Peacock Costume

Last year, I didn't even bother dressing up since I had no where to go. This year, I decided to participate in our church's Trunk-Or-Treat and some of the folks take it mighty seriously. Plus, they added a costume contest with an adult division.

I love competition. 

I've known for a month or more that I wanted to be a peacock for Halloween. But, like the good writer I am, I prepared by gathering all my supplies...then I waited until the last moment to put it all together. 

Note to self: Creating a fairly tedious costume design and starting at 9:30 p.m. the day before you want to wear it, is dumb.

Anyway. Onwards and upwards!

I was dealing with peacock feathers and pillowy substances, so of course Baxter was my constant trouble maker helper. My base for the costume was a Jessica McClintock dress I bought at a yard sale two years ago. It's a strapless teal and green ball gown with understated jewell trim along the top. I paid 75 cents for it. No, that's not a typo. However, since that time, I have gained some weight, so my mission this past month was at least to get it to a point where I can safety-pin it shut. Mission accomplished.

I also needed a base for my peacock feather plumage. I stole a piece of cardboard from a boxed punch bowl set I had (oddly, my hoarder self didn't keep a single bit of cardboard lately). I cut it to fit comfortably at my back.

I bought three plumes of peacock feathers at Michael's using discount coupons. I priced a lot of feathers and was thrilled to find Michael's had these guys for about $6 a pop before discounts. I positioned them where I thought they'd look best, then used wire cutters to trim the picks.

I also wanted a little extra flair to the tail instead of just feathers, so using some tulle I already had and some I bought at Hobby Lobby for 99 cents (hello, sparkles!), I hot-glued a row down first.

Next, I duct taped the plumes on. I also added holes in the base to later use ribbon to tie it to my waist.

Next, I started adding gold sequins. I started at the bottom and layered them like shingles or scales. The top of the sequins had tiny holes, so I tried to keep those at the top to be covered up by the next row. Also good to note, even my cool temp glue gun kind of warped the sequins, so I tried to keep the glue dot up top.

The tail! I added 3 yards of turquoise ribbon through the holes to tie it at my waist.

Finished product! Sorta. My hair isn't fixed as it will be tomorrow night. And if we stay outside for the Trunk or Treat, I'll be wearing fleece pants. And maybe a hoodie. But, to be more conservative, I added a gold sparkly cardigan on top of the dress so I'm not too exposed for the kiddos. :)

And....the mask. I bought this little nifty thing at Hobby Lobby, and had all these grand visions of a Mardi Gras/masquerade mask. Well. It kinda happened. The eyes were way too small for me to see out of, so I had to carve out bigger sockets into the mask. So that was kind of a downer. Then, it was a little rounder on my face than I had planned. But, I added some gold glitter glue to jazz up the front, and added the top plumage with a little grouping I also bought at Hobby Lobby.

Total cost of my project was less than $30 thanks to many trips to Michael's and Hobby Lobby and all the coupons I was able to take advantage of. Plus, I used some things that I already had like the dress, gold sparkle shoes (that may be traded for tennis shoes tomorrow) and peacock feather earrings.

Now if I can just keep Baxter out of the feathers one more night, we're golden.