Well, Hello There!

It would seem that have neglected this blog a tad bit!  OK, that's an understatement!  Well, at any rate, it's high time I get back to blogging about these costumes and jazz.  Now, first-things-first, allow me to upload those promised photos of the Cowardly Lion and Glinda!

The Cowardly Lion of Oz: Fabric Selection, Design, and Construction

Fabric Selection

After a suitable amount of research, came the time to begin selecting fabrics.  I knew that this time around I wanted a high-quality faux fur.  While it is ridiculously expensive, I felt it necessary to spend the money.  After all, it's an investment.  I rationalized that if I spend the money to do it right, I won't have to do it again for a long time.  It's better to just spend a lot of money once then to spend a moderate amount several times.

Swatch of body fur.

Normally, I am one all for purchasing materials locally.  I like to feel them, play around with them, and see them in person prior to purchasing.  However, that is just not possible sometimes.  I did look at the local JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobby to no avail.  Right now, fashion furs all the rage.  These include animal prints (natural and highly colorized versions), Velboa (a minky fur that has a wavy pattern), and the soft, curly kind.  Obviously, none of these will do.  So I moved on and began my search online.  Luckily, many online fabric retailers will send you swatches - some for free, some for a couple of cents per swatch, or with a deposit (returned only if you end up ordering from them).  I found a few websites that had decent selections and an agreeable swatch policy and ordered some samples.  I ended up with fabrics ranging from short and plushy to long and teddy bear-like.  Colors also ran the gamut from beige and tan to light brown and caramel.  I ultimately decided on a faux beaver fur in "camel."

"Detail" fur.

Obviously, the Cowardly Lion's fur, as with real lions, is not all one pile length or color.  Now that I had selected the body fabric, it was time to find longer fur that would serve as his mane/chest piece, patches on his legs, and tip of his tail.  This search proved much harder.  As visible in the reference photos, the Lions longer fur is somewhat brindled.  Also, I was working with a purchased wig and needed it to match decently.  I continuously ran into the problem of finding furs that were either too dark or too light; there was no middle ground.  After some experimentation with the swatches I had received, I deemed it possible, and necessary, to hand-colorize the fur (more on this later).  I ordered what is called "Mongolian" fur in "toffee," which is ever so slightly darker than camel.  Mongolian fur is preferable to most long-piled faux furs because it is longer (with a nap of about three inches), softer, and of a wavy texture as opposed to unnaturally straight.

Design and Construction
Some costumers use patterns as-is, some create their own from scratch, or, if they're like me, they start with a pattern as a base and alter as necessary.  I started with McCall's basic animal pattern.  After all, the base of this costume is essentially a jumpsuit.  I cut the pattern out and pinned it together.  I then had our actor, Jake, try the pieces on.  I then marked it up with a Sharpies.  I made the lines more smooth, rather than straight; shortened pieces as necessary; reshaped bits to make it more of an organic body instead of a suit; and even taped parts together so they could be cut as one.  For example, I wanted the paws to be continuous flow from the arms as opposed to a sleeve with separate mittens.  The trick about making an animal costume is that there should be as few seems as possible.  Of course, there will have to be some seams, but luckily, fur affords you the ability hide the seems buy brushing the nap over.

Once I had the pattern to my liking, I began the tedious process of cutting.  The fur was so thick that I had to cut each piece individually, I could not fold and cut two at a time.  Also, fur requires careful cutting or else you shear the pile.  Once it was cut, the sewing began.  This requires more attention than your average costume.  The thickness does not allow for the fabric to slide under the presser foot easily.  Also, you have to be careful of slipping.  It can never be stressed enough to reinforce seams in a costume so heavy.  The jumpsuit was finished off with matching zipper (to be covered by the mane) and bias tape around the neck to prevent constant shedding on the raw edge.

Close Up: Paw Pads

In the past, as with many Lion costumes out there, I have sewn the paws as a simple mitten shape.  This has proven troublesome in the past.  Therefore, I decided to give him fingers this time around.  However, I did not give him full-length fingers - only to the second knuckle.  This gave the hand a very feline look.  It will also allow for him to hold pens for autographs, zip his costume up himself, etc.  The paws were finished off with brown leather pads (resembling the bottom of a cat or dog's paws).  This is a departure from the movie design, which gave Burth a flat brown bottom to his hands.

Another problem that our previous costume provided was that the feet paws had a tendency to slide all over as we had virtually made large shoe covers.  For this costume, I reupholstered a pair of house slippers in the body fur.  The ends were finished of similar to the hand paws to simulate toes.  These were then hand-stitched to the bottom of the legs.

