Book Week: Wylah

Since I was making a costume for myself this year for Book Week, it was only fair that the girls get costumes too. When we went on our road trip in the June/July holidays, I had seen a book in the shops called Wylah, which was about a young Aboriginal girl. I missed it the first time I saw it, but was lucky enough to grab a heavily discounted copy from a bookstore in the Blue Mountains that was closing down. 

Rachel loved it. Wylah (pronounced "Wee-lah") was in charge of teaching art to the younger members of her tribe when dragons attack. She goes on an adventure to save the day with the help of lots of Dreamtime megafauna animals. 

Wylah image from waylay.com.au

Wylah wears a patchwork dress made of animals skins and other natural items. Obviously I wasn't going to be able to recreate that, but I thought I could get the shape/style of it. I went to the fabric box and found some felt fabric for the top bit (Rachel wanted it to be furry/fuzzy), and then any scraps of brown that I had for the rest of it. 

It was lucky that a few of the brown pieces I had happened to have leaf designs, or flower patterns on them. Really helped with the nature feel of the dress. Knowing that Rachel would have to wear this at school and that the costume would still need to be sun-safe, I sewed it all onto a brownish shirt that she already had. 

Rachel's costume was the easiest one that I did this year, even if the circular shape of the dress was tricky to get at first. Although, even though I looked at the reference pictures for the dress, I managed to miss Wylah's feather belt until Rachel mentioned it the night before. I did plait a bit of ribbon in the morning for her to wear, but we didn't have the time to glue the feathers in. Oh well. 

Next up: Sophie's costume! It's got a lot of layers so get ready! 

Lastly, I don't want to have to put this out there, but I feel like I should; I know Wylah is an Aboriginal character, and we are by no means related. We mean no disrespect to the Aboriginal people, but wanted to celebrate a character that Rachel has loved reading about, and a culture that we love learning about. I genuinely hope that no one is upset or offended by Rachel's choice of Book Week character this year.