii’s hat, ears and nose to the mask. Using either felt tips or black paint, draw on Kwazii’s whiskers.

Cut a length of elastic to fit your child’s head. Make a small hole on both sides of the mask, thread a length of elastic through it and tie it on.

If your paper plates are lightweight, sticking two together makes the mask sturdier.

We made the "eye patch" by heavily outlining Kwazii's left eye in black paint - then just drawing a slanted line across his forehead!

White, red, and black paint

White card

A headband

1.5 metres of black satin ribbon (should be at least 2cm wide)

An old pair of black tights

Craft glue 

Cat ears template (there are many available online)

Cotton wool balls

A black long sleeve top, black trousers or leggings, white gloves and white trainers

Download and print a copy of the cat ears template. There should be templates for the outside and the insides of the ears

Trace the ears onto card

Paint the outside ears black and leave to dry. Mix the red and white paint until you get a vivid shade of pink. Paint the insides of the ears pink

To make the headband: dot a bit of glue to the opaque side of the ribbon and stick it to the underside of the headband. Keeping the ribbon taut, wind it around the headband. As you wind the ribbon around the headband, don’t forget to secure the ribbon with a dot of glue at various intervals. Your last dot of glue will be when you reach the end of the headband. Cut off any excess ribbon. Leave it to dry.

To attach the ears: fold the bottoms of ears under the headband and attach them with glue

To make Jess’ tail: Cut off one leg of the tights. Stuff the leg with old socks, fabric, or any other soft material you have on hand. Knot the end of the tights.

Paint the tip of the tail with white paint. Alternatively, you can glue cotton wool balls to the end of the tail

Attach the tail with a safety pin or just tuck it into the back of your child's trousers/skirt 

If you are have more time and the right materials, try making the ears using felt. For a real 'wow' factor, use fake fur to line the insides of the ears. 

Wide bridal headbands work really well for this make. You can find them in most craft shops or online. They are covered in white fabric and are lightly padded, and will be more comfortable for your little one to wear. You will also have an easier time attaching the ribbon to the headband as they are non-slip.

A white short-sleeved t-shirt layered over a coloured long sleeve t-shirt

Black fabric paint 

A stencil in the font Cooper Black or similar. There are many free stencils available online to download (just search "Cooper Black Stencil")

Jeans with turn-ups and bright canvas trainers

 Lola's style is all about being bright and bold! 

A bright dress in stripes, flowers or geometric prints

Bright tights

Bright shoes

Bright blue hair clips

Download and print the stencil

Place the stencil on a bit of cardboard and position the whole thing under the white t-shirt.

Carefully outline Charlie using the fabric paint or fabric marker. Leave to dry overnight

For a more elaborate Lola costume, try adding an imaginary friend - draw an outline of your child on big paper, cut out and attach to cardboard. Paint or colour a black and grey jumper and trousers onto the figure. Cut out. Draw Lola’s face onto the character and you’ve made Soren Lorensen!

Fabric paint works best for Charlie's top - if you have a very steady hand, however, you could use fabric markers.

If you are pressed for time, you can always use iron-on letters! You can find them in most fabric shops. 

Cream or white knit jumper

Green and yellow tartan skirt

Wellies

Fabric paint in blue

Create Katie’s signature jumper by drawing on the zig-zag pattern along the neckline using the fabric paint

Accessorise with a brown satchel or cute teddy bear

A plaid shirt could double up as a skirt! Button up the shirt and secure the shirt around the waist using the sleeves. Any lumps and bumps from the knot will be covered up by the woolly jumper.

If you can’t find a tartan skirt or shirt, try a plain blue or green skirt with yellow squares sewn or glued on

Check out these DIY Dinosaur fancy dress ideas!

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