I was a bird for my Halloween potluck, and the costume was surprisingly easy and inexpensive. You need:
- a bag of feathers
- some fabric
- hair pins
- sewing materials
- duct tape
- tulle
- ribbon/belt
- brown leggings
- brightly-colored shirt, long sleeves
- brightly-colored skirt
I made a feather fascinator for my hair by sewing feathers onto a piece of plain white fabric. Then I pinned it into my hair. I’m most proud of this aspect of my costume, since an Etsy search for “feather fascinator” revealed some beautiful but scarily intricate creations. (See a crazy one here, also one here.)
Feather fascinator
Fascinator, front view, rotated oddly and the photo software not cooperating
Fascinator back view
I made the tail with some tulle which I bunched together, the longer pieces on the bottom. After sewing it fast at the top, I sewed the entire tail to a fabric belt I have and used that to tie it around my waist over brown-legging-bird-legs and skirt.
Tail attached to belt
Tail/belt close-up
The wings began as two strips of fabric sewn into rectangles. I duct taped feathers all along the length of the fabric, then sewed the wings duct-tape-side-down along the sleeves of the shirt.
A wing, flipped up
Duct tape/wing underside close-up
Wing sewed onto shirt sleeve and flipped down
For make-up I used:
- False eyelashes, with two small feathers from my feather bag glued on the outsides of the lashes
- colorful shadow and a precise make-up brush
You can sort of see the bird make-up in this picture...
And voila! You are a bird!
