Peacock Crafty Couture - Altered Dress, Crown, Wings & Articulated Tail

What better way to make a statement then a Peacock Couture Dress? There are so many parts and details to this Crafty Couture project I can't even try to share them all with you. This will be a fun photo heavy post so enjoy the eye candy.

The Dress

Tulip Fabric Paints, from I Love to Create were sued to distress the dress and to create a henna, mehendi inspired motif.

  

The Sash/pendant was created with May Arts Ribbons, Prima Marketing Flowers and peacock feathers. Held together with Helmar Adhesives.

Finished Sash/Pendant

 

Close up of the sash/pendant on the dress.

The Wings

The base of the wings were created with PVC piping and a custom harness so they float on the back of the person wearing them, they are not tied on in any way. Makes for a comfortable piece that is able to be worn all day without any strain on the shoulders, skin, or even back.

The harness was created in two parts. One part is very easily built into any dress or corset. This harness base is padded and can be worn all day. The second part is what the wings are build off of. This part slides into the base for a quick and easy dress/undress with the wings.

The wing decoration was created mainly with  May Arts Ribbons (some hand cut into gold feathers), feathers and Prima Marketing Flowers.

This photo is the back of the wings.

 

Details of the center back

Here is the front.

 The Articulated Tail

The tail was engineered with my own design. It moved freely to be fanned out like a live peacock on display then to lay down the back of the dress in a resting position like a dress train. It works with the pull of two strings. It was created with up-cycled items, netting, hardware and over 300 peacock feathers. Accented with May Arts Ribbons, Prima Marketing Flowers . 

 

Close up of the details on the back of the tail when open.

Close up of the top of the tail with the many smaller feathers.

 

The Crown

The crown consists of bits of metal Prima Marketing  findings, some Prima Marketing Flowers and a few wisps of gems on a string from May Arts Ribbons. 

 

Photo of the crown while adhesives were drying prior to shaping. 

 

The Entire Peacock Couture Creation: 

 

The outfit was created for Elena, from Charity Wings Art Center. She hosts a Live from CHA show every CHA event! 

The work being done over at Charity Wings Art Center is fantastic please make sure you check out their webstie and join up as a member for online classes and to help support the arts!

I hope you enjoyed this post and project details Have a wonderful day!. Have a wonderful day!

Please go vote for this project at The Craftys under Home Decor/DIY category. Don't forget to enter your project today, there are many categories!

 

Please see more of our costumes in the following links:

Angel Warrior with Articulated Wings
Jack Skellington  - Disney's Nightmare Before Christmas Puppet Costume

Parks and Recreation's Leslie Knope Wedding Gown Tutorial

Moon/Lunar Fairy - with articulated wings

Tron Lightcycle
Peacock Princess with articulated tail
Iron Man - 3D
3D Paper Doll Ballerina
Literary Work of Art

 

Coordinator at Party Time Tuesdays

Pretty Peacock Princess (with real working peacock tail) - Halloween Costume

This pretty Peacock Princess costume was designed and dreamed up by my 7 year old daughter. She sat down and drew up the design for her entire costume. She made the tutu, her choker necklace and decorated her trick or treating bag and gloves. Did I mention she is7?

"A real working peacock tail" was her vision. She wanted it to trail on the ground behind her and be able to be lifted up and fan out like a real peacock. Tall order, for a 7 year old. But in our house... maybe not...

Here it is in action!!!! Check out this video!

To have me help walk you though creating this step by step please see my tutorial on Etsy. It comes with full customer support in a group on FB allowing quick and fast communication and responses to your questions.

Research was done for many hours online and I never found what I was looking for to engineer this tail they were all stationary either up or down. So I had to engineer it myself, after all it's not the first time I have made costume pieces with moving parts (Angel wings, Transformer costume). After some discussions with the Hubby about the mechanics, we figured it out how to make it work. The tail is 66" wide... that is 1.5' wider then my daughter is tall!

 

I made the crown after she figured out which of her crowns in her dress up drawer she wanted to use. 

It was put together with none other then my favorite fast drying adhesive, Helmar 450 Quick Dry. Trinity also used it on her necklace to glue down the Velcro in the back and the large gem in the center and to attach the bows and trim to her gloves. There is no doubt she is definitely my daughter, no doubt about it! She also loves her Helmar too!

I have to mention while looking at these closeups... the shawl she is waring was made for me by my loving little sister. She knitted this for as my Matron of honor gift for her wedding. She is very crafty with yarns and fabrics. Check out her out on Facebook, Quilt Shakti. 

The obvious choice was to have it pulled back. We did a sweeping french braid from the front left to the back right. Touching it all up with streaks of turquoise blue.
Next we researched her makeup and she decided on a simple eyeshadow technique. I wanted more costume type makeup. In the end she was right. Just enough to make her look like an exotic bird and not to much to hide her innocence she still has at age seven.
She won first place in the costume contest for the girl's age group at our local city event "Scarysville" My son won his boy section for his age group too with his handmade Iron Man costume.
Here is one last look at the front of the costume. She had a blast as her dream of a "Peacock Princess".

 Which of our costumes did you like this year? Peacock Princess or Iron Man costume? Comment below or on my other post to let me know!

UPDATE:

You can order these in my Esty Shop for children sizes or you can special order adult sizes too. 

This item in an adult size was worn to the 65th Emmy Awards CHA Connected Gift Lounge. (Click on the link for more photos of this event.)

Please see more of our costumes in the following links:

Angel Warrior with Articulated Wings
Jack Skellington  - Disney's Nightmare Before Christmas Puppet Costume

Parks and Recreation's Leslie Knope Wedding Gown Tutorial

Moon/Lunar Fairy - with articulated wings

Tron Lightcycle
Peacock Princess with articulated tail
Iron Man - 3D
3D Paper Doll Ballerina
Literary Work of Art