Sunday, October 14, 2012

Bird Costume Part I: Wings

  Halloween is quite possibly my favorite holiday. I love it. I love the smell in the air, which no one else seems to smell. I looked at Husband one year with excitement in my eyes and voice and said, "It smells like OCTOBER." He looked at me like I was nuts and asked what October smells like. It's not anything I can describe. It smells like fall, with a little something extra. I know, I know. I'm nuts. Husband was right.

  Anyway, I have the kids' costume ideas all picked out, except for Gabe. He keeps changing his mind. One day it's Batman, the next it's Green Lantern, the next it's Ninja Turtles. All of which I'm fine with, if he'd just make a decision. But he's 3. 3 year olds are not known for their decisiveness. Bella is going to be a mermaid princess and I've almost finished her tutu tail. Tututail. Heh. Alex is going to be a socktopus. No, that isn't a typo, his tentacles will be made from socks and/or stockings. It's the cutest freakin' think EVER. 

Now we get to me. I didn't dress up last year because Alex was bitty and having a bitty baby and a husband who was working a shit ton of hours didn't really mesh well with me trying to plan a shit ton of Halloween stuff. Plus, all I was doing was taking the twins trick or treating. I was okay with not dressing up. This year, however, I've been invited out. YAY! I don't know yet if I'll get to go, but in pure Joanna style I'm getting my hopes up and planning like I do every time I want to do something. So I had to come up with a costume on the fly. While we can't afford for me to buy a costume (because they're ri-fucking-diculously expensive) or a ton of fabric for me to make a costume. Plus, even though I've lost 10 lbs (YES. 10 LBS. YEEEEESSSSS.) I'm still, er, jiggly and fluffy and gross. Then on Pinterest I found a tutorial on  how to make bird wings. I'd already seen a tutorial for these types of wings, but they were for kids. I'm in no way the size of a child. The one I found was for adults. I dug through my scrap fabric and found enough solid black and solid purple to make some 'feathers'. Then I cut up a bedsheet. Yes. I butchered a bedsheet for my costume. Even though I'm still all fluffy and jiggly and grotesque, I still wanted to look cute so I then decided to cut the bedsheet up even more and make a skirt. It was....horrendous. It made me look 15 lbs heavier. That skirt slapped me straight across my face and said 'Screw you, bitch. I think you need to look as terrible as possible.' So you know what I did? I took out my seam ripper and ripped that hussy apart. Then I made it better. Because I'm awesome like that. Okay, what I really did is ripped it apart, sewed a purple panel on the front (color blocking? Oh, yes. I did.) and sewed it back together. Then cut the bottom off a black t-shirt and sewed the skirt previously known as hussy to the top of the shirt to make a dress. It isn't quite finished, but so far I'm very pleased with myself. 

And now, without further ado, here are my awesome wings. And if anyone knows a bird that is purple and black, I'd really appreciate you letting me know. Because so far, if someone asks me what type of bird I am, I've got nothing. I told Bella I'm a Joanna Bird. :/ 

Ignore my flat ass. It's the sweatpants, I swear...Or maybe not. Whatever.

Oh, and also, the link to the tutorial I used. Ish. I kinda winged it after the first little bit. (Pun intended.)

I'll post again either when I finish my birdress or when I finish one of the kids' costumes.

4 comments:

  1. There are some purple birds...mostly birds that are so black they have a purple tint when the light hits their feathers...but it'll work. You might not like the names of some of them, though. The Shiny Cowbird, for instance. Not very becoming, but a pretty animal. Purple grakle, purple martin, and purple gallinules are some others. Gallinules only has a little purple, and has bunches of other colors, so that's probably not the species of your costume...but you should still look at a picture of one so you can see it being really pretty.

    :)

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  2. I think the shiny cowbird is probably the closest. Thank you! The gallinules are really pretty!

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  3. Yeah, that's what I thought, too, but..."Shiny Cowbird"...? Who wants that to be? "Hey! You look really cute in your awesome hand-crafted costume. What kind of bird are you?" *hands head* "I'm a shiny cowbird." That's not a response you give proudly. I think a two-year-old must have named those kinds of birds. Or someone on some kind of trip. I dub thee...Shiny Cowbird.

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  4. Haha, exactly what I was thinking with the *hangs head* and all. I like to think it was someone tripping. And all googly over these beautiful shiny birds. Then suddenly they beautiful bird turned into a beautiful bircow.

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