Costumes for The Velveteen Rabbit
The girl wearing the costume knew just what she wanted, and gave me this sketch to follow.
So all I needed to do was to translate her sketch into a costume!
I used Child's Play from Wild Ginger to create a pattern for the bodice. It is an armscye-princess seam bodice, fully lined. The bodice is sewn of eyelash fabric and lined with a satin poly.
The skirt is actually made up of eight separate petals, that overlap and are sewn only to the waist of the bodice. The green calyx pieces are also sewn into the waist only. When she walks, the skirt flows freely around her legs... she has been warned that she will need to wear tights!
It's hard to see in this picture, but there are streamers of iridescent fabric attached to the back of the armscye, and connected to elastic wrist bands. When she moves her arms, the draped streamers flow with her. It's a wonderful effect.
The back view shows the scarf draped around her neck. It's a simple piece of green chiffon, with a rolled edge done on the serger, and silk leaves bartacked onto it randomly. The wings are made of copper wire bent to shape, and the iridescent fabric is attached to the form with Elmer's gel glue (Thank you Bill Jones for helping with this idea!!). The wings are worn separately from any other part of the costume, with two elastic bands that the arms slip through. When she tried it on I could see that she needs to put the wings on first, before the rest of the costume, otherwise the bands show (as they do in the front view picture).
The Big Night!
Here is the Velveteen Rabbit, played by Samantha.
Diana as the Sailboat
I made the hat, pants and sail... the shirt was borrowed
Right behind her you can just see the Lion costume, with its yarn-mane. The boy wearing the costume really didn't care for it!!
Brennan as "The Boy", playing with his Velveteen Rabbit. I made the rabbit from the Carol's Zoo pattern, with just two pattern pieces. They I cut out a pink vest to match the fabric of the larger costume vest.
The eyes were two leather buttons, and the nose was a strawberry button... the only red button I could find in my stash!
This bunny will be auctioned off at the school's Spring Auction fundraiser. I'll be curious to find out how much it brings!
The Big Scene: Velveteen Rabbit meets the Fairy!!