Arthur and Kevin's Nellorat ([info]nellorat) wrote,
@ 2004-09-19 21:53:00
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Isabella Pictures
No wonder the judges went "ooh!" and "aaah!"

dress-up


Isabella Rattalinni as Queen Gloriana, in all her PEW splendor.



crown


Isabella’s least favorite part of the costume, but the indispensable piece de resistance!



Costume designed and created by [info]sarah_ovenall.

No rat, no music
Mood: tired and mellow

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[info]laughingrat
2004-09-20 02:23 am UTC (link)
She's so pretty! And what an amazing costume!

<3

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Fritz Leiber and rats
[info]brothercatfish
2004-09-20 02:53 am UTC (link)
Have you read Fritz Leiber's THE SWORDS OF LANKHMAR? You, of all people, would adore it (it's the only full-length novel he wrote featuring Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser!)

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Re: Fritz Leiber and rats
[info]nellorat
2004-09-20 09:26 am UTC (link)
Thanks for the suggestion-- I read that, and other F & GM pieces, and in fact a whole bunch of sword & sorcery fiction, when I was in high school, but I've re-read little or nothing of it since. And that was long before I knew the wonder and glory of rats.

I was also saying to [info]nancylebov that Mary Gentle's fiction is on my to-read list. Not only have I heard very good things about it, including from Jane Tompkins (who actually lent me Golden Witchbreed and I still didn't get around to it), but not that many f/sf writers breed fancy rats as well!

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Re: Fritz Leiber and rats
[info]supergee
2004-09-20 02:57 pm UTC (link)
Mary Gentle once did a zine, about 20 years ago, and I was on the mailing list. It was a good-hearted but depressing essay about the problems of the old.

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Re: Fritz Leiber and rats
[info]nancylebov
2004-09-20 04:38 pm UTC (link)
There's also a novel called _Coachman Rat_ by David Henry Wilson about the rat in Cinderella. All I remember about it is that it was really depressing, but at least there's a rat in it.

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[info]zaxwrit
2004-09-20 03:07 am UTC (link)
How beautiful she is!

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[info]elegant_bonfire
2004-09-20 03:47 am UTC (link)
Wow, that's awesome! Now I want to dress up my boys too. lol

(P.S., Did she win anything?)

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[info]nellorat
2004-09-20 09:31 am UTC (link)
Yes! She won Best Costume--or, as [info]womzilla put it more grammatically correctly, Better Costume, since there was only one other entry. But the reaction of the judges still showed that they found the costume outstanding, so that it would have won against a larger field.

You ride horses, too, right? Do you mean dressing your rats or a horse? Since I once dressed my rat Buddy in a Breyer model saddle-blanket and saddle, it would only be fair to dress a horse in--what?--maybe big round ears and a long rubber tail. ;-)

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[info]supergee
2004-09-20 02:58 pm UTC (link)
It could have been worse; it could have been Good Costume.

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[info]elegant_bonfire
2004-09-20 04:31 pm UTC (link)
The rats would be great to dress up (Dapper Rat has some pics of ratties in teeny football jerseys!) but my horse was also dressed up as a unicorn once. One of the students at the stable borrowed her for a costume class. A rattie costume would be funny! You could make the big ears out of foam rubber and attache them to the horses halter, and take some pink Vetrap (a kind of bandage that sticks to itself) and wrap the horse's tail all the way down to the end. One of the kids at Sunshine dressed up a gray Percheron as an elephant. :-D

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[info]sarah_ovenall
2004-09-20 04:14 am UTC (link)
I'm so glad it fits! I was worried about that headpiece, it's kinda heavy for a rattie. But sometimes the beautiful have to suffer for fashion, and Isabella certainly is beautiful :) I think I left some excess on the elastic so you could rip out the stitches and make it looser if you needed to.

Would love to see a photo of the other gown costume sometime. did that one have a hat? I forget. The wired ribbon can be shaped to make a big rounded puff around the rat, or pushed down flatter if you want.

