Butterfly

About a month ago, it was "book day" at the local schools.  We missed it - Jeanne told us about it the day before (I wasn't on the right email lists or something), and we just had absolutely no supplies at home to turn her into the Gruffalo on such short notice.  There were tears.

Soooo....this time we found out about "wild animal day" a week in advance. Bingo!  I ran over to the charity shop across the street during my lunch break and perused the offerings.  There were some animal prints, but what finally caught my eye was a brightly colored rayon floral top and a black t-shirt.  Butterfly!!!

We went with a hand-sewn long-sleeved bolero (probably made this too small), and then wings cut out of the floral shirt and sewn onto the arms.  She made the antennae out of a headband and pipe cleaners.  Fortunately, we already had a black leotard and tights.

 I sewed some other strips of the black t-shirt on the back of the wings with a running stitch, inadvertently making a peace sign.  It was meant to look like the butterfly body and to divide the 4 wings up.  She doesn't mind.

 Bolero: Constructed using Alabama-chanin style running stitch and topstitch on the seams.  I was able to have the original t-shirt hem in the back of the bolero and on the wrist edge of the sleeves, which made the whole thing seem more stable.  I did a double layer on the front of the bolero in hope that that would make it warmer/more substantial.

Wings were cut in a single piece and then attached to the arms with a stretchy cross-stitch.  They aren't attached below, so she can kind of roll the whole thing up and get her arms into her jacket sleeves without a problem.  Good thing, there was frost this morning!