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.
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| 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."
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| "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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Nearly Finished Product |
Up Next: Props and Accessories.
*Photos of the costume on our actor will be posted after the festival next weekend.
