Dressmaker, Dressmaker, Make Me a Dress

Or make me a costume, more accurately.  I'm super stoked for my Halloween costume idea.  I'm going to be a peacock, but a vaguely burlesque/old west dance hall girl peacock.  I bought an old wedding dress and am going to cover it in blue satin, then pull it up into a sort of bustle to be the base of a tail I'm going to make out of layers of satin & sheer mesh fabric.  I might even go crazy and put the "eyes" on the tail with sequins.  I've also bought a tiny little cap and some feathers to make the little crest that peacocks have.  Guuuuh.  It looks so awesome in my head.  Of course, I don't ACTUALLY know how to sew, so it's going to be a crap shoot, but I'm crossing my fingers because I'm super in love with the idea already.  Now if only I could find a dressmaker's dummy, it's kinda hard to sew a dress WHILE you're wearing it...