Painting the Forest
Woodly the Elf costume unveiled
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ELKINS -- Braelyn Marie Haddix will represent Woodly the Elf for the "Endlessly Wild and Wonderful"-themed 85th Mountain State Forest Festival.
She wears a drop-waisted tunic dress with a bodice and upper sleeve of deep forest green velvet. Her sleeves feature the forest green upper sleeve, formed in a puff from which a bright gold jacquard balloon sleeve flows out, to be gathered at the wrist.
Adorning the velvet bodice is a braid created from gold lurex cord intertwined with a light ruched iridescent mesh in shades of greens. The braid crisscrosses in both front and back with two streams flowing over the shoulders and trailing loosely behind her.
At the dropped waist a simple short skirt is gathered on. The skirt is created from the gold jacquard with an overlay of the iridescent mesh. Leaf arrangements anchor the upper sleeve to the lower sleeve. Her neckline is embellished with a decorative blanket stitch and accented with glass gold and green leaf pendants. She wears moss green velvet leggings which tuck into her knee-high faux suede elf boots.
Woodly's elf boots are a classic signature look worn every year, with slight variations in design. Braelyn's are knee high with an iridescent mesh flounce trailing down the outside and accented with a leaf embellishment.
Woodly's costume is always topped off by a variation of the classic elf hat, and this year's is slightly shortened. It is fashioned from the matching forest green velvet with a gold jacquard cuff turned up and embellished with leaves, including a leaf dangling from the tip as requested by Braelyn herself.
"Many thanks to Lola Collier for her skillful execution in sewing and embellishing my Woodly design! Now let's watch Braelyn, as Woodly, paint this town," said Connie Linger, of Miss Connie's, the designer of Woodly's outfit.
Haddix is the daughter of Amie and Tim Haddix of Beverly. Citizens Bank of West Virginia is the sponsor of the festival's official mascot.
The 85th annual Mountain State Forest Festival will run from Saturday through Sunday, Oct. 8.