craftgrrl | The Phoenix Halloween Costume (Reply)

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	phoenix halloween costume The initial sketch made a couple months before. The end result was based off a faerie pattern I bought and looks very dissimilar to my original sketches, which was based off of a Cleopatra- style dress.
	First task completed: the tail feather train piece.
	Back on the tail feathers. Made from sari fabric, basically half a skirt.
	Bird embroidery details of the tale feather train.
	phoenix necklace Swarovski and sterling silver necklace I made for my Phoenix Halloween costume. Still needs the clasps finished.
	Detail of the dress showing the embroidered edge.
	More details of the dress.
	This detail shows how I hand cut flames into the over dress (the orange sari dress was made separately from the over tulle and feathers flame dress.)
	The first version of the wings made form a cardboard base. They were to initially have fiber optics running through them, but we discovered the light was barely visible.
	The tulle over dress now had rainbow "feathers"
	And feathers on the shoulders.
	The second stage of the wings. Using a scrap piece of acrylic, a friend of mine sketched out the basic from of my card board. Then he cut it out by hand with a ban saw. Next we decided on the angle of the wings (between 90 and 45) and he heated up the two areas to be bent by laying it on a giant heating strip. He used a little angle tool to make sure the angle was right, and once the wings cooled he drilled holes in the back part and sent me home with it to try to figure out a harness system. The wings weigh about 3 lbs. Click for bigger: :773 x 800, 490 kB
	Then we decided we'd rather the edges were flame tipped. So he cut out a new pair, doing all the flame cuts by hand with a ban saw. We "frosted" it via sandpaper. Holes were drilled in to secure the straps and LEDs. Then, using an epoxy that actually changing the molecular structure of the acrylic, he embedded the LEDs into the wings by melting off the lenses. Lens and wing became one.
	Here's a shot of the battery pack we bought from Skycraft. They only carried 8 packs, which was 15 volts. We needed 12 volts so he rigged the battery pack to jump the connection allowing us to only put in the needed 12 (15 volts would run the risk of burning out the LEDs.) Then he kind of melted part of the battery pack.
	We got a new battery pack. I cut flame shaped black card board and glued them on either side of the wings over the LEDs to avoid the hot spots you see in the previous photos. Then I used a hot glue gun to glue the feathers on.
	This shows the back where you can see the pad I made from scarps of orange sari fabric. The pad not only acts as a comfort, but it is wedge shaped, forcing the wings to stay up. Lastly, it gives/takes a little slack so that the wings fit tightly. Later my friend cut from black acrylic a box to house the battery pack in and organized the wires nicely. He then decided it needed an on/off switch and made that, complete with little sticker that said "ON" and "OFF". The whole thing was covered in the orange, yellow, and red feathers.