Memories of Winter Walk: Part 7

Today's Winter Walk memory comes from Lisa Durfee, whose costumes are always one of the joyous surprises of the evening. Lisa and her partner, Alan Hamilton, have dressed for the occasion as a Victorian lady and gentleman and as Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghost of Joseph Marley. In 2013, Lisa made a solo appearance as the Fairy Queen of Winter Walk.

The proprietor of the vintage clothing store Five & Diamond, Lisa is responsible for creating the costumes of two characters who have become a Winter Walk tradition: the Gingerbread Man and the Snowman. The costumes were made in 2005 and 2006 and have been part of Winter Walk ever since. In her memory of Winter Walk, Lisa recounts how she created them.

In 2005, I made the Gingerbread Man costume at Five and Diamond especially for Winter Walk. Of course, I can't say I designed the basic pattern--a cookie cutter did that--but the construction details were all my own idea. 

First, I drew my pattern onto two layers of interfacing. Then I got three yards of brown felt and three yards of one-inch-thick polyester batting from a local upholsterer. The interfacing cutout became the pattern for the felt and batting cutout and became the lining that keeps the itchy batting off the wearer's skin.

I sewed all three layers together on the sewing machine, leaving about a one-inch seam allowance. When the brown felt seam allowance was trimmed away, the batting became the edge icing! (This part was a real bitch, however, because I needed a lot of space to move a big costume like that through a sewing machine. I did it on the floor.)

Then I sewed the front to the back at the head only. The rest of the costume was attached together with plastic pricing gun bullets. After that, it was just decorating: stuffed buttons and eyes made out of felt, attached with a glue gun, and, of course, an opening at the mouth so the wearer can see and breathe.

This costume turned out to be very flexible, warm, and cozy.

The next year, I made a snowman costume in the same manner.

Look for both of Lisa's amazing costumes on the street this Saturday night.