Monday 31 August 2015

Book Week: Tom the Cabin Boy

Do you remember Captain Pugwash? 
NB: Quotes and illustrations are from various Captain Pugwash books by John Ryan

"Captain Pugwash was a pirate. He thought
himself the bravest, most handsome pirate
on the seven seas. Here is a portait of him."

 
Well, the Captain was a bumbling fool with a useless lazy crew, but...

"He had too, a cabin boy called Tom, and
this was lucky, because Tom was really the
only person aboard who knew how to work
the compass, sail the ship, and make the tea."

 

This week was Book Week and Thursday was dress up as a book character day at P's school. Without giving any thought to the weather P and I decided on our favourite Caribbean pirate cabin boy, Tom.

Before we go any further, let's just get the whole Roger rumour out of the way. Sure, there was a cheeky BBC televised cartoon of Pugwash and some of the crew had very risque names but Roger the Cabin Boy is a myth. Right, back to Tom...

 Tom wears a red and white striped T-shirt with wide stripes and a ragged pair of blue pants. So I set out to do just the same for my little cabin boy. Then we set sail for a photoshoot and he proved that he too could scrub the decks, turn the capstan and make the tea!


His pants were easy. Yep, I obviously just hacked up a pair of old school pants (seen here new). He'd already worn through the knees so they were destined to be turned into summer shorts anyway. 

The T-shirt took a bit more thought. I'd just made the Oliver + S Parachute Polo and it seemed the perfect starting point with its side hem splits and good fit.


 I was never going to find such wide striped fabric so I chopped the pattern up in order to join sections of red and white cotton lycra and get my stripe width just right. The sleeve stripes are slightly narrower in order to make them fit, but it looks like I could have just cut the sleeves a bit longer and kept it all the same after all. I wasn't working to the pattern sleeve length but just aiming for something longer than a regular T-shirt.


The only other change was the neckline. I kept the height of the original neckline front and back but squared it off. After drawing the rectangular neckline, I just copied that line to make a 1.5" wide facing. The facing is sewn with a straight stitch, so it loses any elasticity, but a quick check showed it would fit easily over his head. Phew.


After having had some pleasant spring weather the week before last, this week we were plunged back into winter. Thursday, dress up day, was one of the worst and it rained most of the day. Of course he did wear shoes to school, and layered up with a singlet and swim trunks underneath. He shivered bravely through the parade like any long suffering cabin boy and then wore his school jacket for the rest of the day.


Today we were gifted with another nice sunny day, and while the wind is still cold, it's starting to feel like spring is almost here.

We had a family outing to the Polly Woodside, which I'd never visited and Flipper had last been to as a school kid! We had a fun tour along with one other family and then plemty of time to take pictures afterwards with no -one else around.

The holds and below deck quarters were wonderfully restored. The kids were fascinated by the latrine and the "poo rope" (apparently a rough hemp rope is suitable for bottom wiping ?!) and the captain's quarters were decidedly luxurious. Not quite as impressive as Captain Pugwash's perhaps...


 The Ship's Mate who took our tour had all the kids scrubbing the decks. He inspected each kids work and praised them all. When he got to P, who was last in line, he jokingly barked that his work was terrible, a disgrace to his ship and crew. Everyone, including P, laughed. But a moment later I could see his chin trembling and the little gulping movements of trying really hard not to cry. Oh, he wouldn't last a day at sea, this sensitive little creature of mine.


But he's nothing if not resilient. Only a few moments later he was telling the Ship's Mate slash Tour Guide all about Tom. How he's the one who always saves the day and rescues the ship and its crew. And then how it was Book Week, how he is Tom, and his mum made his costume. 

Then, not to be outdone, A pipes up about how I made her hat and coat too. Bless them both! :)


Sadly, we weren't allowed to send him up the rigging - he seriously would have loved to climb the mast - but he did have fun hamming it up for photos and this was a rare photoshoot were the kid keeps directing the photographer to "take one more like this". 


We got some pretty hammy poses, but I also love the skyscrapers that are rising out of the sea to starboard!

I had a lot of fun with this. I love books, love costumes and love sewing. We all had a few nights worth of dinner table conversations about book characters. What is literature and what counts as a book character. We all agreed that colouring book style merchandise from a film does NOT count as a book. There were too many ideas to keep track of them all for next year. Just one point to remember and that is to consider the weather.




16 comments:

  1. Shelley you nailed it! I was so glad that you cut up a pair of old pants- I was worried thinking of you shredding a new pair-especially handmade. 😱 I never would have guessed that you pieced the stripe top, great costume!

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    1. :) I really wanted to make the Oliver + S Sailboat pants, just 'cause they're so cute as boy pants. But both P and Flipper said they had t have jagged bottoms, and you're right, I couldn't sew a new pair of pants just to hack the bottoms of them!
      I'm a stickler for "getting it right" and I have a couple of red/white striped knits that I could have used, but they wouldn't have been anything like the right stripe width. It was fun to piece the bands together. I'd quite like to make this square neck in a solid colour, it could be nice as a T-shirt with a difference.

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  2. Great costume! And it looks and sounds like the kids had lots of fun on your family day out :) Agreed book week is for books, not movies - I am a little sad at the movie character costumes coming through my Facebook feed.

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    1. Thanks Waggy. The dinner table discussion did get pretty funny, while I was insisting it had to be a character from a book with some literary merit, I think Flipper almost wished he worked at a school as he really amused himself with his suggestions of Mr Gray (as in 50 shades of...), or Patrick Bateman....

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  3. This is beyond awesome!! It looks just like the book. Lucky lad to have such a wonderful mom.

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    1. Thanks Sharon. I love trying to make something "just right"!

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  4. Well done! The weather can be so tricky as the seasons change. I didn't even make O a birthday outfit this year because I couldn't tell if it was going to be 70 degrees and pouring or 90 and sunny.

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    1. Absolutely! Especially in this city. The Spring Racing Carnival starts soon and it's always wildly unpredictable weather. Some days the ladies in suits sweat it out and other days the girls in flimsy frocks freeze in the hail. Endlessly amusing for the non race going spectator! :)

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  5. Nice job! This brought back memories for me too.

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    1. Thanks! They are still great books. I love the language and turn of phrase as much as the illustrations and escapades.

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  6. Totally digging the photoshoot and P, especially the last pic and also the one where he is scrubbing the deck :-). Is it weird that i like the shorts???
    Radhika

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    1. Ha ha, well he really likes them too.
      We had such fun with the photos and were so lucky to have the whole ship to ourselves.

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  7. So much work, so worth it! Well done P for braving the weather!

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    1. Thanks Jenya. I'm really loving how fabric can be cut, shaped and stitched to create almost anything we can think of. It seems that with a good T-shirt pattern, knit fabric, an overlocker and a hefty dose of overconfidence, there really is nothing that cannot be achieved! :)

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  8. Hugo is so jealous!
    Love it, I was a huge Puqwash fan and this has rekindled some great memories and discussions at our house.
    Bravo McStitch!

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    1. Oh nicole how lovely! I'm delighted to think of my ramblings here sparking a nice reminiscence and a family conversation over at your place.
      that is truly a lovely thing for me to hear!

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