Legs and Feet

The mane and leg patches' patterns were made from scratch.  Once they were cut and ready to go, we began the process of dying.  As the fur is a synthetic fiber, it cannot be dyed like normal hair or fabric.  Instead, we had to concoct a dye of food colors and rubbing alcohol.  The rubbing alcohol add an acidity to the mix that allowed the dye to really latch on and stain the fur.  Also, alcohol evaporates quicker than water, which helped to prevent matting.  The mixture was poured into a spray bottle and spritzed over the costume in a gradient pattern, darker at top and fading toward the bottom.  The tip of the tail was done the darkest as consistent with the film.  Once it had all dried, we gave it a run over with a dog brush and the fur was almost as soft as before.  Only a few spots that had received heavier coloring were a little sticky but they are slowly drying and losing tackiness.  Overall, the color goes pretty well with the wig.  I owe a big thanks to my resident color specialist, Haley, who mixed and applied the dyes.

The fur patches were hand sewn in place and the tip added to the tail.  I stuffed the tail with a firmer Polyfill.  This allows the tail to be flexible but not flimsy.  After all, it is supposed to be muscle and bone.

To top of the costume, we have two identical wigs.  One we left as purchased: Curly with a bow on top. This one will be worn on Sunday of the festival and on special occasions.  The other wig is actually one that we have been using for about three years.  In it's time, it has gotten pretty tangled and matted, so I decided to muss it up and use it was his "right out of the forest" hair that he will wear on Friday and Saturday.

Nearly Finished Product

Up Next: Props and Accessories.

*Photos of the costume on our actor will be posted after the festival next weekend.

The Cowardly Lion of Oz: Background and Research

Background
As many of you already know, I am the costumed character director (as well as the Scarecrow) for the Chesterton Wizard of Oz Festival (the world's largest Oz event).  One of my duties in this position is to create and maintain our characters' costumes.  Due to the wear and tear that we put on these each year at the festival (such as walking in city streets, climbing on and off parade floats, roaming a public park, dancing, playing with children, etc.), not to mention publicity events, rehearsals, and stage productions, we have to repair and sometimes even remake the costumes on occasion.  Well, the time has come for the Lion to be "reborn."

Current Lion Costume: Not the best - Not the worst.

The last time we (My mother and I) made the costume was 2009.  We had essentially had the one we had been using pulled out from underneath us.  There was not time nor funds to really do the best possible job.  What we ended up with was passible, but we were never truly satisfied with it.  Now, as it has gotten some use (it has been through at least 5 actors, 4 publicity events, 3 Oz events, 2 movie showings, and a stage production) the acrylic fur we used (more like a fleece) is starting to become thread bare and even melt down in places.  So now is our chance to do it again and do it right.

Research

Note how Lion looks a light brown color here.

Yet here he appears to have a more yellow or auburn hue.

I always begin a costuming job with research...a ridiculous amount (even if it is something I know like OZ).  Now, the problem you run into with movies like The Wizard of Oz is that the film is quite old (72 years this month, to be exact).  At the time the movie was filmed, lighting was really tricky and costumes didn't always photograph consistently; and publicity materials were often hand-colored, albeit incorrectly.  There is always home video (thank God for Blu-Ray!), but restoration processes in the past have sometimes distorted aging color further (look at Glinda's dress in the 1999 DVD print! It is PINK!); and with Blu-Ray, we just run into the issues of inconsistent lighting.  While some costumes do still exist, we run into two major problems: 1. Time has not always been kind to them; they have faded or gotten nasty from improper storage. 2. Due to the technicolor process, the actual costumes had to be out of colors that are not what we expect in order to photograph the proper color.  For example, Judy's Dorothy dress was a dark blue and pink, and her Ruby Slippers were burgandy.

Depending on the pictures of the Lion you see, he can appear light brown, taupe, yellow, dark/burnt orange, auburn, or dark brown.  After very carefully reviewing the Blu-Ray, original 1939 test stills and Kodachrome portraits,  and photos of the surviving costume, I ultimately decided that he was more of a softer, camel color (see picture below).  This color is also more consistent with what color an actual Lion would be.  After all, the original film did use a real lion pelt in the creation of the costume.  Of course, that is not possible for us. Again, this is where the film's age intercedes - it's now illegal to sell or purchase endangered animal pelts (and I wouldn't do it anyway).

On the topic of accuracy, I recently had someone get on my case for our Oz costumes not being 100% film accurate.  My response to that is, well quite simply, we can't be.  This is for a few reasons.  First of all, MGM had an army of professional costumers working endless hours to create this...and the depth of Louis B. Mayer's pockets didn't hurt either! And another major factor we are working with is that our costumes have to be functional.  They must operate in a real-world setting, not just a soundstage.  The Witch can't have a trailing cape as it would get stepped on, extremely dirty, or frayed.  Glinda can't have quite as big of a hoop or a corset because it would hinder her ability to get to a child's level, and that is the last thing we want.  Also, our costumes have to travel.  The ones in the original film didn't have to travel any further than wardrobe to dressing room to set.

Up Next: Fabric Selection, Design, and Construction

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog, folks!  Stay tuned for posts regarding updates; posts detailing the research, design, and creation of my costumes; tutorials; and much more!