If your child is in primary school {elementary school} then chances are they've read, or been read, The Rainbow Fish in class at least once. It's a staple picture book, popular around the world, so it didn't surprise me when my daughter wanted to dress up as The Rainbow Fish for book week.
WHO IS THE RAINBOW FISH?
The Rainbow Fish is the protagonist in Marcus Pfister's popular children's book The Rainbow Fish. He is the prettiest fish in the sea with his glimmering, shiny scales. Throughout the story the rainbow fish learns lessons about sharing and friendship and how to fit in with others. It's an age appropriate story to help children learn social and emotional skills and to recognise the consequences and benefits of certain emotions and actions.
What initially started as one book has now become a collection of over 16 different books including The Rainbow Fish and His Friends, The Rainbow Fish Discovers the Deep Sea, Rainbow Fish and the Storyteller and Rainbow Fish and the Great Escape.
HOW TO MAKE A DIY RAINBOW FISH COSTUME
I love to get crafty and make the girls DIY book week costumes, but I'm not a whiz with a sewing machine, so their costumes are always no sew or require very minimal sewing. This one does require a small bit of sewing, but it's super easy. If I can do it anybody can.
To make a DIY rainbow fish costume you will need:
To create our rainbow fish costume I used as many premade items as possible and then combined them with DIY fish scale t-shirt. We got a blue tutu and mesh gloves from a dollar store and a blue t-shirt from Kmart.
The felt sheets and glitter foam were also from a dollar store. The number of felt and foam pieces you'll need will depend on the size of your child and how many colours you use. We only added scales to the front of the t-shirt, however you could also do the back as well if you make enough scales.
If you don't want to sew a scaled t-shirt yourself, you can somewhat cheat by buying this scale printed t-shirt, long sleeved scaled tutu dress or this short sleeved scaled tutu dress which both look similar to the rainbow fish scales and colours.
HOW TO MAKE A RAINBOW FISH SCALED T-SHIRT
The scaled t-shirt is the only part of the rainbow fish costume that requires sewing, however it's very simple if you follow these easy steps.
1. Draw a mock up single fish scale on the back of a piece of the foam. Cut this out to use as a template to measure and cut all the other scales.
2. Use the scale template and fabric pen to outline scale pieces on the back of the glitter foam and felt. Make sure you mark it out on the back of the foam so it won't be seen once sewn onto the t-shirt.
3. Cut out all pieces of felt and glitter foam scales with fabric scissors. I did an equal number of each colour.
4. Arrange the scales onto the front of the t-shirt in the order you want them to be. Take a photo of this so you can refer to it when sewing.
5. Sew on each horizontal row with a sewing machine, starting with the bottom row. Pin the row of scales in place to ensure they're sewn on relatively straight. Layer each additional row slightly over the top of the previous one, this will give a better illusion of scales and it helps to hide the stitching.
FINISHED RAINBOW FISH KIDS COSTUME
Once the t-shirt is finished, to create the entire look combine the t-shirt with the blue tutu and mesh gloves. To complete the look attach the adhesive gems in whatever pattern you want onto your child's face. We also added navy leggings and sparkly blue shoes.
Optional Rainbow Fish Costume Adjustments
Scaled Gloves. Instead of buying mesh gloves, you can buy these rainbow scaled mermaid gloves which look like the rainbow fish scales. Alternatively you could make your own gloves using this rainbow scale printed fabric.
Blue face paint. If you want to go all out, in addition to using sparkly gems on the face, you could paint your child's entire face blue with blue face paint.
Yellow lips. You can also add the rainbow fish bright yellow lips using yellow lipstick.
More DIY Costume Ideas
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