Real life Rosie Revere Engineer and Ada Twist Scientist

One of Mabel’s best friends is Meme. Meme lives around the corner from us, the girls are only four months apart in age, I work with her mom (we are both #scimoms), and our families are friends.

Last year for the first day of school I surprised both girls with a copy of Ada Twist Scientist by Andrea Beatty and David Roberts. Both girls already had Rosie Revere Engineer and loved it, so the sequel was a good choice.

And it just so happens that Mabel looks a lot like Rosie and Meme looks a lot like Ada.

Source: https://www.andreabeaty.com/download-citizen-poster.html

So, it seemed logical to dress them up as Rosie and Ada!

I posted about making the no-sew Rosie Revere costume here.

Ada is wearing an old Tea Collection dress and her mom did her hair.

The pictures were awesome and the girls had fun dressing up.

(I tried really hard to get Nemo to dress up as Iggy, but even bribery would not entice him to participate!)

Afterwards, the girls went out to play and the moms chatted over coffee and laughed. Fun was had by all (even Nemo).

DIY Rosie Revere Engineer Costume

If your kids are like mine, they love the series of books by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts- Rosie Revere Engineer, Iggy Peck Architect, and Ada Twist Scientist.

In advance of the March for Science the author and illustrator put out a series of posters for kids to carry when they marched. My kids wanted to carry the signs and Mabel really wanted to dress up like Rosie Revere.

Given that I’m not particularly crafty (i.e. no sewing), I set about finding an easy way to make her a dress.

I think it turned out quite well!

Mabel at the March for Science, NYC

I looked around online and found this inexpensive white t-shirt dress from Amazon.

T-shirt dress

Then I ran to the local craft store and picked up a wide black ribbon and narrow red ribbon for the bottom hem, and narrow black ribbon for the collar and sleeve. I also picked up no-sew hemming tape like this to attach it all.

Other stuff you need- scissors, baby wipes (to clean the sticky stuff from the hemming tape that gums up the scissors).

I lined the red ribbon with the hemming tape, it was a hassle because the hemming tape was wider than the ribbon, so I had to trim it and it kept gumming up the scissors. So, I’d periodically have to clean the scissors.

Once I’d lined three pieces of ribbon with the hemming tape, I placed them on the wide black ribbon. The end result looked the hem of Rosie’s dress.

Once that was assembled, I attached it to the dress. And, because I’m lazy, I only did the front of the dress, I didn’t go all the way around the back.

I then lined the narrow black ribbon with hemming tape and affixed it to the collar and the sleeves. This time I went all the way around.

A scrap of red fabric with white polkadots completed the look!

Mabel at the March for Science, NYC

So if anyone needs an easy, no-sew, Rosie Revere Engineer costume, hope this helps!