DIY Fairy Wings

Christmas presents for our nephews and nieces have a $10 limit now that they are a bit older. The dreamcatcher I made for my eldest niece definitely came under the dollar limit, and these fairy wings I’ve made for my youngest niece do too!

I found two different styles of fairy wings on Pinterest that I liked, here and here. I initially was going to go with the first style, since I had some pink, floaty chiffon which I had found at an Op Shop some years ago for $5 (it was a curtain). But a quick look through the discount rack at Spotlight led me to some gorgeous pink lacy fabric. The amount I’ve used for the wings cost me about $2.50. So I ended up making both styles of wings!

The pink lace was too wide for a little girl’s arms, but since it had a gorgeous ornate border, I had to cut some from the middle.

Using some pink ribbon from the gauzy curtain, I fashioned the centre back to join the two wings. I manually gathered up about half the length of each wing, fitting it to the pink ribbon. At this stage I also cut some elastic, to enable a child to wear the outfit. Pinning through all the layers – gathered lace with sequins, elastic, and ribbon – was a bit fiddly. Ok, quite a lot fiddly. And the cat decided it was time to play with all the bits and pieces floating around. There was a lot of frustration!

I machine stitched the ribbon on. Also fiddly, but there was no way I was going to hand sew that!

I got there in the end, and was very happy with how it fitted together!

I also made some smaller loops of elastic, and pink ribbon, which I attached to the outer sides of each wing, to go over a child’s wrists.

A quick trim to the inside edges to give some shape to the wings, and they were done! The beautiful fabric didn’t need any embellishment, it is just gorgeous!

I decided that the next set of wings would get a bit of a flower fairy look.

These wings have more shape to them. I started by making a very rough template from newspaper, which I pinned to the fabric that had been folded in half.

This needed some edging, but I certainly wasn’t about to hem it. I decided to singe it instead, just like I did when making these fabric flowers (also using this material!). Singeing is not an exact technique. Well, for me it’s not! So the edges became a bit rough-looking, and the lovely shape I had cut didn’t look quite so lovely. I still think it was easier than hemming it, though. This stuff is silky and slippery, and would have driven me mad, I think!

Anyway, I was going to add some decoration, so I just decided to add a bit more decoration than I originally planned, in order to detract from the edges. I think it worked 😉

I had 2 old fake flower leis from a Hawaiian party we went to many years ago. I cut them up, and used almost all the flowers. I dug out some silver sequins from my craft stash. You can never have enough sequins, right? I had a lovely time hot gluing flowers and sequins on to the wings, and only burnt myself a handful of times. I’m sure I took a photo or two of this process, but I can’t find them so perhaps I didn’t!

I made similar elastic loops to the other wings, but attached them with hot glue. I did hand stitch the ends together, though. I’m sure they will be secure enough.

I had purchased a pink headband, and hot glued more flowers and sequins to it. I think it really tops off the outfit!

Now all I need is a real little girl to model my creations! I’ll update after Christmas, once my niece is wearing them 🙂

In the meantime, this is the best I can do…

I think they turned out just as I had imagined!

UPDATE: Here they are, being worn on Christmas Day! I think she likes them 😉

Linking up with:

21 Rosemary Lane – Share Your Style, Too Much Time on My Hands – The Handmade Hangout, Posed Perfection – Creative Ways, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson – Share Your Cup, Domesblissity – Thriving on Thursdays, Sincerely, Paula – No Rules Weekend Blog Party, The Life of Jennifer Dawn – A Little Bird Told Me, The Pin Junkie, Life With Lorelei – Home Matters, Shoestring Elegance – What to Do Weekends, Tatertots and Jello – Link Party Palooza, Raising Fairies and Knights – Bloggers Spotlight, Simply Sweet Home – Friday Favourites, White House Crafts – The Crafty Corner, Oh My Heartsie Girl – Friday Features, Strawberry Butterscotch – Saturday Shuffle, Virginia Sweet Pea – Best of the Weekend, A Tray of Bliss – Five Star Frou Frou, The Pinterested Parent – Sunday’s Best, Love of Home – Sundays at Home, My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies – Snickerdoodle Create-Bake-Make, That Recipe – Happiness is Homemade, Lamberts Lately – Create it Thursday December, Nifty Thrifty Things, Plucky’s Second Thought – Cooking and Crafting With J&J,  My Pinterventures – Merry Monday, Claire Justine – Creative Mondays, Create With Joy – Inspire Me Monday, I Should Be Mopping the Floor – Inspiration Monday, The DIY Mommy – The Creative Corner, Yesterday on Tuesday – Project Inspired,