Finished Santa

The first step is to always take good measurements. My sister took his measurements for me and relayed them over the phone. I cut out the red fabric and sewed it all up, then I tried it on my brother in law for a fitting. I only had to make some minor adjustment.  Sis did a good job. I spray painted the buckles and grommets with krylon paint. I then made the  boots and the belt out of the slippery spandex. 

It was  a little difficult to get the fabric through the feed dogs, (this can happen with slippery finishes) but I put some tape over the top and it did the trick. The tape makes a rough surface for the foot to push off from.

I had  my bro in law wear the shoes he would use so I could put the elastic in the right place under his heal ( so he wouldn't step funny and slip on it). I also decided to add some elastic at the top to make sure the boot didn't fall down when the heavy fur was placed there.  

I wanted the bag to be special and repeat the gold accents from the suit. I created a stencil of cut paper and used metallic fabric paint to complete the design. 

  

I love poinsettias and so decided that is what would be on the bag. The design was repeat on both sides. It think this was the easiest part of the whole project. I then went to work on the most time consuming part. The Fur!

I don't know what this coat is made of, but it's plush and soft and still in good condition. It's outdated and the lining was ripped out so I wasn't going to use it as a fashion piece. Recycle! Recycle! Recycle!



 Because I was working with just so much room on the original coat, the new cut outs had to be pieced. I cut it out the way I mentioned in my last post and put it together the same way. The seams were beautiful and you couldn't tell where they were.

This next step was the part I had to think about. How were the ball on the ends of the hat and the bag pulls going to work? The pattern I used said to just cut out a circle and then gather the edges to make a ball. That wasn't going to be possible with the stiffness and thickness of this fur. So what I did was cut two halves of a ball and hand stitch and pull the edges up till it curled. 

As you can hopefully see, that method rounded the flat piece a bit. I then sewed two sides together and stuffed it with fiber fill. It worked perfectly. I processed all of the other fur the same way I mentioned in my previous post. 

Hello Santa!

 Poor Santa has red eyes, he was pretty tired, and he didn't seem to want his bag in the picture. He did let me take his picture so I was grateful for that. The kids loved him.

He was a great success.

Merry Christmas everyone!