Cotton Batting Ornaments of "Steamboat Willie"

What Mickey and Minnie looked like before they became famous...

       I made these little mouse ornaments based upon Disney's early "Steamboat Willie" character mice, (The video link is included below.) because we now have a ardent fan in our family... She collects everything "Steamboat Willie" and know she doesn't have anything like these yet. The original mice are all in black and white so I added a bit of Christmas cherry red wool to liven them up a bit for her tree.

Many layers of cotton batting and white school
glue over simple chenille stem armature.

Supply List:

• cotton balls 
• white school glue
• chenille stems
• red, gold, and white felt wool scraps
• decorative white buttons (2)
• acrylic paints (black, green)

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Watch the "Steam Boat Willie" film from YouTube to observe the proportions of Disney's early mice. These are quite different from the Mickey and Minnie our children are familiar with today.
2. Unwind the cotton balls until you have collected together at least half of a bag in a stack.
3. Cover seven to eight lengths of standard chenille stems using white school glue and cotton batting. 
4. To get the cotton to stick to the chenille stems, roll the lengths plus a little glue between the palms of your hands. 
5. Bend and twist the wires to make a rudimentary "mouse-like" armature for each figure you wish to make.
6. Wad together cotton balls with glue for the head and belly of each mouse then glue these on while winding thin layers of cotton around the wire armature and cotton wads. 
7. Form ear shapes and then attach these to each side of the head. Do the same for the noses.
8. Shape the fingers using wire twisted around the ends of each arm.
9. Cover the fingers sparingly with cotton batting so that they will not become too plump.
10. Paint the entire body of each mouse using black except for the faces. Leave these white.
11. Carefully paint the facial features using a very tiny brush tip and black paint.
12. Dress each mouse using bits of red wool felt.
13. Trim Steamboat Willie's pants using white buttons.

Left, and center, the early Mickey who was first called "Steamboat Willie" had a distinctly narrow
mussel so unlike the round one he is famous for today. Right, once I painted his body black, I 
began to glue on his red wool slippers.

Left, and center are his pants to fit his narrow figure once gathered with matching thread. Center
and right, see me sewing on his simple costume.

Left and center, I sculpted the two at once, together so that the wire would be cut to the same
lengths. Right, Minnie has been painted with acrylics and now she is ready to have her hat
and slippers finished. Her shoes were painted and so was the stem on her hat's flower.

Her flower on the hat is shaped from felt and attached with 
tacky white glue.

More details of Willie, the hole cut-out of his pants for his
tail to stick through, the white buttons are attached to his
pants at the front.

Now they are ready to sit sweetly on the Christmas tree!

• The Original Steamboat Willie, Walt Disney Animation Studios from 1928. hosted by Wonderland Way. Now your dolls can craft their own versions of the steamboat mice by Walt Disney.
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