These are fairy wings I made for my carnival costume of a moon fairy, I chose to decorate them as a butterfly kind of style but you can choose anything you want. Great for a costume but I just love wearing mine anyway, you could make butterfly wings, fairy wings you can even try dragon/bat wings in the same way. Go ahead.

Step 1: Frame

I think this is obvious: bend some wire into the shape of the wings you're imagining. Thicker wire is better, wire coat hangers are ok as long as you have pliers, and if your wire is thin like mine and you're not sure whether it will hold its shape if you walk into things ect., then feel free to use it doubled over as i did.

A way to make then symmetrical would be to draw the design on paper and bend the wire tracing the pattern, especially if you have thick wire, but i didn't bother and i was pleased with how they turned out.

Fold in any sharp edges so they're not sticking out the middle where the wings will be attached to your back, but don't worry too much if they're short because the fabric will cover them.

Step 2: Fabric

Get an old pair of opaque tights and stretch them over the frames. It doesn't matter how thin they are but you should try to not use ones with holes in.

**you might need 2 pairs if your wings are bigger**

As my wings are quite small (a good idea if you're planning to walk through doorways) i only used one pair, i started by cutting them in half along the seam at the top and kind of manoeuvred them to fit my frame. Theres no exact way to do it as it would depend on the tights and the shape of the wings, so just use your best judgement.

Tie them off with a big knot at the middle of the wings.

Step 3: Decorating

You can do this however you want. The shop ones normally have some kind of swirl pattern on with glitter, so you could do something like that, another idea which my friend did with her ones was gluing sequins on in a pattern, but you can literally do anything here.

For mine, i took it outside and lightly sprayed them silver to have a bit of sparkle on, then when they were dry (the next day) i painted the designs on with acrylic paint. I chose to just do the outline but it doesn't matter it just depends how much time you want to spend on it really.

Step 4: Attaching

Now they're nearly finished, you will obviously be excited to wear them!

Start by strapping them together with strong gardening wire which is fairly flexible but will hold them together well.

Then tie the ends of the tights from each side in a knot to secure it.

Cut a piece of felt like the shape shown in the picture, with the middle bit being the size of the middle of your wings and then going out into a thin strip either side. Tie it on and trim the tights.

Now all you need to do it attach the elastic! It doesn't matter what kind of elastic you use your loop it around the middle, hide it under the felt and your done! Now go out and be a fairy!

(I strapped mine on with wire first of all but now i've put elastic on and they're much better so i wouldn't recommend trying anything else except maybe ribbon)

Thanks for reading :D