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How to: Fairy Costumes With Silk Flowers

Buying fairy costumes in a costume shop can become expensive. Whether you have experience with sewing or not, you can make your own fairy costumes with silk flowers and other embellishments in less than a day for little cost. As you make the fairy costume think about the kind of fairy you want to create, such as a woodland or river fairy, a spring, summer, fall, or winter fairy.

Things You'll Need

  • Leotard
  • Pen or marker
  • Scissors
  • Tulle and silk fabrics
  • Pins
  • Needle and thread
  • Fairy wings
  • Silk flowers
  • Embellishments (beads, sequins, ribbon)
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Instructions

    • 1

      Dress the person that will wear the costume in a plain, body-colored leotard. Draw a line on the leotard around the waist about an inch below the belly button. Mark small dots or Xs over areas along the leotard where you want flowers, such as the breast area, trailing across the stomach, or along the shoulders and neckline. Set the leotard aside.

    • 2

      Cut pieces of tulle and silk into several rectangles roughly 4 to 5 inches wide and as long as the distance between the costume wearer's waist and knees. Cut diagonally across the rectangles to form long triangles.

    • 3

      Pin the wide ends of the triangles to the waist of the leotard where you marked it until the triangles cover all the way around the waist. Hand sew along the waist to attach the strips of triangle to the leotard to form a flowing skirt-like addition to the costume.

    • 4

      Remove the silk flower heads and leaves from the main stems of your flowers. Decide which flower heads you want to leave intact and which ones you might like to pull apart to use the petals individually.

    • 5

      Pin the flower petals, flower heads, and leaves to the leotard to cover the marked portions along the chest, shoulders, or stomach, as well as all the way around the waist to cover the stitching of the triangles. Hand sew the flowers to the leotard once you are satisfied with their placement.

    • 6

      Sew a store-bought or homemade pair of wings to the back of the costume. Add any flowers around the wing attachment area as desired. Add additional embellishments to the costume to make it sparkle by sewing on beads, sequin, or sheer iridescent ribbons.

Theater Costumes

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