When your child needs a suit for the school play

My son, who is in Year 5, came home from school to say he needed a grey suit to wear for a play his class was putting on for assembly.

I told him that he didn't have a grey suit, and he seemed to think the suit that he wore at my best friend's wedding three years ago would still fit (bearing in mind he grows a house brick and a half every year).  Refusing to listen to me he tried on his trousers only to get them stuck at the knees!

We had five days to get a suit!  

I asked him if it had to be grey, and to my relief, he said no, he was just thinking of his wedding suit!  Fortunately, I had made him a Dr Who outfit for Comicon in 2020, before Covid threw the world into chaos.  I had made the outfit just as we went into Lockdown!  So it got put away in the hope it would be used later in the year - and we all know how that turned out!

Children's suits are hard to come by in charity shops.  They are there, but you'll end up finding the trousers in one shop, the jacket in another and if you're very lucky a waistcoat too.  

I bought adult size clothes!  I took to my sewing machine in the hope that I could somehow wing it.  The trousers were taken up and I added elastic around the waist to keep them up!

I am not confident enough in dressmaking to be unpicking, reshaping and re-sewing a suit jacket so I just took the sleeves up.  In hindsight, I should have just folded them in on themselves (and the trousers) and tacked them up so they can be let down each time he needs a suit for cosplay or school, but that does make the arms and legs very thick.

This is my son, playing Howard Carter for school assembly, using cosplay for Dr Who wearing my spare SteamPunk hat - we are THAT family.  

So if your child announces they need a suit for a play, bear in mind the charity shops may help with this be it sewing, glueing, taping or pins - it could save you a small fortunate.