Friday, October 30, 2009

A Costume for St. Dwynwen

St. Who? Oh, I wouldn't expect you to know who this patron saint of sick animals is unless you are Welsh or as much in love with all God's creatures (except snakes and spiders) as my little Shortcake. So when she asked to be St. Dwynwen for our All Saints Party, I said, "Um... hang on a minute!" What in the world does St. Dwynwen look like? Well, like this:
...or a close approximation. Honey, wouldn't you just want to dress up like a vet? They would fall under her patronage? Nope.

So here is our approximation...
She cracked me up with this face when I said, "Now give me big eyes!"
I promised her I would post a smiling shot.

I used that awesome Jedi robe tutorial to make her robe and then painted on the detail. I used a real ribbon for her belt and some green and blue cotton to make a simple veil/shawl. The braids (which are kind of hidden) are made out of yarn and are taped and sewn onto a piece of ribbon. The cross was printed from the internet onto card stock and hung on a ribbon which is a cheap and easy way to make any kind of prop like St. Therese's crucifix, or St. Josephine's necklace. I added a popsicle stick to the back to give it some weight and strung it on a ribbon. The church is just a plain birdhouse we found at Hobby Lobby and painted as best we could to look like the picture. We painted the backside so that the hole and perch wouldn't get in our way.

You can find out more about St. Dwynwen here.

6 comments:

  1. Great post! My husband is Welsh so this is going to be great to share with him tonight at dinner. Your daughter looks lovely.
    cindy

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  2. Love the costume. The highlight of our annual All Saints Day party is the Can you stump Father game. All the kids line up and our parish priest tries to guess which saint they are dressed as. My girls choose their saint based on whether or not they think they can stump Father.

    It is also a great game because they have to prepare clues for him, and be prepared to answer his questions about who they are (when did they live, what order were they from, etc.). It requires them to do a little research into their saint.

    This year we have St. Appolonia, St. Scholastica, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. I think at least the first one is good for a stumper, but I think St. Dwynwen would take the cake.

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  3. I never heard of this saint before today. You did a great job on the costume. And your daughter is very authentic in her dress. I'll be asking Father about her tonight.

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  4. Charlotte! You and 'Shortcake' are brilliant! What a fabulous costume - and so creative. Love it. I was searching for Dwynwen on Pinterest and came across your post. Dydd Santes Dwynwen Hapus! Happy St.Dwynwen's Day - its today!

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  5. I hope you don't mind Charlotte but I've featured Shortcake on my blog post today - if you don't like it let me know and I'll delete it.

    http://lovemakingthings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/dydd-hapus-santes-dwynwenhappy-st.html

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