Forming The Irish Hare Band!
The Fleadh Cheoil 2018 was a huge success, as was our window display, The Irish Hare Band!
We always aim to make the window of The Crafty Fox a crowd pleaser, and our customers always look forward to seeing what we will do next. It was only right that we did something bigger and better for the first Fleadh Cheoil to be held in Drogheda!
For our window we chose to build our own Irish Hare Band. We liked the idea of using our Irish Tweed to create a mystical scene with indigenous animals and we thought there is nothing more representative of Irish wildlife than an Irish Hare. Once the decision was made we found a pattern which we loved.
The pattern is by Emma Hall and was of great use for the general proportions, although the pattern is for a 5cm and 10cm hare.
Although we had the pattern now, it required a few alterations to accommodate for the much larger size we intended to make, for example, we needed the hares to have flat feet so they would have something to balance on, but the pattern had feet with seams on the soles.
Once the idea had been created, a staff meeting was held to discuss the idea in detail. Initially it was going to be a woodland scene as we have been on an animal craze for a while now but during the meeting more ideas were formed and changes were made to the original plan, but with everyone's input it definitely made for a fun and successful window! We decided on a rough and ready busking scene with our happy hares playing musical instruments and earning a few bob!
Happy with our plan, a test run of the hare was made to see how it would look in the chosen tweed, and to ensure the patterns where accurate.
The pattern for the hares had to be scaled up to the size we were envisioning, then cut out from the tweed fabric.
From there all the pieces were sewn together with the seams on the outside, this allowed us to fray them later to really give the hares that ragged look. In order for the hares to stay up straight we agreed the feet needed to be heavily weighted, and so each foot was filled with rice!
The remainder of the hare was stuffed with some old quilt stuffing which was packed in to make sure they where solid and not limp.
The ears of the hares had to be lined with wire to help them hold their shape, and to allow us to bend them if we chose to do so.
As the deadline drew closer we began to worry that we may not get it done in time, but with everyone on board and willing to do a few late nights we knew we could accomplish it.
Not only did we get the window done, but we went and won first place in the Best Fleadh Window competition! We were over the moon to have created such a successful window.
Now that the Fleadh window is done and dusted we are moving on and planning our Christmas window, stay tuned to see what fun and creative ideas we come up with!
Stay Crafting!
The Crafty Fox Team!