Stuffed Animal Pants
Admittedly, the Red Hot Chili Pepper's bassist Flea has a pair of stuffed animal pants. I've always wanted to make a pair for myself. Inspired not by the band, but just an odd whim. In a way it's a social experiment: to witness peoples reactions on wearing the pants in different environments.
There are two basic elements of the pants: the actual pair of pants as the substructure and the stuffed animals. The pants are a pair of black army BDUs. So chosen because they are inexpensive, incredibly durable, and highly comfortable. The procurement of stuffed animals was an act in itself. Initially I went to a lot of garage sales and thrift stores. While I could find the stuffed animals inexpensively, I couldn't find enough so that I could complete the project rapidly. Through bulk lot auctions on eBay, I received two hundred stuffed animals. Thank goodness for the internet.
Beanie Babies are extremely inexpensive now. Their peak had hit years ago and are now in a recession - to the horror of those who actually thought they might retire or put their children through college by speculating on STUFFED ANIMALS. *sigh* Their loss is my gain.
I gleefully removed the oh-so-precious tags and watched them further devalue in front of me. Oh, it gets better...
I'm sure if I sent these pictures to those whom I won the auctions from, they would cry. Each single gol'-durned stuffed animal was sewn on by hand. Usually in three or four spots with heavy duty thread to make sure they wouldn't come off easily.
Completion after one night of sewing. There is no order or reason behind which animal went where. It was a matter of choosing one that fit the spot. I received a lot of kittens and teddy bears, so I wanted to space those out around the pants so as not to have "Kitten Frolicking" zones. No one wants that.
I quickly discovered that keeping the "beans" in the beanie babies make the pants really heavy. So like removing roe from a sturgeon, I gutted the stuffed animals and milked out the beans. I should sell beanie baby caviar on eBay.
The addition of suspenders helped with the weight issues.
The pants are nearly complete, but the bottom part of the legs still need critters attached. I wore these at a street festival related to Burning Man.
The reaction that I got was: "Oh my god! Those pants are great! Can I pet your pants?" I was groped and I loved it. Note the fuzzy tail.
Better still were the reactions I received while riding my motorcycle on the freeway to the event. Plenty of smiles for miles.
The pants were finished by Halloween and were worn in San Francisco's Castro district. There were hundreds of thousands of revellers and they all loved the pants. Again, I was groped, but mainly it was tourists who just wanted to get their picture taken with the pants. I'm not one to say no.