She's Madeline

In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines

In two straight lines they broke their bread and brushed their teeth and went to bed 

They smiled at the good and frowned at the bad and sometimes they were very sad

They left the house at half past nine in two straight lines in rain or shine — the smallest one was Madeline.

This week is book week, and today our primary school held it's annual book parade for the students. This year Paige decided she wanted to dress up as Madeline.

Rather than take a trip into town to buy some dark blue fabric for her costume, I picked up a single flat sheet at Kmart for around $10. The colour was perfect and I bought a white pillowcase for a couple of dollars extra to fashion the collar from. 

I used the Betsy dress PDF pattern by Ruby Jean's Closet on on Etsy, which I will use again for summer dresses as the warm weather approaches. I love that the pattern comes in a size 12m to 10 years so we should get plenty of use from it. 

The cape was made from a shortened - and slightly altered at the collar to attach the red tie - version of the Whimsy Couture PDF Vintage Cape pattern.

Cousin Riley enjoyed his first Book Week dress-ups

As per usual I left the sewing until the day before and spent a couple of hours setting up the patterns to use, cutting out fabric and stitching it all up. I was really pleased with the result, and the fit was nice and comfortable. We painted a straw hat yellow and added a black ribbon, some knee high white socks and black flats to finish off the outfit.

Cousins Emerson Supergirl did a lap with big sister Isabella as Belle

Then when it came time to do the laps with the rest of her class, Paige became all shy and upset and didn't want to walk. This is a bit of an ongoing thing at school, she's so timid there, which I totally do not get because at home she thinks she is top dog and is quite adept at bossing all the teenagers around. I'd like to find an out-of-school activity that she will participate in that might build her social confidence.

Little Stella came to watch the fun

Anyway, I convinced her to come aside from the parade beneath a shady tree for a few photos. She almost cracked a smile, but I did get a few happier pictures once we got home.