I had known what I wanted to be for Halloween since last year after Christmas. The craft stores had all of their sparkly Christmas decorations on sale, and I saw them and immediately thought "I need to wear all of this." But how.... The only logical explanation is to create an Ice Phoenix costume.

Step 1: The Wings

First of all, I needed to figure out how to build wings. What's a phoenix without wings? ..I dunno, but not a phoenix, that's for sure. I went online and did some research on how to build articulated wings, but all of the tutorials looked too hard and I didn't feel like watching an ENTIRE 4 MINUTE video. Way too much time.

So I searched for parts around my parents yard. Luckily, I found a nice patio umbrella that had large wooden arms that opened and closed, One umbrella had enough arms to make 4 sets of wings.

I took it apart and got the pieces I needed. Next I had to figure out how to mount the arms to my back. I used two boards, put a hinge in between the boards on the outside of what would be touching my back, and mounted the arms at an angle on the corners of the back of the boards.

I screwed eyelets to the top edge of the wooden arms and ran paracord along the tops of the wings, and crossed the cord in the back of the boards so that when I pulled the strings, the wings would open.

Step 2: The Stilts and Pants

Next, I decided I needed to be on stilts. I wanted to be above the crowd so I could flap my wings above them.

I had some stilts that I had gotten from a pawn shop a few years back, because who can't pass up a good buy on stilts when you see them. The stilts that I had are drywaller stilts. They are heavy, but very stable. Now I just needed to make them look pretty...

Not being a very good seamstress, I decided to make a basic fabric leg, that would be held up by elastic, and just add a bunch of material to cover up all the mistakes I made while sewing. I did this by cutting thousands of tiny slits in the fabric and looping through tule fabric, almost like making a tutu. This took forever. About 8 hours alone went into making these legs.

Step 3: The Top

The top was the easiest thing to make. It was made by using a bra, and just adding sequins, and looping snowflakes and icy Christmas decorations off the bottom. There are lots of safety pins holding the bra together, but it works.

Step 4: The Mask

The mask was made using a previously existing bird mask, painted white, and then bedazzled.

I also had to cut up a milk jug and use a piece of it on top of my head, to help hold up the mask on my face after adding all the jewels. I used this milk jug to add some feathers to the top of my head, that were made out of a christmas tree topper. I hot glued all of this stuff on, so I used fabric on top of everything to kind of cover the hot glue areas.

Step 5: Fabric on the Wings

Here is the part I was avoiding...

Covering the wings with fabric was going to be the hardest part.

I used a large sheet of plastic and laying my wooden wing frame on top. I drew what shape I wanted the wings on top of white fabric and then laid the plastic on the fabric and cut it out.

Before attaching the fabric, I sewed a layer of shiny see through material to the wings to give it more depth. I cut out some areas of the solid white material that I used for the base.

Next, I attached the fabric to the wood structure. I used a fabric glue called Fabritac, which works miracles. After they were attached, I made some mild adjustments and had the wings working fine.

I still thought they needed a little depth, so I used some fabric cut in the shape of large feathers and put them on the wings in spots that looked empty. I also used fabritac for this.

Step 6: Lights!

The last step was to add the lights!

I used battery powered LED lights, and attached them with zip ties to the top of the wings. This part was easy!

Step 7: PARTY TIME

The very last step was to go out and Party!

This costume was so much fun to wear and I enjoyed meeting all the new friends that I made on Halloween!

Awesome year, hope everyone had a great Halloween!