Completed Peacock Costume

Peacock Costume, Part 2

Ok, so by now you should have the whole project laid out with wrapping paper in between layers. Gather up each layer and keep them all separate (so that you can re-create the same layout again).

Take each piece of wrapping paper and use it as a stencil to cut out a piece of fabric.  Make sure you leave room to hem the edges.  Also, leave a lot of extra fabric below the base of the triangle - we left about 1.5 feet.  We're later going to use it to make a belt loop so that you can wear the tail as a belt.  If you scroll down, you can see in one of the later photos what it looks like.

We folded the fabric in half before cutting to ensure symmetry (plus, then you only have to make one cut).

Do this for each layer/piece of wrapping paper, alternating fabric colors. Then, hem the edges of each piece with a sewing machine.  We had some trouble with our sewing machine, so, as you can see, it's not precision work.  It'll all get covered up by the feathers.

Now, reassemble the bottom layer like you had it before.  Use a hot glue gun to glue each feather down to the fabric.  The best way to do this is to apply the hot glue to the back side of the feather, press it down on the fabric, and allow it to dry.  Then put a dot of glue at the end of each feather stem.

Be careful not to get the gun too close to the actual feathers - it will melt them; the stems are ok, but the feathers are easily ruined.  Also, keep in mind that the more glue you use, the stiffer the fabric will become, and the harder it will be to close up the tail later.

Let it cool before you start with the next layer.  You can glue each layer separately or on top of the previous layer - we're going to glue all of them together at the end anyhow.

Once you've glued on all of the feathers you're going to use, glue each layer to the previous layer, using three dots of glue (one dot at each corner).  At this point, the tail is essentially done!  All it needs is a little cleaning up and a drawstring to close it.

So cut a wide strip of fabric, hem the edges, and hot glue it to the back side of the tail. Make sure that the fabric is in a U shape, and is as perpendicular as possible to the feathers.  The more precise the perpendicular-ness, the better the tail will bunch up when it closes.  If you don't do this properly, it could end up just cracking the feather stems and not really closing up the tail.

Once the edges of the fabric are glued and cooled, pull a drawstring through (I used a shoelace).  

Flip the tail back over so that the right side is up.  Cut off the excess fabric left on the edges of the layers which you glued the fabric to.  If you end up cutting off some of the spots where you had the layers secured to one another, re-glue them.

Fold the excess fabric under the back side of the tail to create a belt loop, and slide a belt through.  You want to leave as little slack as possible, so try to get the belt as close to the feathers as you can (without overlapping any of it).

Pin the fabric where it needs to be sewn, then pull the belt out and sew it.  I hand-stitched this part because it would have been tough to get it in the sewing machine; I'd recommend you do the same.

Again, trim off any excess fabric from the back side of the belt loop.

Now you can pull the belt through and try it on!  The last thing I did was (while wearing it) wrap some fabric around the belt to integrate it a little better.  Now you can wear the tail up (just pull it up over your head) or down, closed (pull and tie the drawstring) or open...pretty cool, huh?  :)

I hope you enjoy the costume! I'll post a final picture of the whole outfit on Halloween.

Metal Casting (for jewelry)

I'm still working on the peacock costume, so I'll finish up with that a little later.
In the meantime, I've been working on making jewelry by casting metals (Silver or Shibuichi). I video taped the actual casting portion of the process and posted it on youtube.
I'll try and post some photos of the mold-making process (at a later point) as well.  Apologies for the reverse order, but obviously the casting process is a lot cooler than the mold-making process.
So here are the videos of the casting.  This was done at UCSD's Craft Center.

Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt1kSuVTX-I

Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP1YyY2lEHE

Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pysVwPEUqw4

Part Four: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dso42HJIGE8

Peacock Costume, Part 1

I'm going to be a peacock for Halloween this year, and I wanted to make my own costume.  I think it's going to be pretty cool, though I have absolutely no experience with costume-making. I'm going to do my best to make it so that the tail will open and close.  With that said, here's a step-by-step following what I did:

You'll need:

Peacock feathers (I used about 50 just for the tail)

A blue dress/outfit

Hot glue gun

Fabric (I used about 2 yds total)

Scissors

Wrapping paper (optional, but helpful)

Fabric marker/chalk

Sewing machine

Lay out some peacock feathers in a single layer to form a fan shape. These will be the outer-most/longest feathers forming the tail.  It should be symmetrical.

The stems of your feathers won't line up this nicely because they haven't been trimmed yet. So, trim them! But first, be sure the tail is the right size for you. An easy way to do this is to take the center feather and hold the stem of it up to your body, where your tail would start.  Make sure the end of the feather doesn't drag on the ground.

Then, when you go to trim the stems, make the shortest feathers on each side the same length. You want the feathers to be as symmetrical as possible; since the feathers aren't uniform in terms of shape, you can at least make them the same length. Once trimmed, the feathers should all meet at a central point, like in the above photo.

Next, lay a sheet of wrapping paper over the feathers and cut it into a sort of rounded triangular shape. We left an extra strip of fabric extending out to the end of the tail in case we needed to add support, but cut it off later, so you can ignore that part.

Yours should be more like a triangle, with rounded corners.  This will be the stencil for your fabric, where you're going to attach the feathers.

After you've done this, leave everything in place and start to build the second layer of feathers on top of the current layer.  Do it the same way as the previous layer, except the feathers will all be a little shorter.

You might also want to trim the feathers so that they don't meet at a central point, but rather create a small arc.  If all of the feathers on all of the layers meet at the same point, you'll end up with a lot of bulk at that point.  You will also want to stagger the feathers so that they are in between the previous layer (again, less bulk); try to keep the symmetry consistent.
Here's a detail of the first two layers:

Lay down another sheet of wrapping paper and draw out a stencil for the next piece of fabric. This piece should be the same shape but slightly smaller than the previous piece of fabric.

The shape shown in the above picture is pretty ideal - rounded triangle.  Your first layer of fabric should be a similar shape (again, without the extra strip of fabric going to the tip of the tail).

Finally, put the third layer of feathers down on top and follow the same directions as you did for the previous layer. You'll want to continue to trim the feathers shorter, stagger them, and cut the next piece of fabric a little smaller.

Do this (cut paper, layer staggered feathers) one more time, with tiny peacock feathers.

(tiny feathers not shown...)

Our next steps will be to cut and hem the fabric, then to hot glue the feathers to the fabric and attach all of the layers together!
Note that nothing I've done here has been very precise. It will mostly be covered up or overshadowed by the flashy-ness of the feathers.  Plus, it's a Halloween costume.  If you're a better seamstress or are more neurotic, you'll probably want to tidy up some of the stencils and maybe even measure the feathers to ensure symmetry.

Part 2 will be coming soon (as well as a photo of the completed project)!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my craft blog! I like to make stuff...all sorts of stuff...and so does my boyfriend, Chris.  So I hope to share some of our projects with you, and (if possible) offer instructions/tips/guides/advice on how to make the things we make.
Here is some of the stuff we've already done:
(post a comment if you'd like more info on any given item, and I'll email you)

Adirondack chairs (made with Chris)

Metal mailbox (made by Chris)

Hammock stand

(picture forthcoming)

Tons of crocheted goodies (by me)

Woven table runner (by me)

Neon projects (by Chris)

Pillow cases
Curtains
Saw horses
Work benches
Beaded jewelry
Wire jewelry
Metal casting (for jewelry)

Welding and soldering (for everything!)