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[info]nellorat
2004-09-20 09:43 am UTC (link)
I hope you're enjoying all the appreciation the costume got, and that it makes up for my lack of appropriate thanks at the time (just business and disorganization).

And I'm so very glad you mentioned about extra room in the elastic in the headpiece. Yes, I think there is a place where you took it in and I can take it out, which is great. The elastic is a little tight, not for wearing as much as for comfortably getting it on her; she was a trooper, but she'll like it even better with a little more give. The heaviness was less a problem than the tightness; rats have big strong heads!

The one change I made is that the pearl sprays tended to fall off to each side, so I tacked each strand down around the waistband, to preserve the distribution. It was very easy, and the stitches are mostly hidden under the waistband.

We'll do pictures of the other two outfits, including experimenting with the wired ribbon poofed up or straight. The boy's costume is very much on the large side, especially since our younger rats tend to be smaller than many of the dearly departed, but Felix is a big guy and can probably wear it.

I told everyone at the rat show, "A friend of mine made it. She's a wonderful seamstress--made her own wedding dress." Well, wedding suit, as Nancy pointed out to me later, but it was a good, quick way to spell excellence. Apparently ferret people are more into costumes as a whole, and I had a nice talk with one of them about rat clothing.

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[info]holyoutlaw
2004-09-20 04:22 am UTC (link)
That's so cute. I wonder if either of my rats would sit still for wearing a costume...

Maybe Peaty, he's the quieter one.

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[info]nellorat
2004-09-20 10:13 am UTC (link)
The only way to know is to try. Bwah hah hah!

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[info]holyoutlaw
2004-09-20 05:07 pm UTC (link)
You've already successfully recruited me to ratdom, I think I'll wait a while before taking the plunge into costuming.

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[info]brisingamen
2004-09-20 04:38 am UTC (link)
Magnificent. I would hesitate to attempt to dress any of the cats. Beatrix Potter was cogent on the matter and things haven't really changed.

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Re: Isabella Pictures
[info]pir_anha
2004-09-20 08:14 am UTC (link)
that is just terrible. :) my eyes, they are burning from the cuteness!

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[info]wouldyoueva
2004-09-20 11:48 am UTC (link)
That's one adorable rat. (Two words I never thought I'd put next to each other, but there you go.)

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[info]contentlove
2004-09-20 01:53 pm UTC (link)
Wow! That's a terrific costume and she looks very fetching in it indeed!

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[info]metasilk
2004-09-20 01:59 pm UTC (link)
(Yet again) Ooh! Ahh! :)

Thanks for posting!

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[info]trinker
2004-09-20 07:25 pm UTC (link)
Amazing.

I had this vision last night of rats dressed up as radishes, as I've always found the tail end of radishes to have a rather mouse/rat appearance.

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[info]boxofdelights
2004-09-20 07:43 pm UTC (link)
Oh, how pretty!

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[info]nigelpuggle
2004-09-21 01:38 am UTC (link)
Awwwww! How cute! Makes me wonder how this puggle would look like dressed for Halloweeen.....hmmmm. How about I dress in a suit and tie and Chloe wears a dress? I would consider dressing as a rat, but as you know, Bob, I HATE IT WHEN SOMEONE PLAYS WITH MY TAIL! (Shout intended...sorry.)

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[info]1dimensionalman
2004-09-21 06:11 am UTC (link)
Gorgeous! Aaa, it makes me pine for my darlings.

Visit the rat temple:
http://members.madasafish.com/~cj_whitehound/Rats_Nest/Ship_Rats/Deshnok.htm

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Faerie GodMouse
[info]metasilk
2004-09-21 12:00 pm UTC (link)
Somehow, seeing an image of a fairy godmouse this morning tied right into Isabella's dream outfit...

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[info]daynavon
2004-09-22 12:06 am UTC (link)
Awwww! :)

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[info]peromyscus
2005-09-02 06:16 pm UTC (link)
Wow very pretty! I couldn't get my pet rat "Bella" to wear anything. Whenever I tried to put anything on her she'd go crazy trying to pull it off XD.

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