Another post of something old, as it is silly o’clock in the morning in Seattle, but my body clock feels that it is time to wake up. Silly jet lag….

I love fancy dress, getting all dressed up as something fun. And another thing I love, along with baking, is crafting. And when it’s crafting fancy dress…. Love it.

For my friend’s 30th birthday she chose the theme “R”. I contemplated a short while and then inspiration struck when I randomly remembered a tv programme from my youth….

“Geordie Racer”

It was one of those ones where we would go and sit in the hall all cross-legged on the floor in front of the big tv on a stand they would wheel out from the cupboard, it would teach us about…. pigeons… Oh yes, that’s right it was educational, Look and Read.

This would also happen on the last day of term, but then it was always the Neverending Story.

However, you can’t really buy, or indeed rent Pigeon costumes all that easily, go figure. So I had to make one!

I used a pattern by Simplicity as the basis for the body…

Yep.. it’s a bee. But the body shape was about right for a Pigeon too, so I adapted it for my means!

First off I needed supplies…

A few metres of light grey fur, and another metre of a darker grey for the head, also I got some black and pink felt for other bits and pieces…. First, I cut out the pieces for the body:

Then…. I had to make up the rest… Some wings with black felt feathers…

Also, I drew around my feet and then added bits to make a template for some feet…

Then added some talons…

Can you tell what it is yet?…..

(practicing my attack)

I also made a sinple hood with eyes and a beak. But failed to get a good shot of it! The beak was made out of cardboard with grey felt glued to the top, I also made a couple of white padded bits to attach to the top too (see updated photos below)

I give you….. The “Pigeon”!

To complete the look, I also made a little racing number, like marathon runners would wear, and pinned it to the front.

One day I think I should bring this outfit out of retirement (and when I say retirement, I mean in a bag in the loft) and take it skiing with us. A skiing pigeon would be ace. Although wearing the head would be a little troublesome, I think I would probably have to modify my helmet somehow instead!

Update: 26/08/2012

Alas this is now never to be. The Pigeon has gone. But before it went off to go shooting, I took some better pictures.

This was the side view, once it was fully stuffed:

A close up shot of the wings:

If I was to make this costume again, I would use the grey fur for the underneath of the wings too. At the time I didn’t think it would make any difference to just use some plain cheap calico as it wouldn’t be seen… but alas. It did. There were also elasticated loops on the underneath of the wings so I could flap at people.

The feet! As the party that I made the outfit for was a house party, I made them slipper style, and just wore them with bare feet. Again, if I made it again, I would make them more as overshoes, so that you could wear them out and about. Although… they are quite restrictive on movement as the toes stick out massively, both front and back!

The head! This is me giving it the “sexy pigeon”/ blue steel type look. The head was ok, originally I had sewn the beak shut and tacked it on with a couple of stitches, but over the course of the evening, they came undone a bit… Althought this may have been because Mr M posted bits of food into the beak… Before I gave it to Brian, I sewed the beak back on more properly, but not shut… thus exposing the crappy cardboard inside, so again… if made again, I would line the inside with felt too.

Goodbye Funky Pigeon!