MAKING THE COSTUME

Once all the patches were printed and I picked up the fabric from the Silk Bureau I was ready to sew the pieces together to make the 'blanket' which would make up the drapey fabric body of the bear.

Below are all the prints laid out together (before I added the red) in no particular order- with the partly made bear head featured:

To start with I arranged where I wanted the red 'story' pieces to be on the costume, making sure that they are in the correct order and relatively even spread across the whole blanket. The arrangement of the patches would help relay the story, for example all the patches are spread out apart from the three men- who I put next to each other to convey an angry mob. I then arranged the rest of the patches around these, starting in rows from the top and going down, rearranging the red patches slightly as I went.

I also had to consider as I went along how I wanted to arrange the patches, making sure that repeat images weren't too close together and trying to disperse the different types of prints equally across the blanket. 

My plan to sew them together was to sew all the rows together first so I had long strips, and then sew these strips together to form the blanket. As I went along I filled in small gaps by cutting up other patches and fitting them in.

                                   

Below are the patches sewn into rows:

And here I am delicately pinning the rows together to sew into the big blanket.

Sewing the rows together:

The finished blanket:

 I then ironed the blanket and trimmed any loose threads, as well as checked where I needed to hand sew some fiddlier bits.

Before I could neaten up the whole thing by adding a lining and hemming the edges, I needed to check that it was wide enough to fit around the bear head. Using pegs and sticking the fabric into the wire inside the head, I draped it around so that it hung from the bear's neck 

Below is a rough idea of what the costume will look like- it is roughly 10 foot tall, I am using a stick to hold up the head to bring the fabric off the ground:

little legs poking out

Knowing that the blanket was wide enough to fit the head I went ahead and lined it with black fabric. This would make the interior of the costume dark when you stand inside, and if I want to accompany the costume with sound then I think this heightens the creepiness and mystery of the costume.

Cutting the lining:

Sewing the lining:

The finished 'bear blanket' with black lining and hemmed edges, ready to be attached to the bear:

When it came to attaching the fabric to the bear head I had a couple of ideas. First of all the fabric would be looped over at the top so that something could be threaded through to form a 'curtain' effect. I decided to use hose tubing as it could be easily formed into a circle to fit inside the neck of the bear. Then I needed to work out how to attach this to the bear, first of all trying to use pipe clips- however the fabric and tube would pop right out. I then used cable ties to thread through the fabric and attach it to the chicken wire on the inside of the head, fixing the body to the head.