Making Wings

There are some magnificent tutorials online on how to make majestic fairy wings... and this is not one of them.

'Twas the night before Halloween and all through the house... I crafted like crazy to pop some wings in my blouse. With a roll full of cellophane and the heat gun on blast, I fixed them up in a jiffy, made them up real fast...

I was Wanda for Halloween, half of the fairy-godmother due from The Fairly Odd-Parents. And what good is a fairy-godmother without wings?

Luckily, she has the most basic of basic wings, so shaping the wire to make these wings was a snap. I knew I didn't want to make ties to secure the wings to my costume, so I worked out a shape that would allow me to slide the center stem of the wings under my bra strap.

I used the exact same steps as when I made my fairy wing earrings. but this time made my wings on a much grander scale. I also used a thicker gauge wire so the wings would hold shape better.

First, I made a large V. Then I made circles from the tips of the V and secured by wrapping the wire around itself. This sounds much more complicated than it actually was... you can see the wire frame in the photo above for a much clearer idea on how to shape Wanda's wings.

Then I added iridescent cellophane wrapping paper to the wire frame. I used my heat gun for the first time! Last summer, I bought a Wagner 1,200 watt heat gun so I could improve upon my fairy wing earrings and finally got around to testing it out with this project.

That heat gun has a bit of a learning curve. The lower heat setting didn't seem to be working, so I bumped the gun up to the higher setting. That was when I heat blasted through and melted holes in the edge of the wings. You can see where I repaired the holes in the photo above. Since these wings were only for a Halloween costume, I didn't care about the band-aid  effect the second layer of cellophane added.

And you can't even tell I patched the wings in normal lighting! In these photos, the V of the wings is tucked into my bra band through the top of my sweatshirt. This effect would come in handy for Ren Faire costumes--strapless, hands-free wings that can tuck into the back of a corset.

These wings are also moldable. I wore them flat in the car as picture above and bent them outwards as pictured below when I got to my Halloween party. I think bending the wings outward gives them a more realistic effect and looks more like the original Wanda's wings.

Happy making!