'Carol' from 'Where the wild things are'(Movie) Costume

Step 14 Legs and feathers.

Feathers, especially loose feathers, are a bit daunting. At least, they were to me. I'd bought a pound of pigeon feathers and I really put off till the last minute dealing with them. Feathers seem to mostly be sold 'strung' and that is probably the best way to attach them in this case. By trial and error, I've got to a reasonably good method for stringing them with the caveat that in this case it's ok that the feathers are a bit straggly; they're supposed to be wild after all. I'm not sure this would be good if you wanted something neater.

I got 16 strips of fabric of about an inch thick and some strips of newspaper the same size. Taking the first strip, you lay down a short bead of glue and one by one, press the feathers onto it. The glue cools, so you can't do too long of a squirt. Once you reach the end of the glue, press some newpaper on top of it. You want to overlap the feathers slightly. Once the whole strip is finished you can sew a line parallel to the glue with a sewing machine - that really makes sure you won't lose feathers ( I lost feathers from strips where I didn't do that). BE CAREFUL, it is very easy to break a needle doing this - it may even just be impossible not to - I must have broken 5.

Once the feathers are all done, and I won't sugar-coat this it'll take a while, put them aside and make some 'skin' for the legs. This is any fabric that will cover the legs painted black (or black fabric, even better). I wanted any gaps in the feathers to show through black; for some reason I imagined Carol with black skin under the fur, like a polar bear. The fabric is wrapped round the legs to strengthen them, it attaches the feet securely and then sews onto the body, attaching the legs to the body securely, but with some give. With the thick foam I was using, Carol's body can stand up on it's own, although it was a bit unstable.

The feathers can then attach in loops around the legs, starting at the bottom. The first loop covers the edge of the fur on the feet, the second loop covers the fabric strip of the first loop and so on up the body. The final loop will be covered by the bottom of the body fur. I also sprayed each loop of feathers with some brown paint and they take it very well.