Angry Birds

After the quilts we began our projects that would be worn as costumes in the spring Main Stage production of App-etite, a piece of devised theatre which comments on societies addiction to technology. The two boys were set to create vests that a couple would wear during a Boston Red Sox game, and the rest of us collaborated on the creation of the Angry Birds.

Angry Birds! (taken from the Drama Blog)

Based on the popular game, these costumes were a combination of felt and padding with artistic representations of the birds and pig glued to the front. The first part that I worked on creating was the red angry bird face. When others traced them on paper, I worked to cut them out with the correct colored felt and sort them into piles so that each face had the correct parts. From there, we cut out red circles big enough to hold the birds faces and constructed the face like a puzzle. Once looking angry, the faces were sewn onto the red circle and outlined with a black Sharpie to make them look sharp. Warning: the black markers used in this creation are very potent smelling and should be used in small doses. Once created, the faces were put aside and the poncho's were made. Circles folded in half, sewn up the sides (leaving room for legs at the bottom and arms at the top) made up these bird bodies. On the inside of the front abdomen we attached a foam diamond to give the birds more shape. This was the hardest part, for the foam and the felt are not friends with the sewing machine. The foam made the needle get stuck and the felt snagged the thread, so it was the worst job. Somehow managing to complete this task, the ponchos were turned right side out to hide the seams and the angry bird face was glued on to the front. 

For the headband, all that was done for creation was cutting out a long strip of red felt and tying it behind the head. We also made extras of these just in case one got lost.

For the pig, the same process was used to create the poncho, as well as the face. This pig was created after the birds and was decidedly more difficult, if only because the face is not all touching. The angry bird face has all of the components touching one another, and the pig does not. So it was a matter of seeing how they looked in proportion to each other when deciding where on the felt to place them. I am really proud of how the pig turned out. This was my biggest project for this class, and I really enjoyed working with the girls who helped to create these birds.