Judy Moody's Cat "Mouse"

The Girl's entire 3rd grade has been reading Judy Moody. It's kind of their "theme" for the year. The teachers read Judy Moody books to the students. They do activities that Judy Moody does in the books (like a "Me" collage they did at the beginning of the year to introduce themselves to their classmates). When they do well in class (behavior and achievements), they earn "Judy Moody Bucks" that they can spend in their school store. It might do me some good to read some Judy Moody books to see what they're up to in class.

Throughout the past week, the 3rd grade teachers each became a character from the Judy Moody books and campaigned for the chance to be chosen as 3rd grade class president. The Girl's teacher was "Stink". Today, the 3rd grade class was having their election. I have a feeling the students will each choose their own teachers. The students were encouraged to dress up as their favorite Judy Moody character as well. The Girl chose to be "Mouse", Judy Moody's cat.

Thank heavens "Mouse" was a black cat. I didn't have to think too hard about how to make the accessories to fill out her costume. Back in 2006, I made The Girl a black cat costume for Halloween. It was made from a black sweatshirt and sweatpants that I trimmed in fake white fur.

The "Pickles" - Halloween 2006

I attached a tail to the shirt (I didn't want its weight pulling down her pants) and wrapped a headband with ears made of fleece.

Halloween 2006 - You can see the rear of the cat costume here. The tail is attached just above the shirt hem.

The black cat costume was by far my favorite of all her Halloween costumes. Four years later, we still had the costume packed away in the basement but of course, the shirt and pants no longer fit. The ears, however, still did.

The Girl planned to wear all black to school with her cat ears and some whiskers drawn on her face. We also decided that she still needed a tail. Luckily, I had a hefty amount of black fleece packed away so I quickly fashioned a long tail out of it and stuffed it with poly-fill. I created a strap at the top of the tail that would wrap around the belt loops of her pants and Velcro to itself holding it in place.

Too bad the Velcro as well as the sewing thread that I had on hand was white. Who doesn't keep black thread on hand??? Apparently I don't.

Within 30 minutes, We had all the pieces and parts for a cat costume. And The Girl can continue to use the headband cat ears and new tail for many more future costumed events!

She was quite happy with her costume when she put it on this morning. In fact, she bounded out of bed bright and early just to put it on.

But she was a bit shy to leave me to go into the school. I have a feeling she's a bit more costumed than most of the other 3rd graders...