Butterfly Wings Tutorial

 

 

 

 

 

For Lu's bug birthday party, she wanted to be able to "fly" around the park with her friends.  She was very specific as to what her wings should be like.   They should be flow-y, not stiff.  And colorful, like a real butterfly.

 

This is the solution we came up with, inspired a bit by these more-complicated but commercially available parrot wings.  Our version isn't quiet as pretty, but they were easy to make and affordable too.  We bought some sheer fabric in the silk section of JoAnn's Fabrics, some safety pins, and hair elastic bands.  I did sew one quick stitch along the sides of the fabric, but you could easily make a no sew version.  After finding a good deal on fabric, I was able to make mine for about $2 each.

 

Keep reading for the complete tutorial.

Measure your child's arm span and add a few inches.  I made mine about 42 inches long.  If you'd like them to sit at the wrist and have a bit more slack, then just make the fabric longer.

The fabric on the bolt is usually folded in half.  If you buy your child's "wing-span," this will be enough to make TWO butterfly wings (You will cut your fabric along the fold on the bolt). 
 

Cut your fabric along the fold so that you have two fabric pieces that are the width of your child's wingspan (in my case, about 42 inches in length).

I sewed a straight stitch along the side of the fabric just to minimize the unraveling.  Alternatively you could use a no-fray product.

 

I tied each corner to the elastic hair tie using a simple knot to attach the fabric. When finished it looked like this:

I then just scrunched up all of the fabric in the center of the fabric piece and attached it to my daughter's back using a safety pin. 

 

If you'd rather not gather them up with a safety pin, you can also tie a knot and then attach the safety pin to that.  This will make the wings a bit shorter though.

 

 

Tada!  Finished.  Super Easy, huh?  Happy flying!