The Pretty Peacock

Ok, I am pretty excited about today's costume, (or at least part one of the costume) I thought long and hard about what Abbey should be for halloween. You see I love when siblings "go-together" as these kids have each year. This year however Jude had an opinion and as you have seen, is going to be Hawkeye the Archer. So I couldn't think of anything that would go with that for Abbey, so they parted ways. After a lot of thought and debate and ideas, I decided on the peacock. It's my favorite animal and it would be so perfect for a girlie girl. 

The pieces are all so simple to make and they come together really nicely to make a nice fluffy tailed peacock that has some whimsy to it. Oh and the peacock inspired hair-do, just makes me smile :)

After some face scrunching from the little one however the mask may be vetoed for some face painting on halloween night... but we will see... So you want to make your own? We will start today with the base of the costume, the top and skirt. 

For the shirt I bought some super cheap costume knit. They had it in the pretty royal blue you expect from a peacock so it was perfect. Then I cut out a basic bodice and sleeves. I sewed the bodice pieces together at the shoulders.

Then I put the sleeves in place at the arm curve.

Then with right sides together I sewed along the sleeve and down the side.

Then since this was a weird knit without a ton of stretch I cut a slit in the back. Then I added a rectangle strip sewn to one side and added button holes to the strip and buttons on the other side so I had a little button flap. Sorry I don't have a picture of those steps, my camera was acting kind of goofy and they were black. You will see the button flap on the finished pictures below. 

For the skirt I made a simple circle skirt with a slit in the back. There are a lot of tutorials for circle skirts if you have never made one before, I usually just wing it, cutting out a circle and then cutting out a little circle in the middle.

Then make the inner circle lay in a straight line of sorts and cut a strip that is the width of the inside circle. You will be folding the strip in half to be a casing for the ribbon.

Sew it to the right side of the skirt along the inner circle. Then you should have a casing to slip some ribbon in. I usually stitch the ribbon in place in the middle of the front so that the ribbon doesn't slide out of place. Then you have a little skirt that ties in back the slit allows for the fullness of the "tail" to poof out.

I love the bright colors and texture of the "feathers" from the tutu.

The cute little buttons down the back even add to the look.

I just can't get enough of the poofiness. For the hair, incase you are wondering I simply made a little "mowhawk" of pony tail loops down the middle of her head. I was going to make a headband but as you can see with the mask even she is not a fan of things on her face or head for that matter so I figured at least with her hair she can't pull it off.

Come back tomorrow for the tutu instructions!