11th & 12th May

May 12, 2017

11th & 12th May

11th & 12th May- Making Donkey's costume, finishing the cogs, fire proofing the props and organising things in preparation for out costume fitting:

I have had a busy past few days, these have been filled with a few jobs but most of my time has been taken up by making donkeys costume. Due to the fact that we were unable to use the morph suit that we had brought for him as we couldn't dye it grey because of the fact that it was lycra and couldn't be washed in hot water. We decided that using a pair of grey leggings and a grey long sleeve top would have the same kind of effect. As we had these as a basis for the fur it needed to be attached. As the costume will be on stage an under hot lights we decided that the entire thing would be best if it wasn't all covered in fur. Instead, we choose to go for a slightly more human look with fur covering the legs and only parts of the upper body. The task required me to cut out a cardboard body to slot into the clothing to keep it stretched, otherwise when the fur was sown on it would stop the ability for the fabric to be stretched and this would affect the actors movements and may even make it hard to actually fit him. After this I used pattern paper and cut out the shapes of the leggings and t-shirt, I was then able to draw on where we wanted the fur onto the pattern paper, I then cut these out and traced the shapes onto the fur, ready for cutting. The fur needed to be carefully cut, similar how I had done it for the lion headpiece Maine and also the tail for donkey and the lion. This meant that it took a bit longer to cut them out but the hair was kept in tact. I then lined up where each piece went and secured it down with hot glue, this would help prevent it from sagging, I then hand stitched all the way round every piece to make sure there would be no chance of them coming loose.

Cardboard cut out inside the T-shirt.

Attaching the fur onto mainly the sides of the legs.

Hot gluing the crotch area onto the leggings before sewing.

Sewing the crotch area into the leggings,

Cutting the chest fur out, using the template I made.

The chest part attached.

The back panel attached to the top.

Attaching the arm panels.

Shot of the finished costume.

....And with the ears

...and from behind

We also got to see the finished Audrey II sign which was exciting. Holly finished the arrow, adding lights and painting it with red acrylic and gloss paint with added red glitter. Conor had built it and then we added holes and chain so that it could be hung.

I was also able to fireproof all of the flowers and we could see them all together, which was really lovely and they looked so good on the finished cabinet.