Slowly Making a Snail

 Hello Lovelies!

I have wanted to make a Julia Donaldson costume for a while now, but what to choose? The Gruffalo is by far her most famous character but seemed too obvious. My favourite book is Stick Man but that didn’t leave much chance for creativity. About a month ago I was shelving Julia Donaldson books and I came across The Snail and the Whale. Eureka! That was perfect, especially because of Anne, Charlotte and Emily my three Giant African Land Snails collectively known as the Bronte Snails.

I started to scour charity shops for some trousers in brown tones and was lucky enough to find three pairs from the YMCA (£1.50, £1.50, 50p) and then found another pair at the Red Cross for £1.99.

I had literally no idea how big it would need to be as I have no spatial sense, so I used some packing paper at work and laid it out on the floor to get a sense of how long it might need to be. This is about six feet and it only coiled up about this big (see below) so I knew I needed to make it much, much longer.

I carefully cut them into rectangles about two hands wide (because I can’t be arsed to measure properly) and sewed them together in a very long strip, then folded it right sides together and sewed down the side making a very, very, very long snake.

 One of the things I am so glad I did was to leave a gap every ten rectangles (a two-rectangle gap to be precise) to make stuffing it easier.

 Then I tried it on and pretended it was a long scarf and I was Tom Baker (as you do.)

Next I set about to stuffing it. Online people said that bubble wrap was a good thing to use as it was light, but I didn’t have any and it was expensive. The other thing people talked about was scrumpled up paper so that it what I did. I had some brown craft paper I use as wrapping paper so I tore it into long strips and scrumpled it up and used that in  combination with some pollyfill fluff. Then as I filled each section I hand stitched it closed.

 When the whole thing was stuffed it measured an impressive 4.5 meters. I saved back some of the nicest houndstooth tweedy fabric for an art display as my favourite geek merch company Skelton Crew says in the future they will be making the key to 221B Baker Street so I need to be prepared!

 Now it was time to coil that baby up into a huge swirly poop shape. I used safety pins to make this happen. I wasn’t sure how many I would need and as it turns out I needed about 180 and had to go back twice to get more packs. I used the biggest pins at the four carinal directions and the medium ones in all the spaces in between.

Then I needed to attach the straps which in hindsight I probably should have added earlier. I used heavy duty strapping and D Rings to sew (and re-sew about 50 times) to the top and bottom and then added safety pins for extra strengthening.

Then onto the eyestalks. I bought a wide headband from Poundland which was surprisingly comfortable (for a headband). I rolled up two squares of brown felt like a cone and stuffed them with more pollyfill fluff. Then hot glued them to the headband and added eyeballs to the top. Then I used leftover scraps to cover the headband to match the shell which made the headband slightly less comfortable because now it was tighter. But a careful strategic stretching and it now feels better.

So how do I put it on? The answer is with some difficulty. I bend over like I am trying to touch my toes with the shell balanced on my back and thread the straps through the D Rings and pull. Then stand up and pull the straps tighter and tie under my boobs.

How was it wearing it all day at work? Not that bad, actually. I did occasionally knock books off the shelf behind me and I could not fit in the cupboard under the stairs so had to get my colleague to bring a few things out (like the cordless phone and spare bags) before he left. Despite the size it was never as uncomfortable as the Medusa crown. I did notice some discomfort the next day between my scapula, but a bit of stretching and lying on my acupressure mat sorted it. 

Now I just need to figure out where to store it as it is quite large….