Introduction: How to Make a Rubber Chicken Purse

What do you do when your daughter wants a Rubber Chicken to take to her grade 8 graduation?  Buy her one and make it into a stylish purse of course! 

I asked her "why a rubber chicken?" and her reply was that "everything is better with a rubber chicken!"  

Who am I to argue that kind of profound logic?

Step 1: Gathering Supplies

The things needed are pretty straightforward:

rubber chicken from a party supply store - (unless you live in a small town like me and the only place that sells them is the, um, "novelty" store...)
2 pipe c brackets
18" of farm-like chain - make sure you can open the loops - this type was great!
a zipper the length of the chicken body (harvested from a broken backpack)
glue - not the stuff here - had to use crazy glue instead
utility knife
vise grips

Step 2: Rubber Chicken Surgury

Carefully slit the chicken on the underside from the neck to the... well...between the legs.

Make certain to measure the zipper against the chicken, so that the cut is big enough for the zipper to be able to open properly.

Step 3: Glue in Zipper

The title for this step makes it sound easy, but this can be the trickiest part!

Carefully lining up the zipper, glue the fabric sides to the inside of the chicken in such a way that only the zipping part is exposed.  It is entirely up to you as to which end you start the zipper.  I was much more comfortable with it this way.

One mistake I made was in the type of glue I used at first.  Get crazy glue - and be careful. Warning: Do not spread crazy glue with your finger!!! We don't want any jokes like: 

"Why did the purse-maker cross the road?"

"He/She was glued to the chicken." 

Step 4: Prepare the Chain

Carefully open the end loops on the chain.  Bought chain that you can't do that with?  Go back to the store, buy the right chain and come back.  Then do this step.

Step 5: Fitting the Brackets

Bend the pipe brackets with pliers so that the two ends come together (turning it from a "c" to an "o").  It's unlikely they will go perfectly flat but do your best to make the ends line up.

Put the ankles of the rubber chicken together and bend one bracket around them so that the end tabs of the bracket face each other. 

Feed the chain through the bracket holes and close the loop in the chain. Repeat this process for the bracket around the neck.

Step 6: Admire Your Handiwork

Once the chain and the brackets are in place, you are done!  Congratulations - you rock!

The one thing you might want to consider doing is to put something inside the neck of the chicken if you are concerned about things falling out the mouth, but I found that the after the bracket was bent around the neck, there was very little room for anything to escape.

I think it looks best if the chicken is cut on the stomach side, but that is entirely up to you. Whichever way you choose, just remember to make sure that the tab side of the brackets face the same side as the zipper.  

Step 7: Start a Trend

Show off the super-cool Rubber Chicken Purse to amaze your friends and be the star attraction of graduation night!