T's Costume

 

As I mentioned before, I came across these wings and fell in love. I knew I wanted to make them for K to play in, so I figured I could make them for T's Halloween costume and then K could just play in them after Halloween. I knew I wanted T to be a bluebird, so I just went nuts with the blue fabrics at the shop.  

 

Then it came time to decide what size to make the wings. This is where I ran into problems. I measured K's arms and T's arms and (you might see where this is going) they are TOTALLY different - shocker! I settled on a wingspan that would be slightly shorter than K's, but also slightly longer than T's. Then I would make a tie to connect the wings in the middle so that they could be adjustable, size-wise. With that, I cut out the base of the wings.

Then I made a little feather pattern. I just eyeballed it.

This is the part that I thought would take forever, but it was surprisingly fast. I just folded the fabric in half twice, traced the feather pattern on, moved it again to the end if there was leftover fabric, traced again and then cut. As I was cutting through four layers of fabric, this went really quickly.

On occasion I would end up with a mutated feather, but I just cut up where it was too close together and that was fixed.

No one was the wiser!

I cut one long strip of each fabric, but it turns out I needed two of almost all of the fabrics so I had to go back and cut those after starting the sewing portion.

Then I decided the pattern that I wanted them in (this ended up changing slightly), took a photo and then got to sewing.

 Starting at the bottom rounded edge, I sewed on the first row of feathers.

 

Then I just kept moving up with each row so that the feathers were overlapping slightly. There was almost always a bit of overhang at the end of the wing, but I just left it to the end and then chopped it all at once.

For both the center tie and the arm ties, I took long strands of the main fabric and then folded it like double fold bias tape. I didn't bother cutting it on the bias, just folded it so it looked like bias tape. Then I sewed the folded edges together. 

I kept going with the feathers until they were nearly to the top corner of the wings. 

Then I sewed the center ties to the main fabric. I also sewed a few final feathers to cover the corner bit.

Then I sewed on the arm bands being really careful to fold the feathers up so I was only sewing onto the main fabric without catching any of them. Finally, I sewed velcro to each of the arm bands so they could attach easily.

With that, the wings were done!

 

Next up was the hat. T has a little hat that my Aunt gave to him (thanks, Aunt!!) which is where I got the idea to make this little bluebird hat. The hat from my Aunt is a 6-9 month fit, so it's still a tad big, but I still used it to make a pattern - I just made it a bit smaller.

I also made the beak more pointed than the duck bill.

Using iron-on adhesive, I ironed the face onto the front of the hat. Once it was all ironed on, I went over and top-stitched it. I figured it would be easier to top-stitch the eyes in place if they were already solidly on the hat as oppsed to attached by pins only.

This is where I completely stopped thinking. I sewed the bottom bit to the top.

Then I sewed the front of the hat to the back.

When I went to fold the bottom up, the seam was on the outside. Duh. Seriously, what was I thinking? I ended up folding the bottom in, instead of out and it turned out just as well. My main thing was that I didn't want the seam digging into the sides of T's head. Folding it in covered the side seams as well.

 

The final bit was a pair of leggings. As they were black, you can't really tell what I did, but I used this tutorial and a pair of T's pants for the pattern. T doesn't own any leggings, so for the pattern I just used a pair of jersey pants that are a tad on the tight side and made it a bit smaller.

The tutorial is super clear and really, with just two pieces (a right side and a left side), super easy as well.

That being said, T has little use for a pair of black leggings, but one of our friends is going to have a baby girl in about a month, so I think I am just going to do something to make the leggings a bit cuter and then give them to her. (That sounds so lame and cheap, but we talked about it and she's down. I am already trying to think of a cute outfit to go with these black leggings.)

With the leggings done, T's costume was ready to go! For the top he just wore a white long-sleeved onesie that I buttoned on the outside of the leggings.

 

It was impossible to get a good shot of the whole costume on him, this is about the best we have although there is no sign of leggings. Trust me, he was wearing them.

 

Much to my dismay, K isn't much of a dress-up kind of kid so the wings are just sitting in his costume box. Unused. Bummer. The hat, however, is a staple! It is getting chillier out, so the little guy needs a hat when we go outside. Since I made it to fit his head, this is the current go-to when we leave the house.