At a glance
- Pronouns: she/her
- Cheese: Cheddar
- Family role: Wife of Eddie Emmental, mother of Monterey Jack Flash, Halloumi Belle, Mini Mozzarella and Babybel
- Known for: Costume design, dressmaking, colour and fabric, noticing details, practical thinking and looking after her family
Two stages of Clarabelle
Young Clarabelle
Long before she became the accomplished costume maker and busy mother everyone knows today, Clarabelle was a creative young designer discovering what she could do with colour, fabric and imagination.
A warm orange-golden wedge of Cheddar with auburn hair, Clarabelle could often be found surrounded by sketches, fabric samples, thread and half-finished designs.
She learned by experimenting — drawing an idea, comparing colours and textures, trying different materials and gradually discovering how something imagined on a page could become a real costume.
Even in those younger years, Clarabelle had an eye for detail. She noticed how colours worked together, how fabric moved and how the smallest finishing touch could completely change a design.
Those early experiments would eventually grow into a skill that became an important part of both her own life and the adventures of the Cheese Family.
Image description
Young Clarabelle sits at a large wooden worktable in a warmly lit costume studio. She is a warm orange-golden wedge of Cheddar with small cheese holes, large brown eyes, freckles and thick auburn hair held back with a large cream patterned bow.
She wears a cream blouse with rolled-up sleeves and a practical brown dressmaking apron, with a measuring tape around her neck.
Clarabelle is drawing a flowing gown in a large sketchbook while comparing several richly coloured fabric swatches in her other hand.
Her worktable is covered with reels of thread, buttons, lace, pins, fabric and other sewing materials. Behind her, a dressmaker’s mannequin wears an elaborate purple and burgundy gown with gold detailing. Nearby are an old-fashioned sewing machine, shelves of colourful fabrics and a wall displaying costume sketches and material samples.
Warm daylight enters through a window, creating a cosy workshop atmosphere. The scene shows Clarabelle near the beginning of her designing life: creative, enthusiastic and already developing the eye for colour and detail that will define her later work.
Present-day Clarabelle
Years later, Clarabelle has become a confident and accomplished costume maker.
Her sewing room is filled with fabrics, designs and finished costumes, and she has the experience to turn an idea into something that can survive everything from a dance performance to one of the Cheese Family’s rather less predictable adventures.
Clarabelle is creative, but she is also practical. She understands that a costume needs to do more than look beautiful. It needs to fit, move properly and be suitable for whoever is going to wear it.
Before settling into the work that suited them best, Clarabelle and Eddie once tried to make a career of dancing together. They never quite achieved the success they hoped for, although they did reach the Cheese Tango Quarterfinals.
Their dancing ambitions eventually took a different direction. For Clarabelle, the world around the dance floor proved just as important as the dancing itself. Her talent for fabric, colour and costume developed into something that was much more naturally her own.
The dancing never disappeared completely, though. When the family starts moving to the music, Clarabelle is quite capable of joining in.
Image description
Present-day Clarabelle sits confidently at an ornate black-and-gold sewing machine in her warm, richly detailed costume studio.
She is a mature orange-golden wedge of Cheddar with brown eyes, freckles and thick auburn hair arranged in a full curly style and held with her familiar cream patterned headband.
Clarabelle wears a cream blouse with rolled-up sleeves and a practical brown dressmaking apron, with a measuring tape around her neck.
She guides a large piece of deep-purple fabric decorated with elaborate gold patterns through the sewing machine. Around her worktable are reels of thread, lace, buttons, pins, scissors and other dressmaking materials.
A nearby mannequin displays an ornate purple gown, while racks behind Clarabelle hold finished costumes in rich shades of purple, burgundy, cream and teal. Costume sketches and fabric samples are displayed on the wall, and warm daylight enters through a leafy window.
The scene reflects the Clarabelle of the present day: an experienced and confident costume maker surrounded by the tools, materials and finished creations of a craft she has spent years developing.
Personality
Clarabelle is warm, observant, creative and practical.
She has a particularly good eye for detail and often notices something important while everyone else is concentrating on the more obvious problem.
As a mother, she can naturally worry when one of the children disappears or gets into trouble, but she doesn’t simply stand back and panic. Clarabelle gets involved, helps work out what needs doing and looks after everyone once the excitement is over.
She also has a quiet wisdom about people. Clarabelle understands that the past matters, but she doesn’t believe families have to remain trapped by it.
And despite being sensible and capable, she is never too sensible to join the family when the music starts.
Family and friendships
Clarabelle is married to Eddie Emmental.
Together they are parents to Monterey Jack Flash and Halloumi Belle — the Disco Twins — and their younger children, Mini Mozzarella and Babybel.
Clarabelle and Eddie once shared hopes of making a career together through dancing. Although that particular dream never quite worked out, they each found talents and lives that suited them better.
Eddie’s workshop became the home of inventions, notebooks and mechanical experiments, while Clarabelle’s sewing room filled with sketches, fabrics and costumes.
Their personalities complement one another too. Eddie tends to approach a problem through mechanisms and practical solutions, while Clarabelle frequently spots the human — or cheesy — detail that everyone else has overlooked.
Together they form the steady centre of their children’s rather unpredictable adventures.
Stories
Clarabelle appears throughout The Cheese Family Chronicles, including Chutney and Champions, The Crumbly Carnival and The Stilton Divide.
Her costume-making skills become particularly useful when performances and competitions are involved, while other stories reveal Clarabelle as an observant and dependable mother who is often paying attention to details the rest of the family hasn’t yet noticed.
Fun fact
Clarabelle keeps fabric samples, sketches and scraps from old designs.
Some eventually become new costumes.
Others are kept simply because she remembers exactly who wore them, where they went and what happened while they were wearing them.
Blindman Makes 