Easy Homemade Fairy Wings


Remember last year when s was a zombie for Halloween, and in the zombie costume tutorial I lamented that it was probably the last halloween before she went all princess? I was right (I usually really love to be right, hmm). So this year she has requested a tinkerbell costume.

These wings are meant to approximate tinkerbell’s wings, but you can make yours a different shape or color to go with your butterflies, bees, dragonflys, fairies, and angels. And you can totally make them with stuff you have laying around the house (I’m just going to go ahead and assume you have glitter in your house). It’ll only take maybe 20 minutes. Get to work mama!

Get the full Homemade Fairy Wings Tutorial after the jump…

And remember, any comment you leave this week could win you an entire half yard of nicey jane oil cloth so you can make Jacinda’s amazing tote!

How to Make Fairy Wings

You will need:
4 wire hangers (white preferably)
Wire cutter (or scissors and determination)
2 pairs of white pantyhose or socks
A little duct tape
Elastic
Spray paint, glitter, feathers or whatever you want to decorate your wings with.

1. Bending the wire. Start by opening up your hangers:

Tinkerbell has four wings, two pointy ones and two rounds ones, but you canmake yours any shape you want or just do two wings (way easier). So I started with the round ones. Unfold your wire hanger and bend it like so:

Twist together and cut off the excess leaving about 2 inches of wire:

Make another one just like that. Now for the pointy ones. I just cut the top off the hangers and stretched the bottom out:

2. Now cut the legs off your tights or grab your knee highs:

Slide them over your wire frames:

3. Twist the ends of the socks around the ends of the wire and cover with duct tape, covering any pokey wires:

Arrange your wings:

Tape them all together around the center:

4. Now grab your spray paint and go at it. I did the tips and edges in blue, since tinkerbell has blue wings.

I also added glitter by squeezing on some glitter glue:

And smearing it around with a foam brush:

Hang them to dry:

5. Cut a length of elastic twice the width of your kids’ chest. Sew it together at the ends in a flat loop like so:

Hot glue the loop in the center of your wings on the side that will be facing your kid’s back:

Then wrap another piece of fabric (i used a decorated pantyhose leg) around the center piece, hiding all of the duct tape. Hot glue it into place:

You’re done. Put on your little fairy.

Ok maybe they are a little ghetto. I almost didn’t post them, seeing as you can buy fairy wings for just a few bucks, but maybe the best idea is to buy fairy wings then decorate them yourself? Either way, she will insist on wearing them all the time.

Thoughts?

by

30 Comments

Lil Mama Stuart

Andrea – I'm sure you can go to any dry cleaners, and nab a few. People usually bring back hangers since they accumulate so quickly!

haha – as is the typical crafting dilemma…a lot of effort, for something you can probably buy for a few bucks. but so much better to say you made them! 🙂

Reply
Kristi

Isn't it funny what we sometimes decide we "need" to make when buying it would be cheaper and easier in the long run? Also, glad that I am not ht only blogger to use the term ghetto in posts!!
PS I wouldn't use the term ghetto to describe these. I think they turned out pretty darn cute!

Reply
Rebekah

You are right about the wanting to wear them all the time. My daughter has burned through countless pairs of the Dollar Tree variety. Yours look like they might hold up better under the rigors of 4-year-old play.

Reply
Amber

My husband has learned to stop commenting when I spend $15 and an hour of my time to make something that costs $4 and a 10-minute trip to the store. It's ones of the reasons our marriage works. 🙂

Reply
Jacinda

You might be able to buy then for $4 but can you get EXACTLY what you are looking for? This is awesome for when you want magenta wings with a scalloped edge and a tuft of orange fur and NOTHING ELSE WILL DO. I love them. Perfect tink wings!

Reply
Jennifer

I scoured the internet last night looking for a tutorial on making wings….found nothing. I went to Joann's today & purchased some for 60% off that are green (and I wanted purple to match a tutu I had already made my daughter so now I have to make a green tutu)….the wings you made look Great! I am going to march right back to the store, return them and make my purple wings (and not another tutu wahhoo)! Thank-you so much for posting.

