A couple of weeks ago, L's school held a Book Character Day. The children were encouraged to go to school in their most favorite book character, and to bring along that story book. It was a happy news for me as that meant more DIY costume-making!
Being a typical boy who is especially fond of heroes, L wanted to go as Percy Jackson, but was quickly reminded by Ch that he has not even read a single book of Rick Riordan. So he chose his next favorite book character - Max of Sea Quest by Adam Blade. Max is the main hero of the Sea Quest series who has a brilliant understanding of technology. Saved by a rare mythical sea girl (Merryn), she gave Max two gill-like openings to enable him to breathe under water. He wears a blue dive suit, with a pair of infrared goggles on his head, and a curved hyperblade that is pure vernium and cuts through anything. The hero rides on the Lightning Aquabike for his sea adventures to fight monsters like Cephalox the Cyber Squid and Skalda the Soul Stealer.
Unfortunately, L came to me with his costume request at the wrong time. I was busy preparing dinner, and frustrations built up while he made me listen to his wonderful costume idea. He badly wanted my help, and started whining when I did not stop my cooking to help with the costume-making like I had done so in the past (see my posts on DIY Hawkeye costume and other costumes here, here and here).
The other frustrating part was that I could not get a large image of Max that is clear enough for me to see the unique features of his costume. We had to rely on this two pictures found on the book.
Eventually, with a lot of angry glares and scoldings for being so last minute with his costume request, we managed to find an old blue sweater after digging into bags of old clothes. I left him with some paint and cardboard and told him to start making whatever he could while I resumed my cooking.
I was impressed with what he came up with in less than 30 mins!
The ring in the centre of the blue suit and the hyperblade were drawn and painted by L himself. I helped him cut out the shapes and we used masking tape to create the straps on Max's blue suit.
To make the shoulder pads, wrist guards and knee pads, we made do with brown felt and strong double-sided tape as I didn't have enough leather-like material. I didn't sew them on as he was only going to wear this for half a day.
The brown belt was a little tricky. There are three brown pouches (like coin pouches) attached to Max' belt, and one of them is positioned where the belt buckle is. I was afraid L would have trouble removing the belt if he needed to go to the toilet.
The solution - wrap brown felt over the belt and tape with double-sided tape so that he can rip off the pouch if he was that urgent to use the toilet.
L topped it off with a pair of swimming goggles. The goggles sure added a touch of the underwater feel to this Sea Quest hero.
*Do hop over to read how we encourage the kids to start reading from young + a chance to win a book voucher worth $30!
The brown belt was a little tricky. There are three brown pouches (like coin pouches) attached to Max' belt, and one of them is positioned where the belt buckle is. I was afraid L would have trouble removing the belt if he needed to go to the toilet.
The solution - wrap brown felt over the belt and tape with double-sided tape so that he can rip off the pouch if he was that urgent to use the toilet.
L topped it off with a pair of swimming goggles. The goggles sure added a touch of the underwater feel to this Sea Quest hero.
*Do hop over to read how we encourage the kids to start reading from young + a chance to win a book voucher worth $30!
