How to Make a DIY Peacock Costume – it’s Surprisingly Simple and Gorgeous!

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by Robin

Believe it or not, this DIY peacock costume took less than an hour to make and cost less than $10!

I am pretty sure my daughter would wear it to school every day if she could.  But she has settled for putting it on every single time anyone comes to the house.

The story starts with my friend, Heidi.  Heidi has pet peacocks on her farm. 

It is the strangest thing to see these gorgeous, exotic birds roaming around her property and sitting in the trees.  The funniest part is how regular a sight this is for Heidi. 

Seeing a peacock strut by with its tail fanned out is not that exciting for her, while we were amazed. 

It’s kind of like how we feel about squirrels.  They are sometimes fun to watch for a time, but easy to ignore. 

Heidi has hundreds of peacock feathers.  They are somewhat like leaves in the fall that need to be raked up.  I asked Heidi if she had some I could buy.  Instead, she gave me a couple hundred! (But you can also buy peacock feathers online!)

Here’s how I made our simple DIY peacock costume…

How to Make a Peacock Costume    

DIY Peacock Costume Materials:

• about 100 peacock feathers (if you don’t have a friend with peacocks – you can buy them online!)
• 10 to 12 elastic bands
• about 6 feet of cording (I used leftovers from another sewing project.  Strong string or light rope would work too.)
• an adujstable belt
• a skirt of tutu in peacock colours.  (Make sure it has a generous waist to fit the tail inside – I’ll explain.  We thrifted ours for $4.)
• a length of fabric for the wings.  (Our’s is an irridescent blue table runner that we also thrifted for $3)
• needle and thread
• a body suit and tights in peacock colours  (We already had black, so that’s what we went with.)

Peacock Halloween Costume DIY Steps:

1.  Sort your peacock feathers

When your daughter is losing her mind with excitement, put her to work sorting the feathers.  I asked her to sort them into small, medium and large.  It’s helpful to sort them so that you can layer the size of feathers.

2.  Make bundles of peacock feathers

Take two or three of each size of feather so you have a small bundle of 8 to 10 feathers.  With a rubber band, bundle them up.  You’ll want at least 10 bundles.  We did 11 bundles in total, but a smaller girl may need fewer.  A woman may want up to 20.  I could have added more, but I wanted my daughter to be able to fit through doors.

3. Weave your Peacock feathers together 

Lay your feather bundles next to each other.  With your cord/rope weave the bundles together.  They should be tight next to each other.

Once you have a couple rows done, it’s fun to get your girl involved in the weaving.  We did 4 rows of weaving.

4. Attach the belt 

Next you’ll tie the woven bundles to your adjustable belt.  You’ll want to attach the feathers at the section of the belt that will sit in the low back, just above your bum. 

After the belt is tied in place weave the cord around the belt, between each bundle.  You want the feathers lashed onto the belt really securely.

To make the feathers fan out I tied the ends together low down on the quill.  Nothing fancy, I just wrapped the cord around the ends and tied a random not to hold them together.

5.  Get the fit right.

Try it on.  The feathers are remarkably light.  Don’t worry that it looks like a crazy mess in the back.  We covered all of that with the thrifted tutu. 

6.  Make the peacock wings

For the wings we got lucky. 

The shimmery fabric was a good length to drape over her shoulders and cover her hands.  I just did a quick stitch near each of her armpits and then a quick stitch near each of her wrists. 

(I wanted it to be easy to adjust, so I didn’t sew sleeves.  The reality of Halloween in Canada is that sometimes you need to wear your snowsuit when you go Trick-or-Treating.  If that’s the case I can take out two stitches to fit a bulky coat underneath.)

8.  Lastly we put her hair in a bun and tucked a few feathers through on the top of her head.

This is my favourite costume I’ve made so far.  I like it even more than the Luke and Leia Skywalker costumes from last year!  Now that I’ve written this tutorial, I’ve been tasked with my son’s costume: a baby rhino.

Need a simple, cute and tasty treat for Halloween? Try our Easy Reese Oreo Bats Cookie Recipe for Cute Halloween Fun

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