A Little Birdie Told Me

Yesterday, Kara's school choir put on a Broadway themed show.  Her class was singing to Seussical the Musical.  Each class had themed costumes they were to wear to their particular show theme.   Last Wednesday, Kara informed me that she wanted me to sew  a bird costume for her and one of her best friends.  Now normally that would be okay if I had several weeks notice, but I only had 4 days. She knew about this weeks ago, but didn't spring it on me until last minute.   It was NOT going to happen especially with all the other things already jammed into our hectic schedule.  I told her that instead we would buy a part of the costume and make the accessories.  She agreed, and wanted to help make part of her costume.  

We looked all over for a red dress we could embellish.  While she has a red dress in her closet, it was one that was one of her better ones that I did not want to do anything to.  Red is not the color of this season.  We found pinks and blues everywhere, but had a hard time finding something red.  We ended up finding and buying this red cover up/long shirt in the misses clearance section for about $11.   It was big on her, but the extra fabric helped give it the effect that she wanted.  

She wanted to give it more sparkle, so she used glitter paint and drew swirls all over the bottom half 

She asked me to make her a tutu.  She wanted more flowy than fru fru.  There are tutorials all over the internet on the tie method, but she wanted something different.  I bought a few yards of tulle and cut 5 sections lenthwise about 13 inches each.  It is very hard to cut tulle completely straight, so I did have a few varying lengths.  Since she wanted the tulle to look a bit like feathers, it actually turned out to be a good thing.  

I gathered all 5 layers at one time and then attached them pretty sheer ribbon  

It was her idea to make the fingerless  feather gloves.  

We cut some felt and stitched it up the side leaving a hole for the thumbs.  She then glued on the feathers.  We did end up adding some securing stitches to keep the feathers in place for when she did her dance solo.

  

Her final touch, the feather earrings she found on clearance at Kohls. 

During the show, she also wore a boa provided by the music teacher.  

This costume could easily be embellished more for a more elaborate Halloween costume or dress up outfit. What mattered most to me  was that she was happy with her outfit, and we could get it done in only a few hours.  She was proud that she helped make it, and  she also did a  wonderful solo dance in front of  500+ people! 

I will be linking this costume tutorial on these amazing linky parties. Be sure to check them out.