Fairy Wings

Perhaps it's my costume designer background, perhaps it's my own love of flowers, perhaps it's my admiration of the illustrations of Cicely Mary Barker...whatever the reason, I love to make fairy costumes...

My daughter's first Halloween, I made her a Campanula (Blue Bell) Fairy Costume.  The same year I even managed to talk my son into a Leaf "Elf" costume.  My daughter was wingless this year, but my son had what he called "dragon wings."  They both loved my Monarch wings.  I made the Monarch wings several years ago.  They are the standard wire and pantyhose wings with a layer of Mod Podge for durability and some paint for the orange spots.  

Everyone Loves a Fairy's Wings

Chubby Baby Campanula Fairy

My daughter's second Halloween I made a Burgmansia (Angels Trumpet) Fairy Costume.  Her wings were made of floral tape covered wire and pantyhose.  They were very cute, but did not hold up well.

Brugmansia Fairy and Binkies

Brugmansia Fairy and Flower

For her third Halloween the family all went as Super Heroes.  She was "Fairy Tale."  This was the first year I made wings from craft foam.  The technique worked great and two years later she is still playing with the wings.    

Fairy Tale with Fire Bull

Fairy Tale

Last Halloween, not only did I get to make her a another fairy costume, I taught a class on how to make Fairy Wings and tutus.  There many little girls who experienced the joy of a handmade Fairy Costume. 

This is the Beautiful work of one of my students

Created by one of my students this Fall!

The sample I made during the class was sent to my niece, so we got to spread a little more fairy love around.  

My daughter modeling her cousin's Halloween costume!

Ready to Trick-or-Treat!

The directions and pattern for the fairy wings can be found on my Etsy site.  









Moster Feet and Fairy Feet

The preparation for the "Funny Feet" class I taught today at the Arts Center proved to be on the grueling side, but the class itself was a lot of fun.  Students could choose from two different styles of slippers, Monster Feet or Fairy Feet.  Today was the first day of a two day class, next Tuesday we will finish up our slippers. 

The mechanics of a slipper pattern are not so challenging.  I made some prototypes early on in the winter in my own size.  Wearing around the prototypes I was able to decide on things like, using a layer of cotton batting in between the fleece sole and the lining.  The batted added to the over all warmth and comfort of the slipper.  Earlier models had only one fleece layer and the lining, they seemed a bit too thin.  Using more than one layer of fleeece made my feet sweaty, and using more than one layer of batting added no comfort and was more difficult to put together. 

I have a tendency to try to hurry through things some times, but I don't want to pass this along to my students.  When I am making my samples for my classes and writing my instructions I try to do things the right way, and not my rushed way.  In this project I learned that when I took the time to do a stretch stitch  (like a moc overlock) around the pieces once the lining and the fleece were sewn together, I not only had finished edges, but this greatly eased the final steps of connecting the top of the slipper to the sole.  I probably didn't save myself more than a minute or two by not doing this in earlier models, and by doing it I eliminated much frustration!  Slow down and breathe...my lesson for the day!

So the "challenge" in this project turned up in the grading of the pattern.  This was my first adventure in grading footwear, which came with its own set of challenges, but the time consumer ended up being grading 9 sizes in 2 different styles!  It was just a ton of pieces!
My little Fairy and Monster reluctanly waited 3 weeks to wear their slippers.  Their slippers were the samples that hung in the Arts Center window to help advertise the class.   There are some warm and happy feet here tonight!