Friday, October 28, 2011

Fairy Wings

Madison wanted to be a fairy for Halloween this year.  In keeping with tradition, we decided to make the costume.  We Googled "Fairy Wing Tutorial" and came up with a couple good ideas.  The tutorial we finally decided to follow was by RioDancerCO.  I always seem to change a few things so here is an overview of what we did to make Madison's fairy wings.

The basic ingredients are wire coat hanger, regular cellophane wrap {you find in the gift wrap isle at your local store}, a little glue, ribbon to make some make-shift sleeves, and an iron.
I sketched out a wing on a piece of paper until I got the final thumbs-up approval from the princess herself.  We cut 4 wings from iridescent cellophane, then two more from a cellophane bag that had swirlies on it for a little bit of dazzle. 
 I took two wire coat hangers and cut them here with my wire cutters.  Did I mention that I had to borrow the hangers from a friend. Ever since working at a dry-cleaners in college {spent hours untangling wire hangers} I don't allow them in my house.  Anyway, snip, then work the hanger with the needle nose pliers, bending the hanger where ever necessary until you have the same shape as the wing.  I actually had the hanger about 1/2" inside of the edge of the wing so that the hanger would be totally enclosed in the wing.

Fabritac was the glue we used to glue the hanger to the first layer of cellophane.  

Once the wire was in place, we laid the swirly layer on top, and then finished our hanger/swirl sandwich off with a top piece of iridescent cellophane.  

Next, I laid down a towel {since my ironing board isn't big enough for the size of wings we made} and lined it with parchment paper.  

A second piece of parchment paper was used on top, then we ironed.  I seem to remember the tutorial saying to use the lowest setting on your iron to melt the cellophane layers together.  That didn't work.  We turned it up...then a little higher...passed the middle mark...Ooops!  Too high.  You can tell it is too high when it turns your cellophane white.  I think they will wrinkle no matter what, but try to apply the iron in quicker, long strokes at first so that the plastic melts evenly.  If you hold the iron in one place for a while you will get huge wrinkles that are very hard to correct.

Here you go!  Success.  First try :0)

We found these fun sprigs of glittery loops at Hobby Lobby today.  They had to come home with us because they fit the wings so perfectly.  

The part of the hanger that is the hook, we straightened that out, then used it to wrap the two wings together.  The wire from the loopy thing was added to the hanger hooks, then that whole part was wrapped with ribbon to hide the mess.  Two long strands of ribbon were tied to that center piece, then tied around the arms.  I ended up hot gluing small wedges of Styrofoam to the bottom of the wings, right there in the center, so that the wings don't droop when they are worn.  

My fairy, chips and dip in hand, headed to her party tonight.  I wasn't sure if we would get everything done in time, but WHEW!  Done!

And I have to say, it all turned out beautiful!

Madison added some rhinestone circles to the wings to make them her own.  They were so easy to make and so very amazing once finished, I may just have to make another pair!
Now, one last costume to make.  Wish me luck!!!

2 comments:

  1. It was an AWESOME costume!!! Loved it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You both did an amazing job... and your daughter looks beautiful wearing it!

    ReplyDelete

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