Peacock Costume

Libby wanted to be a peacock, but not just any peacock, a pretty peacock!  Although this meant she would end up being a boy peacock because girl peacocks are ugly.

The fabric was some really old heavy polyester that I inherited from a lady. I haven't really had a use for it, and I figured a Halloween costume that will be worn once would be a good way to use it. That saved me from spending too much at the fabric store! I had plenty of fabric in all the right peacocky colors. I did buy one yard of (itchy) shimmery blue stuff for the top layer of the dress to give it a nice peacock glow.

I decided to make a pretty little fairy dress as the peacock body and add the tail as an accessory. I used Simplicity Sew Easy 1991 for the body/dress.  This dress looked very easy and I thought I could throw it together in one day, which equates to about an hour's worth of sewing for the normal sewing artist (i.e. one that does not have three kids running amuck). I was so wrong. It's actually harder than it looks; I would say it is an intermediate sewing project rather than an easy one. But it certainly isn't hard. It just has a lot of pieces and a lot of layers.

Once I finally finished the dress, I couldn't believe it. It's soooooo not cute. The finished dress is three times wider than any kid! The belt cinches it together, but without the belt, it's just wider than wide. I thought about pitching it and starting over, but I was pressed for time. I really only had $6.99 invested in it (the shimmery piece), but I also had three days of sewing invested in it. Ugh. I decided to remember that it's just a Halloween costume and it would do nicely. It doesn't have to win a contest or anything. I certainly won't use that pattern again without making some huge alterations to the bodice and skirt pieces. And I would never use a thick polyester. It just doesn't hang well. The photo on the pattern is of a fabric that drapes well when cinched and hung. 1970s polyester was probably never intended for its use.

Just now, as I am typing out this sewing tutorial, I see that I screwed up the skirt. It has all of the pointy parts of the skirt lined up. I alternated the hem points. Eh, whatever. The kid didn't notice.

On to the tail.

I used an old Halloween costume pattern, McCalls 2205 for the tail.  I chose the piece for the daisy flower head and folded it in half using three pedals. I cut two of those and added peacock feather applique to one side of the tail/flower.  I wish I would have done both sides, but one side seems to have been ok. I just winged it on the applique process. I didn't do much except to lay out the improvised peacock feather pieces and sew them down. No fusing or anything. They might be a bit crooked. After decided the dress was ok as it was, any further imperfections were easy to overlook. Besides, time was not on my side.

Once I had one side of the tail decorated, I grabbed up a piece of white posterboard (we all have that lying around, right?) and I cut out a piece of posterboard to the same size as the tail, with seam allowance.  Now I had to decide if I would sew the seam to the inside and flip it all around for nice pretty seams, or just sew around the outer edge and let the seam stick out.  Since I was on a roll with this whole "good enough" attitude, I sandwiched the poster in between the top and bottom tail pieces and sewed around the outer edge leaving the seam exposed. The posterboard is forever stuck inside the tail now. Sure hope I don't need to wash it for any reason!

I sewed the tail to the belt and the costume was done!  With the tail attached to the belt, she could flip it up or lay it down. Just like a real peacock!

Halloween 2013

Did it! Survived another Halloween! At the end of the night, I sighed with relief that the day went so well. Two awesome school parties, three adorable hand made costumes, trick or treating, a big pot of chili, fun with friends and neighbors, and tons of candy. And, my husband seemed to enjoy his birthday even though it was, as usual, a side-event after trick or treat.

It was a good one. 

My kids go to an awesome Montessori school. They have a lot of kids from various walks of life and like most schools, they do not celebrate Halloween at school.  I am glad about that. I like that the school respects those who do not do Halloween, and I like that my kids are learning to respect others in this way. But, they do something else that fits in with Halloween and the kids who do celebrate don't miss out on festivities with the alternative. This school is pretty cool!

Happy Non-offensive Fall!

The kindergarten kids study animals. Each student chooses an animal and does their own research and learning at home about that animal. On the last day of October, they dress up as the animal they chose to learn about and present what they learned. All of the kids wear their project costumes and the parents bring in treats for the autumn project party. At the party, the kids are encouraged to mingle and ask  each other about their animal.  Even the party is educational!

Libby chose to study a peacock.  We read about peacocks, looked at pictures, looked online, and we went to a dairy farm where they have a couple of peacocks in a pen. Libby asked the farm hand what peacocks eat and he told her they feed  them "mash" which is smashed corn. I made her a peacock costume and she made a poster for her presentation.

The lower elementary classes (grades 1,2 3) had a project called "Time Machine".  Each student chose a culture and time from the past and studied it. They could choose anything they wanted. At the end of the month, each student dresses as a person from their chosen time and presents what they learned about the history of the culture.

