2013 Figure Dress #2 - The Galloping Peacock

Ok, so a few days ago I showed off my first attempt at a figure dress for the season.  It turned out alright, but it wasn't quite as impressive as I wanted it to be, so I decided to make a second dress for nationals.  Earlier this year I bought this fabric from the LA Fashion District:

My lovely peacock fabric.

I had some shiny blue/green mystique spandex in the stash and I though I would make a very peacock inspired dress.  Well, I had so many costumes to make for other people that making this dress kept getting put off.  It got put off to the point that it was the night before my family was leaving for nationals and this dress was still just fabric heaped in a sack.  After a last late-night practice and delivering my (nearly last) client costume, I finally started it.  At midnight.  Of the morning of the day we were leaving.  Eeep.

This dress was a bit more complex than some of my others - I first had to make a skating dress, then I had to applique the peacock panel onto it.  So first I made my self a dress, then I had to drape the peacock panel onto it (while I was wearing the dress), pin it in place, and then take off the dress to stitch it down.  Since it was very early and everyone was sleeping I didn't really have any help with this process.

By this point I had been getting very little sleep for weeks, and I had been inhaling glue fumes for days, so my thought processes were a bit... out there.  And after sewing like mad for several hours I started thinking my dress reminded me very much of the peacock costume from the skating spoof movie Blades of Glory.  In the film one of the characters has a silly signature move called the "galloping peacock."  Hence I gave it a name - The Galloping Peacock Dress.

Jon Heder as Jimmy MacElroy - in his peacock costume.

A full look at the costume.

So I finished stitching my dress together about 3 hours after we had intended to leave (luckily we were driving - this would NOT have worked if we had a plane to catch), spent an hour packing for the trip and we were off!  Since my family was going I was able to sleep in the car.  The first night in the hotel I spent trimming off the extra mesh fabric around the peacock applique, which took several hours.  During the next day's car ride I hand-sewed on several large pear shaped rhinestones.  I finished stoning the dress after we got to Albuquerque a just few days before skating my event.  All told I am sure I spent 20-30 hours making this dress, and it was absolutely worth every second of it.

Close up of the beading.
I used five different colors of glue on stones.

Close up of a sew-on pear shaped rhinestone.

More beading details.

I used several sizes of sew-on and glue-on stones to get the effect I wanted.

So, without further ado, I give you the dress:

The Galloping Peacock!

You can see the feathers extending onto the back.

A view of the side.
I had the panel run diagonally over my hip.

I used several colors and sizes of rhinestones so the entire design was covered.  The last photo is probably truest to real life color, though the main fabric changes from blue to green depending on the light.  For the sleeves I actually used a green mesh under a blue mesh to give the same color changing look.  All in all this may be my favorite skating dress ever.  Though, to be fair, this might have had something to do with it:

Bronze Medal at Nationals!

Yes, this will definitely be a dress to remember.  I have certainly had my fair share of pretty skating costumes, but this is one of my all time favorites.  I liked it so much that I picked up this peacock panel in a few more colors.  Maybe I will do a few variations on this dress next year as well?  Or use it in a non-skating context?  Only time and inspiration will tell...

And that is the last of my skating costumes for this past competitive season.  I made many many others, but they weren't for me, so I won't be showing them off on the blog.  I'm still skating, so I can assure there will be more practice dresses and competition outfits coming in the next year!