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[malytwotails.livejournal.com]

People asked me how I did these wings, so I get to share.

	Wings and tail The wings and the tail, together. Not such a great shot to show off the levels of feathers on the wings. Oh well.
	Poison's wings Wings made of felt, lightly stuffed, and held up with a simple bone structure of bailing wire that I learned at Sakura Con 04. They safety pin on to my bra strap, so they're essentially strapless.

Supplies: 1 yard of 60" felt per wing (feathery and dragon wings use the same amount)
bailing wire (found at a hardware store, near the rebar)
wire cutters
cardboard
hot glue gun (high temp, preferably)
needle and thread
sewing machine
poly fill stuffing
butcher paper
marker
sewing pins (I like quilting pins because they're pretty)
scissors

Step 1: Draw out one wing on the butcher paper with the marker, making sure to not make it any larger than you have the felt for. Once you're pleased with your shape, cut the whole thing out.

Step 2: Pin down your pattern on the wings. You can pin your pattern down on all four layers of felt at once if you have good scissors, and if you're careful, you can only have to cut once to get four matching pieces. This technique works for dragon wings, or feathery wings that are entirely one color.
If you're doing feathery wings with a different colored 'leading edge,' like mine, I first cut the pattern into two pieces (leading edge, and primaries). I cut the leading edge out first, only cutting 2 of the actual shape, and the other 2 in a paddle-like shape (see below). Because the pattern left little jagged w shapes where the leading edge feathers met the primaries, I smoothed out my cut and allowed about 2" extra for the seam (also see below). I also didn't cut out the individual feathers yet, because it would be much easier when the wings were farther along.


Step 3: Seperate your wings (each wing should now have 2 layers). The first thing you're going to sew is the leading edge of your wing. For those of you wing-impaired, the leading edge is the top edge of the wing, the "arm joint" area. Pin those together, and sew with a 1cm to 1in seam allowance, whatever you're comfortable with. Just sew from a to b to c. If you're doing feathery wings with two colors, and you have unmatched leading edges, still do this step.

Step 4: Flip the sewn part inside out, and you'll go two ways now.
If you're doing a set of all one color wings, it's easy. For dragon wings, pin your two pieces of fabric together, and using your sewing machine, draw the lines of the 'bones'. On the drawing, it's just the orange area.


If you're doing feathery wings, it's more complicated. If your feathery wings are all one color, do just like the dragon ones, and only draw the completion of the "leading edge," shown below in orange.
If you're doing feathery wings with two colors, sandwich the primaries inside the leading edge area, and pin it down. Following the side of the leading edge fabric that has the feathers already cut, sew with a 1cm or less seam allowance. It should be drawing little wing feather shapes on the weird paddle shaped leading edge piece. This will make sense a little later. In the picture below, the paddle shaped leading edge piece is shown in light blue, and it's supposed to be behind all of the other pieces. See, it's a special effect!


Step 5: Your wings should start looking like wings now! It's time to give them bones. Pull out about 5 feet of bailing wire for feathery wings, 7 feet for dragon wings, fold it over on itself, and twist it to be a long spindly double-thick wire. It doesn't have to be twisted tight, just enough that it'll stay together. Put the wire on top of your wing, and bend it where the 'elbow' is. Slide it inside, and using a few stitches, tack it down. When I did mine, I inserted the wire bent-side first, so I could use that small loop as an anchor, which I sewed through where it met the end. On the picture below, the tack down areas are in green.


Step 6: Stuffing! On feathery wings, stuff them lightly and loosely. I tried stuffing mine to capacity, and they looked swollen and weird! On dragon wings, stuff them as much as you can, filling all of the 'bone' areas with lots and lots of stuffing, but be careful not to injure the felt! You can sew the open part shut now, so you're not leaking stuffing everywhere.

Step 7: For dragon wings, you now will cut out 1 layer of felt from the sails of the wings. I would reccomend laying your wings down how they'll be worn on your back (right and left), and cutting the top layer of felt out, so you have a balanced pair. It should be that you've got two layers of felt for the bones, and then one layer of felt for the sails. You can cut pretty close to the seams, within 1/4" or so.
For feathery wings with one color, pin down the pattern for your primaries, and cut them out of that huge paddle shaped monstrosity you've been working with all of this time. If you're pleased with having two layers of the same length of feathers, then you're done. If you want a second layer of shorter feathers, simply cut some big 'u' shapes about halfway up on one layer of your primaries. If you look at the picture below, you'll see how I did mine. If you're doing the second layer of shorter feathers, make sure to do them on opposite sides of the wings, so you'll have a right and a left wing. Lay them down how they'll be worn, and cut that way.
For feathery wings with two colors, you can finally get rid of that ugly paddle shape on your leading edge! Following the seam that you made earlier, trim away all of the excess felt on both sides of the leading edge, leaving 1/4" of felt before the seam. By the end of this, you should have a finished looking leading edge. Also, you can get rid of the ugly paddle shape for your primaries now! Follow the directions for one-color wings for this step.


Step 8: Attaching them to the brace-thing. As noted in the above picture, it will involve some brown squiggly things and some orange shapes. Cut a large triangley shape out of the cardboard that you gathered earlier, and punch two holes in it, about 7" apart, right in the center. On the picture, they're the black dots. Now, take your wings, and twist their wires together to be four wires. Push those wires down through the top hole, back out the bottom hole, and fold up the remaining bit against the brace. If there is any additional wire that extends beyond the top hole, snip it off with wire cutters.
Fold the wings flat (at this point we'll assume you're working on the floor, because these things are so large), and glue a long rectangle of cardboard along the length of the top part of the wire. Look in the diagram to see how the wire should look. Next, cut another smaller triangley shaped piece,and glue that down on top of the folded wire. Cut another triangle, and do this on the back of the brace for the other wire too.


Your wings are pretty much done at this point, although the brace is remarkably ugly. For Poison, I covered the back with some leftover dark purple felt, and then the front with some of the fur I'm using on the suit. I've also seen these covered with simple black felt on both sides, which is a pretty plain and easilly hideable thing to do.
The wings are pretty much compeltely posable, and for walking down halls at conventions, it works out pretty well if you fold them straight back. They'll stand off of your back a couple of feet, but you'll be able to mostly avoid smacking people with them if you're walking straight ahead. For photos, they can be bent out to the shape you want, and then posed back to the walking postition again.

To wear your wings, use a large safety pin, and pin them on under your shirt to your bra strap, right behind the shoulders. Usually this takes a helper, because I stabbed myself a bunch trying to do it alone. Just jab the pin through the top corners of the brace. It should go pin - bra - shirt - brace - shirt - bra - clip.
If you're a guy and wanting to do this, I guess you have to go out and buy a sports bra. They're pretty comfortable, honestly. :)

I learned this technique at SakuraCon 04, in a wing panel run by some very sweet ladies whose names I can't remember. I suppose since this was a free technique handed down to me, that I now hand down to you, it probably isn't a good idea to make money off of it.

Questions should be directed at yourself, because that's as much information as I'm giving you.