Rio Bird Costume, Little Bo Peep and her Darling Sheep!
It’s that time, your kids are probably already thinking what they will dress up like for their Halloween costumes or their Harvest Festivals. I love to dress up, but never anything dark. I like whimsical Halloween costumes or period Halloween costumes. I was hired to create a Blue Macaw bird costume, specifically the one in the Rio movie.
At first my head was spinning. How in the world? But After shopping around a bit, I found the perfect color blue fabric and a bright blue boa. That’s pretty much all I needed! This was going to be easier than I first thought.
Rio Bird Costume
Little Bo Peep and her sheep
My own kids went as Little Bo Peep and her sheep. My son was supposed to be Spider-Man until he saw his sister’s outfit, and then wanted to be a sheep! I thought that was the sweetest thing!
For Bo-Peep, I just put a tutu under a dress I found at Goodwill and hot glued ribbons and lace onto a straw hat, I also found there.
For the sheep, I found a man’s jacket that looked like fleece at a yard sale and cut the bottom and the sleeves off and hemmed them. Then I took in the sides to fit my little guy. It sounds harder than it is, I just cut a bit off the sides & sewed a single seam from the bottom up to the armpit. I didn’t finish any edges. I sewed a little black tale to the bottom on the back as well.
Then I used some of the extra fabric I had removed to make a matching hat with black ears. He wore black pants & long sleeves underneath. Halloween night I even painted him a little black nose. They were so cute, they won a costume contest!
The sheep hat was a little more difficult, but not too hard. It didn’t come out perfect, but looked great just the same! It’s a costume, so it didn’t need to be absolutely perfect. I cut a rectangle from the arm of the jacket I had removed and wrapped it around my son’s head inside out. Pinned it to fit around with an extra inch for seam allowance then drew a line with chalk along the general arch of his head on the side facing me, again with extra for the seam.
Along that line and while it was still on his head, and somehow despite his squirming and complaining by now, I pinned it together (from the front to the part wrapped around back of his head). Then took it off and pinned a small piece of black fabric for ears inside either side of the hat, facing the inside (so that when turned right side out, they’d stick out) and sewed along the line. Again, it wasn’t perfect, I had to sew over part of the arch again to make it more rounded, and the ears were slightly uneven, but it was the night before he needed to wear it so I was rushing.
He was thrilled with it just the same!
I also made some handmade Renaissance Faire Costumes for the upcoming Nor Cal Ren Faire in October. I just altered some thrift store finds and made a simple peasant hat from old fabric and a folder! Super easy.
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