Fraggle Rock - Boober Fraggle cosplay

I've become a big fan of the Muppets lately, thanks to the 2011 movie, which inspired me to finally go and watch the original series. (Which ironically has made me like the new movie less than I did as a non-fan.) I got to the end of it earlier this year, so the obvious next-thing-to-watch was Fraggle Rock, and it is one of the loveliest shows I have ever seen.

I wanted to cosplay one of the characters partly as tribute to how much I enjoyed it, partly because hardly anyone cosplays from it, and partly to find fellow fans at the convention. (Sadly that plan failed, and I'm not sure that anyone recognised me at all.) My first character choice was actually Mokey, but I couldn't find fabric that looked anything like her cardigan, and then I had a lucky op shop find of a green corduroy vest that I decided would be perfect for Boober... who is definitely one of my favourites, and the one I probably identified with most often - not at a surface "gloom and doom" level, but somewhat deeper: he's an introvert, he worries a lot, he struggles with having fun and risking 'looking silly' even though everyone around him is doing exactly that.

So, yeah. The costume. I bought most of the clothes, but made the hat and the tail. The hat is a really odd shape, if you look at it closely, and I did my best to replicate it. Actually I spent a lot of time in op shops trying to find a knitted one in the right shape and colour, as well as a lot of time in fabric shops trying to find brown knit material.... which I never succeeded with, exactly, though at least I found something in the right colour.

The tail fabric is from an old wool mattress protector - I'd bought it a while ago as a "cheap" way to get fur fabric for another costume, though that went wrong (I tried to dye it brown and it went purple), but I had some scraps left over. Fortunately the dye worked much better this time, and it turned out really well.
The red tip is made from ostrich-feather trim, which is what they used for the actual puppets, and it is amazingly fluffy stuff. Sewing it was hard work though - it comes in a single layer with ribbon binding along the bottom, but the binding is full of tacky glue so the needle becomes sticky, and then tangles in the feathers. Still, I got through it without tearing too many feathers out of it. I started with a metre of trim, and made it into the tuft shape by stitching a wide strip of red cotton fabric to about half the length of it, rolling it into a tube (stitching through as I went), then sewing the rest of the trim around it in a tight spiral.

Overall this was a bit annoying to wear - the clothes are comfortable enough, but the wig made it hard to see, and I couldn't sit in a chair without the tail digging into my back. I probably won't use this costume again, though I'd like to do another Fraggle sometime - probably Mokey or Wembley. Maybe when the movie gets out of Development Hell...


SKILLS I LEARNED FROM THIS:
- using my new overlocker
- re-threading the overlocker after it tangled horribly
- using decorative stitches on the sewing machine (for hat brim)
- dyeing fabric successfully
- tail construction


Photos are thanks to ARThomasPHOTO.com and neilcreek (neilcreek.com); reference picture and Fraggle Rock logo were found on the official Fraggle Rock Facebook page.