The peacock tutu has its feathers!
I mentioned in the last post that the costume inspiration this year was Eric Carle’s peacock from his book, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? It’s such a beautiful illustration, and the simple shapes were easy to mimic.
The feathers are cut from wool felt and sewn down the center with gold thread. And I added yellow dots to a store-bought shirt using a round sponge and fabric paint.
The headpiece is felt feathers on pipe cleaners, wrapped around a headband.
The tutu itself (from Little Things to Sew) was the most time consuming part of the costume, and the only thing that required any real sewing, but it wasn’t hard to put together. Details about that are here. And of course it has nothing to do with the illustration, but it was a fun way to bring in all those peacock colors. Most of all, I just really wanted to make one.
I sewed the feathers to lengths of ribbon, then attached those to the waistband of the tutu with the thought that they could be easily removed if she wants to use the tutu for dress-up later on. But the ribbons kept twisting and turning and exposing the backsides of the feathers, so I ended up tacking the bottom feathers to the tulle anyway. And realistically, I don’t think this will get much more after-Halloween play than last year’s wings, which have only come out a handful of times. And that’s more action than the tree costume (from two Halloweens back) ever saw. I think its safe to say she’s not big on everyday dress-up.
But even so, Halloween deserves a special costume, right? I think so. I’ve never really been bothered by the “only going to wear it once” thing. I just like to make stuff.
Happy Halloween!
Tooooooooooo GORGEOUSSSSSSSSSSSSS! 🙂
I LOVE this skirt! The colours are amazing, and you’ve done a brilliant job. I would definitely have one in adult-size for me 😉 Enjoy your halloween festivities!
Gorgeous!
This is so gorgeous! Your little girl is very lucky to have such a clever mommy!
Beautiful! I love that this is wearable after halloween! Super cute!
It’s so beautiful, you did a wonderful job.
I’m totally with you. I love sewing costumes, it is a nice change and challenge from regular clothes.
You really captured the illustration in this outfit, the tutu is gorgeous ❤
GORGEOUS!
This morning in our park (where we have many peacocks:-) I was wondering how your peacock is going to look, and oh my….this is spectacular! We don’t celebrate Halloween here (in India), but I have to show this to my daughter. She is going to want one!
wow, gail, you are the queen of costumes! this is so amazing and creative. i love it!
This is just adorable and scrumptious!
AAAAAHHHHHHHH! Love this! The wool felt “feathers” are just gorgeous.
really cute! I was so hoping you would have a silly peacock head feather for her to wear. My kids would flip over this. They go through multiple costume changes on most days, including tutus. We just got that book from the library too. I’ve overheard Clover saying “what do you see?” lately
I love the stuff you make! Always beautiful, clever, and inspiring!
Stunning! My son recently said he wanted to be a peacock as they seemed to “take such good care of themselves”. Your little peacock looks very well loved in her handmade costume!
so creative the way you translated the picture in the book to the tutu! love the gorgeous colors of the costume – it’s beautiful!
she’s simply the most beautiful peacock i’ve ever seen. i just love that you used eric carle’s version, too…great inspiration!
i’m with you on the “why i do this” factor – i just really like making costumes for my kids (see: film petit)! it’s just fun to do super specific sewing sometimes.
What a great costume! Wool felt, Oliver + S, inspired by a book- doesn’t get much better than that! Hope you and your little ones had a great Halloween.
So, so beautiful!
Gail, I don’t think I’ve gold you yet how much I love this! It’s just adorable. And I’m sure she loved it. I’ve noticed that dress-up is getting used more and more at our house as S gets older, so you may find that all the costumes eventually see more love? Every kids is different, too, I’m sure.
err, told…