Dahlicious day and Willy Wonka

Friday is Dahlicious day!   I forgot!

I remembered it yesterday morning.

For those that do not have children, or work in a UK primary school, Dahlicious day is a celebration of Roald Dahl and, of course, it requires dressing up as a Dahl character.

http://www.roalddahl.com/charity/fundraising-and-events/dahlicious-dress-up-day/running-your-dahlicious-day

So I quickly ran through the options and quickly ran out.  I could be a ladybird from James and the Giant Peach as I do have a red dress with black polka dots…but that is letting down the costumer in me. 

I could be a witch with gloves and a wig, but I don’t want to wear a wig all day.  

Miss Trunchbull was a good option, but I had absolutely nothing that I could wear for that so it would require manic sewing to complete as I had forgotten all about it until yesterday.

So, although I scanned the internet I was left with one option…Willy Wonka.

This was purely on the basis that I have a top hat, I have trousers, a shirt and a waistcoat and the description of Willy in the book;

“Mr Wonka was standing all alone just inside the open gates of the factory. And what an extraordinary little man he was!

He had a black top hat on his head.

He wore a tail coat made of a beautiful plum-coloured velvet.

His trousers were bottle green.

His gloves were pearly grey.

And in one hand he carried a fine gold-topped walking cane.

Covering his chin, there was a small, neat, pointed black beard — a goatee.

And his eyes — his eyes were most marvellously bright. They seemed to be

sparkling and twinkling at you all the time. The whole face, in fact, was alight.”

I  have a walking cane and a pair of gloves, albeit white not grey. Also, most importantly, I recently made up the tail coat pattern for the Beast and have made it three times in the last few weeks so it should be relatively easy to sew together.

On the minus side I had no ‘plum coloured velvet’, but a quick trip to my local sewing shop revealed that a delivery had arrived that day including…purple velvet (I promptly decided that Damson plums are purple so it is entirely appropriate, especially as Gene Wilder wore a purple one in the original film).

I also bought the buttons that look just like a chocolate :d

For some reason the picture makes the velvet look blue but it is actually a lovely cadbury purple!

Now it is just a matter of making it before Friday and not for the first time, being incredibly grateful I have an overlocker to whizz through it…not panicking at all!