Coolest Homemade Blue Bird Halloween Costume

My 6 yr son wanted to be a Blue Bird for Halloween. I was obsessed about it for months trying to figure out how to do it and not make it too foofy. After taking ideas from a few on-line searches and my own ideas, I came up with this Homemade Blue Bird Halloween Costume and was very happy with it and, most importantly, my son loved it!

Items purchased:
• 18 rectangles of felt. I chose 3 different shades of blue (6 sheets each)
• 6 Blue feather boas from the $ store
• 2 orange fluffy purses from $ store that I cut up and used for feet
• Orange ribbon
• Blue and black face paint
• Blue hair dye
• Spray Adhesive

Items I had:
• Shiny blue track suit
• Scraps of carpet pad (left over from another costume)
• Old blue shirt to cut up

I started by cutting out feather shapes from the felt. I got about 8 feathers from each rectangle. This was the most time-consuming. I needed something to attach the felt feathers to so this is where the old blue T-shirt comes in.

Next I took the old blue T-shirt and measured for cutting by having my son hold his arms 3 quarters of the way up. I measured from his wrist down to hip and cut the shirt to fit in the span on each side. To make sure they’re the same size only measure one side and cut the pattern out through both sides of the shirt – flip one cut out over and you have the other side perfectly matched.

I sewed the shirt to the track suit. Don’t be scared by sewing. My sewing is horrible but it didn’t matter what it looked like on this since everything will be covered by the felt feathers.

Next find a safe place to use the spray adhesive. I used the garage with the door open. Be sure to cover your work space. I laid out the feathers first to be sure I knew how I was going to do it because once you start spraying you have to move kinda fast. This is the pattern I used with the 3 shades of blue.

Front:
Starting from the outside- Dark Blue, Medium Blue, Light Blue. I did the same on both the right and left sides on the front. Be sure to start from the outside and work your way in.

Back:
I wanted to see a different color peaking out from the back when looking from the front so I switched up the pattern. For the back I used- from out to in- Light Blue- Dark Blue- Medium Blue; Same pattern on both left and right.

Using the spray adhesive I sprayed a small section at a time to start laying out the pattern. You get a temp set in about 15 seconds so as long as you keep moving and spraying small sections at a time you should be okay. I did both sides at one time since the temp set is so fast. The can says 1 hr for a permanent set.

Next I needed a tail. I had a scrap of carpet pad left over so I cut it in a triangle type shape (with the top tip cut flat). I used my spray adhesive again and laid out the feather boas to cover both sides. I sewed the tail onto the back of the pants.

Next I needed feet. I cut up the fluffy orange purses to make the feet and I used the orange ribbon to tie the feet around the legs.

Final touches were blue hair dye and a painted blue face with black beak.

Money Spent- Under $20:
Felt- $4.50 ($0.25 per sheet)
Feather Boas- $6.00
Fluffy Orange Fabric (purses)- $2.00
Spray Adhesive- $3.00
Ribbon-Paint-Hair Dye- $3.00