Gracie chose Ancient Egypt.  She watched a Brainpop video, read about it, and we went to the Museum of Man and explored the exhibit with the help of a docent. She learned a lot about ancient Egypt and the culture of the Egyptians.  She designed her costume and I made it the way she instructed.  As it turns out, Ancient Egypt was a popular place to go in the time machine! Several of her little classmates also studied the same topic. They had fun talking about what they learned and comparing.  At their "party" the kids all gather together and the parents go around asking students about their chosen historical period. Then the kids mingle and are encouraged to ask each other about their character's life. It's really a cool project and the kids learn a lot from each other.

Charlie is only three years old, but he is a wise little boy. I repeatedly asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween hoping to hear pirate or superman or Winnie the pooh, or something easy and popular with the tots. He was consistant with his request: He wanted to be Sandy, our dog who passed away in July.  He couldn't just be any puppy dog, he had to be Sandy. Luckily, I found some soft minky fabric in the right color for the costume. It had little swirls so it might look like a sheep, but it was soft and the right color and that was the best I could find, so I got it.  He loved it! He kept hugging the fabric and thanking me before I even had the costume cut out!

Charlie has this whole "Gramma can make anything" thing figured out! He told me just how to make it with ears like this and a tail like this and paws, wait, no paws, yes, paws. He couldn't decided about the paws, so I attached paw mitts that had a hole for his hands to escape if he wanted them out. Happy Puppy! Guess it was a good thing I didn't talk him into another costume.

His Sandy costume turned out pretty good. A bit sheepish, but mostly dog. He woofed and panted and gave puppy kisses. Had the day been a bit cooler, he might have worn his puppy costume all day long. He wore it to the school parties and then donned it again for trick or treating.

Just like every year, our first trick or treat stop is next door. The neighbors spoil my kids! This  year they gave the kids a candy necklace making kit. They're gonna love that! Keith took the first trick or treat shift and walked the kids up the street and back and they filled their bags. They took a break at home and shoved as much candy into their mouths as they could, then I took them out for round 2. I took them in the other direction. Once again, they filled their candy bags. Libby was exhausted by the time we got back home.  They each ate a couple of handfuls of candy, and it was off to bed.

The kids  had a blast!  Keith enjoyed his pot of chili and cornbread. The neighbors brought him a growler of beer from a local brewery. He also got a card in the mail, and the only thing he had to say about that was "it's not from your mom? that's weird. She must be slacking!"  We never did get around to eating his birthday pumpkin pie, but it was a school night and everyone was stuffed and tired so we'll do it later. 

Halloween Costume Extravaganza!

I made five costumes this year! I just cannot say no to these adorable little children who love to wear custom costumes made just for them. They like to watch me sew and "help". The helping, I could do without that, but I have gotten Libby to cut up scraps of fabric as her way of helping. That keeps her out of my way a little bit, but sure makes a mess.

This year, I acquired some fabric (quite a bit actually) from a nice lady here in town. Her grandmother passed away and when the family went to clean the grandmother's house, they discovered that she had filled her home and garage with fabric, notions and machines. Apparently, the lady was a sewing enthusiast and one of JoAnn fabrics best costumers. They had too much fabric to deal with, so they posted an ad on facebook for a fabric sale. One of my friends saw it and sent the link to me, so I sent the lady a message and went over and got lots of fabric and zippers. With the amount they had to clear out of the home, it was just a small bit that I took home. I don't know what I was thinking, because I recently stocked up and have plenty of fabric already. I promise not to fill my whole house with stashes of fabric. I will use it!  Four of the five costumes I made this year all have some of the fabric from this gal. Plus, I made a few tote bags and a couple of pillow cases so far with her grandmother's fabric. I hope it comforts her to know that her grandmother's passion for sewing is alive and well in my house.

I made three costumes for Gracie: Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco, Cinderelly (the working dress), and "Modest Tinkerbell".  I made a Doc McStuffins costume for Libby.  And, I made a Captain Hook costume for Charlie. 

Surprisingly, the doctor lab coat and the pirate coat were from the same pattern. I just altered it for character effect. The pattern was for a dress and jacket pattern; not a costume pattern at all. But, it had just the right features for these two costumes. I improvised the pirate pants and the stethoscope and doctor bag.

Charlie's mom didn't want the Captain Hook costume to look quite so frilly as it does on the real Captain Hook. To man it up, I disregarded the white ruffles and I made the pants black instead of pink. I added a cute skeleton print to the pants as a sash and as a headband, perfect print for a pirate costume. And, instead of a wrap around belt, I gave Captain Hook's jacket a cinch thing on the back. I have no idea what that thing is called. It's a small piece that pulls the back together. Anyway, I think it worked well. The costume really came to life when my daughter  bought a pirate hat to match. Charlie decided to pull on his Lightning McQueen boots too. Sure, why not!

I didn't have a pattern for the Cinderelly costume, I just had to wing it and I used Cinderella storybook pictures to figure out how to make it. Gracie had her input too, she did not want straight three-quarter sleeves like the story illustrations have, she wanted puffy sleeves with elastic at the elbows. Since it's her costume, of course I said yes to that. She also chose all of the fabric. I do wish I would have made the bodice longer, oh well.

Here are the costumed kids in all their glory: