DIY: Weeping Angel Costume

       This Halloween was quite exciting.  As you all know, I am a die hard Doctor Who fan, and am blessed with a family who also love the show.  This year for Halloween, my brother, sister, and I decided we were going to go as different characters from the show.  While I went as the Eleventh Doctor (with a bit of Steam-punk flare), and my brother as the Empty Child, my youngest sister went as a Weeping Angel.
      As excited as I was, I knew I couldn't tackle her costume by myself.  My mom (Yummy Bites by Amy) made her gown out of a gray pillow case and fitted sheet set we got from the store.  It was nothing extravagant- just a regular set that cost less that ten dollars.  The gown isn't sewn together.  It's two pieces: a top and skirt.  She cut the holes for her head and arms, then cleaned it up a bit.  For the skirt, she pinned different sections together in the back and waist before stitching them together.  When she wore it on Halloween, she wore a gray long sleeve shirt underneath.

      I was in charge of the wings.  

      The first thing you will want to do is measure out the size of your torso (from your shoulders to the small of your back) and the width in between your shoulder blades.  Write your measurements down on a piece of paper.  Use your measurements to cut out a base on whatever material you wish to use.  (I used a cardboard tri-fold.)  Sketch out a wing shape on your material.  You can see the shape I used in the picture above.  When you have the shape you desire, cut it out using either a box cutter or exact-o blade.  Caution: Those who haven't used the blade, I wouldn't let a child use it.  It's very sharp like a kitchen blade, and can easily cut someone.  Once I had my initial wing done, I flipped it over, traced it, and cut the other wing out.  

      Hot glue your wings onto your base like you see done in step two.  Afterwards, draw and cut out your feathers.  I made a simple oval shape, leaving the top of the feather straight as you can see.  

      Hot glue your feather shapes onto your blank wing shapes like you see in step four.  After that is done, paint your wings a light gray color.  For all of those who do art, I suggest that you throw technique out of the window for step five.  It will only frustrate and upset you.  Honestly, step five was my favorite part of building the wings, because I got to go crazy and let all frustration out on the board.  I did not paint each wing individually, because that would be painstaking and too time consuming.  I simply stippled, or dabbed viciously, a darker gray paint over my base coat.  When the dark gray dries, stipple another layer of light grey to give it a stone look.  

      My mom added elastic so my sister could wear them around while she trick-or-treated.

      Here are the pictures of my brother (The Empty Child [Are you my mummy?]), my sister (The Weeping Angel who we made this costume for), and myself (a Steampunk version of the Eleventh Doctor.)