What you will need:

• Foamie
• Paint (acrylic and spray)
• Wire (beading or craft wire)
• Nude Spandex
• Elastic
• Pleather fabric
• Aerosol spray glue
• Measuring tape
• A lot of patience

 

Step One:

Start by drawing out a general design of the feather layout. This does not need to be the perfect picture. It will just give you a better idea of where you want your feathers to lay and how you want to shape them.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Two:

You will be cutting out at least 4 different sizes of feathers. Your Base feathers (the tallest and biggest), medium, small and the scale feathers.  Asses the amount of feathers you plan to create.

Step Three:

Start with your largest feathers, first determine the length you want to have follow by the shape. Please note that I used some rounded feathers, angular feathers and oblong feathers to achieve the look I was going for

 

 

 

 

 

Step Four:

Draw and cut out your large feathers. Be sure to cute 4 of each feather. These feathers will be the only double sided feathers.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Five:

Measure out and cut a wire to fit the length of the feather. Glue the wire between the two sides of the feather and let dry.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Six:

Base coat painting. Before I do any hand painting for any feathers, each feather was spray painted a blue or teal color. This is a super important step as foamie loves to soak up paint and painting a base coat helps to even all the paint when you are hand painting.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Seven:

Now that you have made your base large feathers cut out your medium, small and scale looking feathers, you will not need to double side these as the backs will be hidden from sight. Please note the small and scale feathers will be made from the pleather as they will need to be hand sew later. When finished, put your base coat of spray paint on.

Step Eight:

Once your base coat has dried, start your hand painting. This would be an excellent time to load up all those classic nerd movies. The longer the better this will take a while. So load up the Star Wars, Harry Potter and LOTR marathons :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step Nine:

Once your feathers have dried, take your spandex and measure out two pieces. I do this by measuring out my arm circumference and marking that on the spandex prior to cutting. Make sure you cut a snug fitting sleeve. (It should be tight like an evening glove)DO NOT SEW TOGETHER JUST YET!

 

 

 

 

 

Step Ten:

Take your longest feathers ( the ones with wire in them) and cut 3 small ½ inch slats at the bottom as shown.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Eleven:

Carefully take your Large feathers one at a time and place them between where your seam should be and sew. Please sew very slowly and one the widest stitch you have as you will need to avoid the wire so you do not damage yourself or your sewing machine.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Twelve:

Now cut 1 inch strips of foamie and glue on the outer very bottom of the large feathers ( where the spandex and foamie overlap) on both sides as shown.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Thirteen:

Reach into your arm/glove piece and bend the slats in opposite directions, once this is completed glue the slats the slats down to another 1 inch strip of foamie. ( as shown) This will stabilize the biggest feathers.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Fourteen:

You can now try on the wings to make sure they sit right. Please notes in this stage they will be a little wobbly but should stand on their own.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Fifteen:

Glue your medium feathers down to the large ones. You will need to be able to move your arms so only Glue one side of the feather down on the feathers that overlap the base feathers. If you glue each medium feather to two sides of a large one you will be unable to move and will rip your wings upon bending your arms.

Step Sixteen:

Once you have places the medium feathers and glued them into place. Take the small feathers and sew the bottoms t the spandex as shown. Glue the tips of the feather to the foamie feathers to prevent them from rolling down over time.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Seventeen:

Apply the Scale  (smallest) feathers in the same manner only instead of gluing the top of the feathers down sew a small hand stitch on the back  of the scale feather to the spandex holding it in place. Continue this process until you have achieved your desired look. I used elastic to make a small finger loop that went around my middle finger to pull everything tight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*** One last note. I made a cast of my arm with duct tape and spray insulation foam to make the hand sewing easier. If you would like a tutorial for that, want to request another tutorial not in relation or have and additional questions please feel free to email us at cupcakecosplay@ymail.com ***