Reply
aucoeur

I just made my daughter ladybug wings. Yeah, it would have been just as easy to buy a cheap pair, but not as much fun! 🙂

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ladylidia

adorable idea I will try it out for my little niece 🙂
thanks so much I'm inlove with your site! Im new to it but im always on it!!! 🙂

Reply
Jocelyn

Most dry cleaners will gladly give you some hangers if you just ask. I've gotten some when we were going camping and forgot to bring something to roast the hot dogs and marshmallows. I also agree that the wings turned out really cute. You can see from the look on Scarlett's face that she thinks they are really awesome and she is proud to wear them. That is how you can justify spending the extra time to make them.

Reply
Jocelyn

Dang it! I just realized that I misspelled Scarlet's name. My friend has the same name with 2 t's, so that is what I naturally write. Sorry.

Reply
Alex

Super cute!

I saw your book featured on ohdeedoh. When I saw it, I smiled and thought, "hey, I know her!" (eventhough I don't really)

Reply
Lauren

My daughter is going as a butterfly this year, so I plan to try my hand at a Monarch butterfly version of this! We'll see how hand painting the wings turns out….it could be great or go horribly wrong really fast 🙂 Guess I'll find out soon!

Reply
da-a tis

My husband often wonders why I make some things that I could buy and use my time for other things… But where's the fun in that?? And it's much better to recycle things laying around the house than buying new (probably made in some other country) things! Love these wings!

Reply
tanya

oooooh! i wish halloween was a bigger thing in australia – all the free rein for crafty sewing goodness you can enjoy! then again i think my daughter would love to dress up as tinkerbell all year round lol!

Reply
Genevieve

This is great!!With Halloween falling on a Sunday, people around here won't trick or treat. They'll do it on Saturday instead….I'll keep my comments to myself. Sooooo…. I'm inviting kids for a Halloween bash at my house instead. How cute would a house full of fairies be?? Now the trick with be trying to shove my hubby in a pair of these bad boys. lol

Reply
Tasha

Excellent!! I did it! I LOVE THEM! I used black nylons because that’s all I had on hand. I also used the elastic from an old pair of jogging pants. Call me cheap, or just desperate! I didn’t have a glue gun either, so I had to use a little extra duck tape, but my daughters fairy wings turned out great! Now all I need is some glitter!I’m so proud of myself. Thanks for providing such excellent instructions!

Reply
Susan Adams

I make wings on a regular basis for self, kids and other adults..and Walmart carries a firm 14 gauge galvanized steel wire reem of 10 feet for about $4. It is my wire of choice. Hangers are hard to bend and hard to find. The steel wire is soft enough to form and hard enough for kid play.

Did you know, you can dye the stockings in hot cool-aid water or Rit dye?

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Ιδέες για χειροποίητες αποκριάτικες στολές | Maninaki

[…] Δείτε εδώ ένα εξαιρετικό tutorial για το πώς να φτιάξετε υπέροχα νεραϊδένια φτερά.   Τέλος, εδώ θα δείτε επίσης ωραίες ιδέες, εύκολες και γρήγορες. Ξεχώρισα τη στολή του μικρού τυμπανιστή, του μάγειρα, του εξερευνητή καθώς και τα γουρουνίσια αυτιά/μύτη.   Μια άλλη αυτοσχέδια στολή που είδα σε χορό που πήγαμε φέτος είναι σκιάχτρο: καρώ πουκάμισο, ένα παντελόνι από λινάτσα με μπαλώματα και χόρτα να κρέμονται από παντού…..η κοπελίτσα που τη φορούσε είχε μακριά ξανθά μαλλιά, τα οποία είχε κάνει δυο μεγάλη πλεξούδες, και φορούσε γυαλιά….Από τις ωραιότερες στολές που έχω δει! […]

Reply
Tiffany Norton

This wasn’t ghetto at all. This is a very good idea. The wings looks beautiful. I am glad you posted the pics. I am going to use your idea I hope it turns out alright. It last minute. Thanks again for the inspiration.

Reply
Katie

I know this is an older post but I have to say I can relate to “needing” to make something you can buy cheap. Just redid our 2 year old’s room (moved and don’t have the money to really redo right now but had to do something to cover up mudding/holes/faded paint) in a Neverland/Tinkerbell style and bought 4 pairs of fairy wings at the dollar store. Since I bought them, every time I look at them I think “hey, I could probably make those…”. Umm…they were $1 a piece! Why do I feel the need to pay more for supplies to make them when I already have 4?

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