After much debate over this year's Halloween costumes, my daughter decided to be an angel. Great! A white sheet, cut to fit, easy. Angel wings? How in the world do you make angel wings?? I of course Googled this. I found a site with instructions for DIY wings. I went and purchased 12 gauge wire and white pantyhose. The instructions said to shape the wire into your desired wings. The whole time I'm shaping this wire I am thinking to myself, this bends way too easy. How in the world will it hold it's shape with pantyhose stretched over it? But, whatever. The site had drawings and everything, so it must work. Well, my gut was right. The second I tried to put pantyhose over the wire it bent all out of shape....and I'm using my nice language on here. My daughter looked horrified and worried that I could not produce the cool angel wings she so desperately wanted for her costume.
So after a few choice words and then finally back to logical thinking I decided...FINE...we need wire that doesn't bend? Easy. I have a closet full of stupid wire hangers that I can't stand! I pulled 2 hangers out of the closet and my daughter looked so skeptical and sad. She said that won't look good, it won't work. Wanna bet? Challenge accepted!!
I am going to be as descriptive as I possibly can. I did not take a lot of photos. I had no idea I would even blog about this until I was done and thought holy crap these look awesome!! So, here's what works in real life.
Items you will need:
2 wire hangers
Electrical tape (even duct tape would work)
Pipe cleaners (those little furry wire thingys for crafts)
White pantyhose (queen size)
White Christmas garland
2 feather boas
Hot glue gun
White elastic for the straps
Scissors
Wire cutters
Luckily, the only items I had to purchase were the elastic, boas and pantyhose. I purchased the boas and elastic at Michael's with a coupon of course. When do I not?
First, take your 2 hangers and cut off the curved end.
I cut another set of hangers just to demonstrate. What else am I going to do with them? Now pull the hangers and bend into your wing shape.
Wrap your electrical tape around the two ends to secure them together.
Now you have wings. Time to decorate! I pulled my Christmas decor out and found my white garland. At this point you can be as creative as you want. Use whatever items suit you. Warm up that hot glue gun because now the fun begins! I hot glued the white garland around the edges of the wings on BOTH sides, front AND back. Since the wings are wider than the child, you will see the edges and I wanted the hangers covered. I also wrapped/hot glued a piece of garland around the middle of the wings to hide any electrical tape, pipe cleaner, etc.
At this point my daughter still wasn't convinced. A less picky child might be fine if you stopped here. Not my daughter. It has to be perfect. No idea where she gets that. She had to have feathers. So I searched for feathers at Dollar Tree, nope. Joann Fabric, yes but that wanted $3 for a tiny bag that MAYBE would cover half a wing. No thanks. They did have feather boas at Joann for $8 a piece. Again, no thanks. So finally at Michael's I found the perfect feather boas on sale 40% off. And indeed I used that 20% coupon as well. $7 for 2 boas. Much better.
I hot glued one feather boa on the right wing. I ran a bead of hot glue across the wing and starting with one end, laid the feather boa over it. Then ran another bead of hot glue about 1-2 inches below that and laid more boa over it. I repeated until the entire wing was covered. At the end I cut off the excess boa. The boa is so fluffy you can't even tell I zig zagged left to right when I glued it. I repeated the same steps with the second boa on the left wing.
I pranced into the living room and showed my daughter what I had accomplished and her eyes almost popped out of her head! See? Told you it would come out amazing!
The finishing touch was sewing on the white elastic for straps. Have someone hold the wings while you measure. Measure from the top of the wing, over the child's shoulder and under their arm to the bottom of the wing. Make sure you measure where you plan to actually sew the straps. Then subtract 2 inches. I measured 18 inches and I cut two 16 inch elastic strips.
Using a needle and white thread I sewed the straps onto the wings.
Lastly we tried the wings on to make sure it would fit properly! My daughter tried on her whole outfit and was completely amazed as she stared at herself in the mirror. She exclaimed, "I look like a real angel!"
Quick side note: For the halo, use some of your leftover white garland and cut to size. I just tied a small knot. Boom. Done.
We can't wait to sport this new costume on Halloween!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
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