So as promised, I thought I would share my ideas with you to transform normally serious men into characters, that quite frankly the children adored.
As I mentioned before, I had toyed with the idea of lots of props and lots of characters, but to be honest, it really did seem an awful lot of work that would be over looked by your average six year old. So I opted to just have two of the most well know characters, there, in the flesh!
So where to start?
Well the white rabbit seemed to be as good a place to start as any.
So my dear uncle, who is affectionately known as Unkie was up to be the white rabbit.
My original aim was to make a whole body suit, but somehow that didn't happen so what to do?
I should at this point add that my dear uncle is know for his dressing up and his ability to bring a bit of fun to any and I do mean any occasion.
So I knew that he would bring dressing up 'stuff' along, as he was always prepared.
All I had to do was transform him into some sort of fluffy creature. I had a good couple of metres of white fury material (previously used for a cat costume), so I cut a circle, stuffed it and sewed a pin on. Fluffy tail sorted. Now for his head. Did it really mater whether he wore a suit, a waistcoat, a pair of shorts, probably not. But if he didn't have a white fluffy tail and big white ears, I did run the risk of him looking like anything you wanted him to!
This was the result . :0)
Please excuse the fact that his ears look like they are doing the splits.
So you need a piece of white fur material about 18 inches square. I got my material from hobbycraft at Christmas, but its easily available, especially on line. A piece of foam approx 8 inches by 10 inches. Size of the foam really depends on how tall you want the ears to be. Needle, cotton and sticky Velcro spots.
I don't know if you remember in the 70's (showing my age here), these fake fur hats.
I based the hat on this and added the ears, made simply of the foam cut in two, covered in the fur fabric. Of course it wouldn't have looked as good as it did if Unkie, bless him, hadn't bought along his bag of bits and of course a bit of face paint. The children were mesmerised and I had to tell him more than once to behave because they weren't listening to me and were just looking for him!
Of course he did have a partner in crime..............
THE MAD HATTER.
The mad hatter was, I have to confess, easy. You can wear anything you like as long as none of it matches. If you wear suits, just mix a jacket and trousers. a waistcoat, a bright scarf tied as a tie with a bow and a pair of loud shoes. What makes the mad hatter is of course, his hat. This was really, really easy. Honestly, anyone could make it. You need cardboard, duck tape, cord/wool/straw for hair, masking tape, knife, ribbon/material, thick paper and a pen.
Start by drawing a circle about a foot and a half across. And then draw around a dinner plate as central as possible. This will not fit your head, but its a good place to start. You will see that you need to cut some away from the front or the back, its just a case of cutting away and then fitting until it actually fits.
Once you have the rim cut out, you need to then cut out another circle of cardboard the same size as the original circle (a foot and a half across). Then cut strips of card about two foot high, again this depends on how tall you want the hat, and two inches wide. At the end of each strip turn over one inch. Attach the strips to the base of the hat with masking tape. Once you are happy with how the strips fit on the brim, attach the top circle of card, again using masking tape to hold it in place. Once you are happy with the cardboard structure of the hat cover it in duck tape.
The brilliant thing with duck tape is it now comes in lots of different colours and patterns. So you can do the brim and bottom third in one colour and then the rest in another colour. Once the hat is covered and becomes a secure structure, add a ribbon or piece of material as a band and then of course the finishing touch is a card with 10/6 on it. All that's left is the hair. All pictures of the mad hatter you see its noticeable that his hair is somewhat unruly to say the least! I used a straw like stuff which I got from the florist wholesalers and attached it with duck tape inside the brim, so it literally just stuck out. Of course you may come across a wig, or have wool or cord that will create the same 'mad' effect. And there you have it.
And again, what with a naughty white rabbit who thrilled the children by throwing cocktail sausages at them and the mad hatter encouraging them to be noisy, its fair to say that the party was a roaring success.
Face painting - Sharon Mackie
Cake - Sharon Mackie
With help from Unkie and Daddy
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