My four year old granddaughter asked me to make her a Rumi costume. I had to ask her mother what a Rumi was and it transpires that it’s a cartoon k-pop character and really all she wanted was the purple plait, which I duly made – and felt relieved!

A few weeks later she began asking for the rest of the costume. I tried to ignore it, but she is nothing if not relentless, and every time she saw me she asked for it. So I had a burrow in my patterns and found New Look E6473 and McCalls 2918, View A, both of which had been in a huge box of patterns sent to me by Sally @Baylissblanche over on IG. I was keeping in mind that this had to be four year old appropriate!

I was determined to buy nothing, and used a pair of jeans for the shorts, and assorted shopping bag handles for the red trim. The zips are all recycled. I tried to replicate the pockets and they are slightly dodgy.

I didn’t need a front zip as the shorts are elasticated but Rumi has one, so I thought I’d put one in. Unfortunately when I pulled on either side the zip came open, so I attached a little velcro tab on the inside to hold it together. It’s not fancy but it works.

Then I had to face making the jacket. I found some yellow cotton drill and began laying out the pattern. I cropped quite a bit off the bottom as I had to add the black trim and Rumi’s sits on her waist. I cut the collar from the same black fabric. I did make piping to go next to the zip but had visions of little fingers getting the zip caught up in it so I removed it. The zip was way too long, so I quite confidently began removing the metal teeth. I finished up ripping the tape, so press-ganged my visiting son into shortening it and adding the stops back. Unfortunately I misjudged the length and had to ask him to repeat the process. I think I blackmailed him with a shirt repair – the one he’s wearing here!

The zip turned out to be the perfect length – phew! The rest of the jacket came together easily, it’s a really nice pattern.

I was happy with the jacket but now I needed to make the decals. I played about with my Cricut and you can see the marks on the jacket where I was working out what went where. In the end I found a set of svg files on Etsy for $3.23, which I thought was an excellent deal, and if I ever have to make another jacket I can do so easily as I now have them on my Cricut.

I did have to add to the front decal so that it wrapped round the neck onto the shoulder. In the process of pressing these on some colour from my pressing cloth (no longer my pressing cloth) transferred to the fabric in the front. I no longer panic at such things as there’s always a solution.

I wasn’t too happy with the way the modification sat with the original piece so I thought I’d address that at the same time.

When I first printed the sleeve decals I got these white lines through the image. This means that the printer head needed cleaning, which I duly did.

I had thought that this would be a wasted image, but I was able to cut some parts out to add to the front of the jacket, hiding all my crimes!

It’s a bit obvious to me and when zoomed in here, but when she’s wearing it, it’s not really noticeable at all. The decal also shifted when it went into the heat press – not a thing I could do about it and I thought trying to fix it might mke it look worse. No-one seems to be taking issue with it.

Rumi has a rubber shoulder pad with spikes on it. I had fun thinking about this. In the end I used a bra padding insert, which was the perfect shape once I cut it down. I glued some red fold over elastic to the outside edge and then began faffing with the spikes. I tried using the offcuts from the bra padding, glueing them into spiky shapes. Didn’t work at all. The pink tape on my fingers was a vain attempt to stop them being burnt.

In the end I skinned a stubby holder of its outer covering and cut three triangles from the scuba which was left. I glued these on to the shoulder pad.

You can just see it here, after I stitched it to the shoulder.

I couldn’t find any images of the back of the jacket so left it blank. I had to keep referring to whatever pictures I could find to work out what went where.

It looks nice with the shorts.

and I even had the brown boots! My friend Sarah gave me these beautiful suede boots that she’d bought in an op-shop for her niece, but they were too small. A tad big for Miss G, but socks will make them work.

I’ve won, not for the first time, a subscription to Stash Hub, which is a sewing organiser, and thought I’d use it for these two makes. I forgot to name the shorts project, so that’s now done.

When I took these photos it was a really hot day but that didn’t deter Miss G, she was absolutely delighted with her new outfit, and I think she looks quite cool in it.

We forgot to put her purple plait on, so I might update this post when I get a photo.

The best thing about all this is that both Penquin and Little Golden Books have produced books about Rumi and the KPop Demon Hunters so I have book week sorted. I am now in charge of book week apparently!