TWO Strabane woman responsible for the dressing of the `Tinnies' statues on the Tyrone/Donegal border in festive clothing have revealed details of the huge seasonal effort involved.
Rosie Sobande and Mary Flanagan, who work at sports manufacturers O'Neills, are also the women behind the dressing of the statues in the Tyrone GAA kit when the county makes it through to the All-Ireland finals.
The statues were kitted out in medical scrubs earlier this year in tribute to frontline health workers.
The Tinnies is the name given by local people to Let the Dance Begin, a public artwork created to mark the millennium by Derry artist Maurice Herron. It consists of 18 ft high figures, a fiddler, flautist, drummer and two dancers.
Ms Sobande and Ms Flanagan revealed the huge Christmas outfits took 50 hours of sewing time and included 125 metres of fabric.
Ms Flanagan said: “It was a massive job. We needed a huge amount of fabric as well as hundreds of yards of thread and Velcro but there was great excitement around the floor when we were making the costumes; all the machinists were coming up to have a look.”
Other challenges included the creation of the elves' hats with bobbles, Santa and Mrs Claus’s gold-rimmed glasses and Santa’s white beard.
“We even stuffed plastic bags inside his suit to give him his big tummy,” Ms Flanagan said.
Ms Sobande said the material was so heavy the two women had to take it in turns to hold the costumes while the other sewed.
“It makes us feel so proud. Hopefully it also brings a smile to many other people’s faces and spread some Christmas spirit after the year we’ve all had. A lot of people come to Strabane just to see the Tinnies dressed up for Christmas, especially at night-time when they’re lit up,” Ms Sobande said.
