Children’s Costumes for Books

Do your children like to dress up?  Do they like books?  I know these are two of my own children’s favourite things in “the whole wide world”, as my daughter likes to say.  But do your children like to combine these two interests? When Jokers’ Masquerade contacted me about reviewing their children’s costumes, the timing was perfect.  Several things had recently happened.

We had just thinned through the children’s costumes that they’d outgrown and their dress-up trunk was looking a little sparse.  We’d also recently met Canadian Astronaut, Chris Hadfield, and Tristan is beginning to read more as well.  Put all of these things together and can you guess which costumes were chosen of all of the many, many options available at Jokers’ Masquerade?

The costumes arrived one morning just as we were heading out the door on our way to the library. We took the package with us to open in the library and have a little fun.  The children didn’t know what they were opening, but they were very happy when they discovered what was inside, and the wanted to dress up without delay!

The costumes helped fuel their choices on library books that day!

It’s obvious that the first choice for Tristan would be one of their uniform fancy dress costumes .  We chose this particular astronaut costume because it is worn by astronauts on a daily basis, not just for a few hours in a lifetime during a space walk.  On the practical side, it would be easier to fit under coats and jackets as my children are often out and about the town dressed up more often than not.  And the orange wouldn’t show dirt as easily (thus less washing for Mum!).

We have Chris Hadfield’s book, “An Astronaut’s Guide To Life On Earth” and we read a little of it together as a family most nights before bedtime.  Tristan also has several books on loan from various libraries that deal with space, astronauts, earth, and the solar system.

Kallista chose one of the Fairytale costumes.  She loves fairy tales, and Tristan is enjoying learning to read them to her.  Kallista’s favourites at the moment include stories with wolves in them:  The Three Pigs, and Little Red Riding Hood.

My children love acting out scenes from books, and these costumes are perfect for that.  Tristan can look at the stars and dream about flying among them someday.

And Tristan set up this scene on his own, featuring Kallista as Little Red Riding Hood picking flowers for Grandma while the Big Bad Wolf, played by Tristan, sneaks up from behind a bush in the forest…

Now, on to the practicalities of these children’s costumes.  The sizing at Jokers’ Masquerade does state that the costumes are on the larger side of  the sizes.  With this in mind I went with the small size and was expecting them to be huge, but the fits aren’t bad.  There’s still some room for growth in the astronaut’s costume.  The elasticised waist means that it helps hold the costume in place for Tristan, but for a larger child there’s room for expansion.  Teh eleastic at the wrist and ankles mean that the cuffs aren’t dragging on the ground when Tristan walks.  He loves all of the straps, buckles, and pockets that there are on the outfit!  It comes with patches on the sleeves and chest just like real astronauts.

Kallista’s costume is good in length for the skirt, and there’s loads of room with the elasticised waistband.  The white shirt fits well.  The cape is surged around the edges so that it won’t fray out, and there are small seams where it sits on the shoulders which gives a better fit and looks nice.  The laced belt is much too large for Kallista, but we found that if we tie it in the back instead of using the velcro closure it works and the cloak over the top hides the knot.  It’s also possible to wear this costume without the belt.

As luck goes in our home, the children played in their costumes weeks before all of the photos were taken.  Of course this meant that some soup was spilled on the white blouse of the Little Red Riding Hood costume!  The only drawback of these costumes are that they are hand washable only.  If you know me, you’ll know just how much I do not like washing by hand.  Honestly, I thought the stains might not come out of the blouse, but after a quick soak in the sink with a little soap the spillage did come out and the blouse was being worn once again.

Overall, we would recommend these costumes from Jokers’ Masquerade as they have withstood spills, and weeks of play both at home and out and about.  The children have not grown tired of them, and Tristan says the astronaut costume is his FAVOURITE, surpassing all of his other costumes…I never thought I’d ever hear those words from him!  Both costumes have passed the durability, practicality, and fun factor tests for us!

We received the above costumes in exchange for our honest opinions of them.

To read about other products we’ve taken for a test-run, and our thoughts about them, click over to our reviews page.