Gumby Costume

GUMBY PANTS

Priscilla Queen of the Desert - Amateur theatre production September 2021.

Murray Bridge Players and Singers

Back in 2019 I started making the pattern for these pants. I couldn't find a pattern to make these specialised pants so I new I would have to draft my own from scratch.

Pattern drafting was not a skill I had so I enrolled in a course at the WEA.

I learned to make a bodice and pants block, from this beginners course I enrolled in an advanced course and my tutor helped me work out the shapes for the panels for these pants.

The first three pairs I made were from a one way stretch fabric. It had horizontal stripes and a glitter finish. I found that the one way stretch reduced the manoverability of the pants. For the remaining pairs I chose a two way lycra in foil finishes. To reduce the amount of fabric required I laid the pattern pieces in both directions which meant the stripes didn't match up but that was just too bad.

My first sample of one leg of the pants

Tim - Alex - Hamish - rehearsal photo by Jay Birdy Photography

Once the pattern was created I had to work out how to attach a firm but flexible foot base. In the professional production they have a sculpted foam foot, in the original movie it looks like a single piece of something hard sewn into the leg. I decided to use foam floor tiles from Big W. I cut a calf circle out and glued the edge of the pants hem to the foam.

Each actor is fitted for their pants to get the leg length correct so the pants are taught from the foam foot to the crotch.

the foam foot is pinned to the pants. The excess fabric length is trimmed from the foam

Trimmed lycra is glued to the foam foot

A second foam pierce is glued to the first. This hides the above fabric which becomes sandwiched between the two layers.

So the actor has an anchor to be able to walk I glued a pair of flat soled shoes to the inside of each foot piece. The velcro holds the shoe in place while the glue dries.