My son is a baby blue bird in his school musical and needed a costume. I showed him some images from Pinterest, but he didn’t like any of them. So, I was on my own, but the idea of using feathered boas came to mind and I ran to the store for supplies. Then I checked our closets for any clothes I could use. I found an old long-sleeves blue t-shirt, some cotton shorts and some yellow tights.
For this Costume, you’ll need:
- 6 feathered boas (4 blue boas & 2 white ones)
- Needle & thread
- Scissors
- 2 sheets of yellow felt
- 1 sheet of blue felt
- 2 buttons
- A long-sleeve blue t-shirt & matching shorts
- Yellow tights
Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the process. Sorry!
I hand stitched the boas onto the shirt, starting with the white belly, then the arms, then the blue around the belly and then the back. I left about 5 inches at the bottom of the back of the shirt empty (mainly because I ran out of boas). So I decided to cut a blue tail from felt & attach it to the center of the bottom of the shirt & add some of the last of the blue feathered boa to the felt tail. As you can see in the photo, it doesn’t seem to matter at all that I left so much unfinished space in the back. Feathers are very forgiving that way. 😁
I left quite a bit of space between the rows of feathers too. You can make your rows closer together, but will likely need more boas…and more patience, haha! This is a tedious process. And you will have many feathers to clean up along the way! But the finished Costume is so adorable it’s worth it!
To make the feet, cut a three-toed foot from a sheet of yellow felt. Leave a band at the top to wrap around the child’s ankle. Wrap the band around your child’s ankle to check the fit & attach a button to one side and cut a slit in the other. (If you’d prefer, Velcro would be a great alternative to the button closure.)
To make the hat, you’ll need:
- Yellow & blue craft paint
- Paint brush
- Hot glue /hot glue gun
- Large googley eyes
- Plain white baseball cap
Paint the hat blue & the bill yellow. Allow to dry a few hours. Then use hot glue to attach two goggles eyes. I found it helpful to put the hat on a small basketball to hold it’s shape while I painted it.
My son is thrilled with his costume, and I can’t wait to see feathers fly while he dances around on stage, haha!
Have a beautiful day!
Kelly Gene 