Two of our favorite things: books and making costumes. Today we’re combining those 2 favorites with 5 diy easy book character costumes. We picked four of our absolute favorite book characters for this to make it fun for the kids. These are books we read all the time so dressing up as the main characters in the book was fun! We have a DIY Give A Mouse a Cookie costume, DIY Paddington Bear costume, DIY Amelia Bedelia, DIY Pete the Cat costume and last but not least a simple DIY Pinkalicious outfit.

Easy Book Character Costumes 

Amelia Bedelia Costume

Supplies: 

• Long sleeve black dress
• White collared shirt 
• White apron
• White tights
• Black shoes
• Large black foam sheet
• 1 bunch of yellow fake flowers 
• 2, 12″ pieces of white ribbon
• Hole puncher & scissors 

Find some of our favorite Amelia Bedelia titles here: Amelia Bedelia Books 

Directions: For the outfit, just layer the collared shirt under the long sleeve dress. Then add the tights and shoes. To make the hat: Cut a semi circle out of the large foam sheet. Using a hole puncher, punch a hole along the bottom of both sides. Tie a piece of ribbon through each hole. Pull off some of the fake yellow flowers and using the plastic back of the flower, punch it through the foam, trimming the top half of the foam semi circle. You’ll tie the hat on with the 2 pieces of ribbon but may need a few bobby pins in the back to hold it in place. 

 

Paddington Bear Costume

Supplies:

• puffer vest
• long sleeve blue shirt
• PJ pants
• yellow rain boots
• red bucket hat
• brown suitcase

Find some of our favorite Paddington Books here: Paddington Bear Books 

Directions: Ok, maybe this was actually the easiest, most reusable costume ever! I just got Tommy dressed in his brown pj pants, blue long sleeve tshirt, blue vest, boots & hat. Then I added on the toggles (ordered from craft store site for $2 each). I added with super sticky tape so we could reuse the vest easily. They look so cute that I am thinking about sewing them on. That’s an option too if you want to break out the needle & thread. For the suitcase, I just cut out a piece of paper in the shape of a tag and wrote the classic Paddington Bear message on it. Oh… last but not least, draw on a little bear nose with an eyeliner pencil.

Pete the Cat Costume

Supplies: 

• Blue Pajama Shirt 
• Blue pajama bottoms
• Yellow tee
• Blue hat 
• Blue gloves
• Sticky felt: royal blue, light blue, green and red
• Eyeliner pencil
• Black marker 

Directions: Cut out 4 groovy buttons from the red, green and 2 shades of blue sticky felt. Draw the 4 button holes on each one with black marker. Stick them onto the yellow tee. Cut out 2 triangles from the blue sticky felt and stick them to the blue hat. Get dressed in your Pete outfit and last draw on a cat face with the black eyeliner pencil. Stay groovy! 

Find some of our favorite Pete the Cat titles here: Pete the Cat Books 

Give a Mouse a Cookie Costume:

1. Bella Bliss overalls
2. Find some fuzzy, thick yarn at the craft store and cut a piece for a tail. Pin the tail to the overalls.
3. Now you need some mouse ears! I used an old headband, the same fuzzy yarn from the tail and some stiff felt sheets. I hot glued the ears and trim to the headband and my little mouse was ready to go!
4. The book makes a good prop!

Pinkalicious Costume:

Supplies:

• pink leggings
• pink skirt
• pink t-shirt 
• wand
• feather boa
• pink shoes
• any other pink accessories you can find!

Find some of our favorite Pinkalicious titles here: Pinkalicious Books 

Directions: Get pink! We added pink accessories that reminded us of the book to our favorite pink clothes from Primary.com. Style the child’s hair in pig tails (if possible) like the character in the book and go “paint the town pink”! 

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Harper Collins. As always all thoughts, opinions and ideas for costumes are my own. 

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