Smokey the Bear to be outfitted with vest for paper mill party
Working on clothing for the “Smokey the Bear” statue in Smokey Bear Park is becoming more familiar for large-scale seamstress Loni Bright, but each new project brings fresh experiences and changes that make the project interesting.
Bright’s current project is a neon yellow safety vest, complete with reflective strips, for the bear to wear in honor of the centennial anniversary of papermaking in Borderland.
Boise Inc. commissioned Bright, owner of Top That by Loni!, to make the vest, which Smokey will wear for a few weeks this month in honor of the celebration. The 31-foot-tall bear will also be outfitted with a green, fiberglass hard hat for the party.
“It’s never run-of-the-mill,” Bright said of outfitting Smokey. “What makes it so fun to do is because I can take it and put new things on it. The new reflective was fun. Changing the pockets was fun to do. And finding out where I could digitally print the Boise sign, that was all new.”
Bright has previously made a fishing vest and hat as well as a winter coat for the giant. She works from a pattern drawn on plastic tarp, which she made while in the extended bucket of one of the city’s trucks.
The eye-popping vest will include 14 yards of the water-and-mildew-proof, neon yellow nylon fabric, a 72-inch zipper, two pockets, several dozen feet of reflective strips and several preprinted logos.
To put those numbers in perspective, the pocket alone could serve as plenty of fabric to make a human-sized shirt.
Boise requested its trademark company logo, “Safety is #1!” and the “3M Scotchlite Reflective Material” logo be affixed to the vest.
Bright had to work directly with 3M to get the reflective material in widths wide enough to be in proportion to the project.
Bright and assistant Darcy Randal cut and sew the vest in quarters (front and back each left and right) so the material will fit on Bright’s large rectangular work table. But she has come a long way since the first outfit she made Smokey in her front yard, holding pieces of fabric down with rocks so they wouldn’t move.
“It’s kinda fun to take a pattern and change it around and make it into something else,” she said, noting that the safety vest will be longer than others tops she has made for the bear.
The vest is 11-feet tall from shoulder to waist and 12-feet wide across the front of the bear’s belly. The back of the bear is wider than the front, and the back quarters of the pattern are too large to fit on the 6-foot wide table.
“It’s fun, I really enjoy doing this kind of stuff,” Bright said. “I’m excited to get this one on. It’ll look pretty snazzy on the old boy.”
