My daughter Laura dressed up as Nala, from “The Lion King” movie, for her senior talent show during Halloween week. I made this dance costume out of stretch rayon velvet, some acrylic fur for the inner ears and tail tip, and a 24in back invisible zipper. The tail is specially remarkable, since it is slightly over an inch thick, has a shaped detachable base (stuffed with a hand sculpted single piece of packaging foam) and is heavily stuffed with polyester batting strips, which made it a little heavier than expected, but looked great while dancing on stage. This feature made necessary a slightly complex inner structure for the garment: grosgrain with velcro and snaps inner belt, threaded through strategically placed thread loops, and reinforcements in specific areas, to keep the tail weight from pulling the torso and distorting the look of the unitard; also to maintain the looseness on the midriff to keep the correct look of the character. Also, I had to design an outer attachment system with snaps, hooks and velcro combined, strong enough to hold through the heavy pulling while dancing. The hood required some wiring to keep the front edge in shape, and the ears required thread stays to keep their standing look.
Although I originally altered a commercial pattern (Simplicity 2853) to cut the basic unitard, I ended up draping the pieces onto my daughter, and hand-drafting the collar, tail, ears and hood. The end effect of the unitard is completely different from the commercial pattern fit (which is loose allover), and closer to the dance costume with the look of the character being recreated (Nala, from Lion King).
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