[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text]Our oldest son started asking for a blue jay costume back in early 2017. At first I was excited, and thought I would make simple wings he could fly around the yard with! But as most best intentions go, I didn’t even begin the project and the idea soon faded away. Every few months, my son would remind me about the costume and I started to feel guilty for saying I didn’t have time.
In September my son was still asking. So, with full assurance, I started on a Blue Jay costume for Halloween!
I drew the design in my art journal to get a good idea of what the shapes would be for the costume.
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I grabbed an old supply sheet we had from my husband’s work and cut out the general shapes of the bird body. I stapled the edges together and had Nathan slip into it. The costume was love at first sight for Nathan! After a successful sample pattern, I used plastic template pieces to cut out the real body pieces from white blizzard fleece.
I sewed the body up, leaving a hole at the back neck for Nathan to step into. And I lightly stuffed the front belly and back tail area with polyester fiberfill.
For the wings, I covered his arm with black blizzard fleece, and sewed a “pocket sleeve” at the top for his arm to slip through. Then I cut additional shapes of feathers out of black fleece, and glued them on with Fabri-Tac along the backside of the wing, overlapping them as I went.
I waited 24 hours for the wings to dry, and then used acrylic paints to apply the feather looking designs.
The acrylics make the fleece stiffen a bit and slightly hard to the touch, but they dry exceptionally fast and create vibrant colors. I used this same acrylic paint to give the bird body some color and simulated feather texture.
I ran out of black fleece, so I ended up using several sheets of thin, EVA Foam for the tail feathers. I painted them and glued them on with Fabri-Tac.
And for the finishing piece, I created a lightweight head mask out of thin EVA foam. I started by making a paper pattern, and achieved the sizing by comparing it to one of the boys’ knight helmets. After knowing the paper sample hat fit, I used those pieces to then cut out of foam. I used contact cement to glue the foam pieces together. Once my mask was done, I added a few areas of acrylic paint to highlight it and hot glued on some feathers to the beak.
The shoes covers were also made of EVA foam and wrapped around the shoes and velcroed.
The whole project took me about a week to complete and was a fun and definitely unique request to fulfill! I was thankful I had followed through on the project!
And maybe it’s just my bias, but I think his cuteness and uniqueness may just have awarded him extra candy on trick or treat night!
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Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.
I grabbed an old supply sheet we had from my husband’s work and cut out the general shapes of the bird body. I stapled the edges together and had Nathan slip into it. The costume was love at first sight for Nathan! After a successful sample pattern, I used plastic template pieces to cut out the real body pieces from white blizzard fleece.
I sewed the body up, leaving a hole at the back neck for Nathan to step into. And I lightly stuffed the front belly and back tail area with polyester fiberfill.
For the wings, I covered his arm with black blizzard fleece, and sewed a “pocket sleeve” at the top for his arm to slip through. Then I cut additional shapes of feathers out of black fleece, and glued them on with Fabri-Tac along the backside of the wing, overlapping them as I went.
I waited 24 hours for the wings to dry, and then used acrylic paints to apply the feather looking designs.
The acrylics make the fleece stiffen a bit and slightly hard to the touch, but they dry exceptionally fast and create vibrant colors. I used this same acrylic paint to give the bird body some color and simulated feather texture.
I ran out of black fleece, so I ended up using several sheets of thin, EVA Foam for the tail feathers. I painted them and glued them on with Fabri-Tac.
And for the finishing piece, I created a lightweight head mask out of thin EVA foam. I started by making a paper pattern, and achieved the sizing by comparing it to one of the boys’ knight helmets. After knowing the paper sample hat fit, I used those pieces to then cut out of foam. I used contact cement to glue the foam pieces together. Once my mask was done, I added a few areas of acrylic paint to highlight it and hot glued on some feathers to the beak.
The shoes covers were also made of EVA foam and wrapped around the shoes and velcroed.
The whole project took me about a week to complete and was a fun and definitely unique request to fulfill! I was thankful I had followed through on the project!
And maybe it’s just my bias, but I think his cuteness and uniqueness may just have awarded him extra candy on trick or treat night!
Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
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