Peacock Fairy Costume Dress

I finished this peacock fairy costume yesterday.  With the sunset getting later and later this time of year, there was plenty of time to head out to the arboretum for a photo shoot yesterday evening.  

I'm really pleased with how this costume turned out!  

I wear fairy costumes for a living so I designed this costume to be really versatile.  Instead of a dress, it's made up of 7 different individual pieces so I can mix and match with some of my other fairy costumes to create a lot of different looks.

The skirt is 4 layers.  There's an iridescent two-tone taffeta as the main part of the skirt.  The ribbons at the front are functional gathers, so I can let the skirt out into a floor length gown or gather it up for a saucy fairy look.

There's a lighter blue ruffle bustle that attaches to the skirt.  The bustle is really long, and can be let out into a ruffle train which follows me like a peacock tail, or adds a lot of shape when it's bustled up.

Layered over that is a tutu made of purple, blue, light blue and black tulle.  The tulle is edged to give it a lot of definition, and I used my new embroidery machine to embroider peacock feathers here and there in the tutu's layers.  This might be my favorite part of the whole costume.  I'm having SO much fun with that machine.

The 4th layer is another bustle / hip scarf that ties on with gold ribbon.  It's a lovely stretchy animal-print fabric with gold flecks.  This fabric was actually the inspiration for the whole costume.  It's simply gorgeous.  I also added a row of super bright LED tape to the underside of this piece, so in low light the LEDs shine down into the tutu and give the whole skirt a subtle glow.

There are 3 pieces to the top.  There's a sheer off-white blouse, an under-bust corset and a peacock bra.  The bra is covered in shiny gold fabric with real peacock feathers layered onto it (spray glue FTW).  

The corset is made from a sparkle velvet (left over from my Merida costume) has triple lacing in the front and is cut low in the back to accommodate my green Fancy Fairy wings.

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Dragonfly Faerie Ideas, Fabrics and Sketches

It all started with a button.

pretty pretty pretty button!

I found this button at the fabric store and it may be the most gorgeous, beautiful thing I think I've ever seen in my whole life.  I grabbed all they had.  They had three.

It's been sitting in the top of my button drawer, winking at me, for a week or two as I finished up the Steampunk Hoodie.  Finally, this morning, I turned my attention back to it and started dreaming, imagining, and designing outwards from the button.  Well, from the three buttons, actually.  (What on earth can I make with just three buttons?  I asked myself..)

It's gotta be faerie.  It's gotta be fancy.  It's gotta be iridescent and ornate and costume-y and it needs to be green.  With all that in mind, and a whisper of an idea that came to me while writing in my RealJournal, I headed to the Fabrics R Us in San Jose with my friend Miriam.

This place is *amazing*.   I have to be a little bit glad that it's a 20 minute drive from me.. close enough that I can go there when I need something special, but far enough away that I'm not over there every day.

They've got more fabric than you can shake a stick at.  Great prices.  And really unique and beautiful stuff.  We spent far too long wandering up and down the aisles, running our fingers over everything and doing the "ooooohh this is SO PRETTY" dance.  I took pictures.

I finally decided on a tie-dye green sparkle stretch velvet and an iridescent blue sheer.  Once I have the design hammered out a little more I will most likely go back for one of the incredible sequined overlay fabrics. 

It's going to become a fairy waistcoat dress.. similar in pattern to my Cigarette Girl costume.  Instead of tails, it will have folded dragonfly wings that dangle down the back.  There will be off-the-shoulder puffy sleeves, some purples and blues and greens combined into a wavy tattered skirt, and it's going to be made to accommodate my Fancy Fairy wings. 

Pretty fabric pictures!!  How will I ever choose? 

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