Bilby Costume

I'm honoured today to be a guest on Playing by the Book where I'm sharing some of Rainbow and my favourite Australian literature. By co-incidence today I completed a very Australian project.

On Friday Rainbow is attending a party at the zoo - costumes optional. So of course what's Rainbow's favourite animal - a bilby.

Look at these babies aren't they adorable. The weather's likely to be in the high 30s so know full on fur. Though bilby's survive very well in the desert - though their days are spent deep in their burrows.

For a long time Rainbow loved Alison Lester's series about the five kids. In "Clive eats Alligators it goes through what each child wears - stripey pants, overalls ... and Tessa wears a tail. So here is Rainbow's bilby tail and ears...

I can't imagine too many people will ever need to make a bilby costume but it could be easily adapted for any other animal (rabbit ears or tiger's tail). I'm already starting to think Easter bunny ears - with white fleece and pink satin and positioned on top of the head, maybe even one droopy ear.

Bilby's ears are made of fake fur and polar fleece. They have a wire insert to give them a little strength - bilbies need their erect ears to hear predators (mostly dingos) and keep cool. The wire is then wrapped around the headband. The headband is then wrapped with polar fleece.

Oh and here's my own baby bilby.