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DIY Mother Goose Headdress

Wanting to make a fabulous costume / outfit to go roller-skating in, I decided to make this Mother Goose headdress inspired by the beautiful pieces from Animalesque. This will also make a great Halloween costume since there is nothing scarier than a cobra chicken. Here's how i did it:


Supplies:

Not pictured: 

  • paper and pen to sketch out your pattern
  • permanent marker
  • iron
  • tape, dustpan for picking up all the tiny stray feather bits
  • black felt (optional)
Pictured:
  • thin cotton fabric
  • felt
  • fusible webbing
  • fabric for the backside/ inside of the headdress
  • fancy buttons for eyes
  • needle/ thread
  • black and white acrylic paint and paint brush
  • scissors
  • ribbon
If you want to add feathers
  • black and white feathers
  • small amount of black felt
  • glue gun and glue gun glue






1) Draw out your pattern. Note that my pattern is roughly one foot in length






2) Trace the pattern on to your cotton - remember you will need to reverse the image as well so you will have both sides of the headdress. If you are having a hard time tracing your pattern, try and tape the pattern to a window (the brighter the day the better) and using a little more tape, pin up your cotton overtop. The image should be easier to trace now.






3) Paint your cotton fabric and allow to dry






4) Flip over your cotton to the wrong side. Cut felt and fusible webbing just smaller than your goose head. Sandwich the fusible webbing between the wrong side of the cotton and the felt, iron in place.





5) Cut out the goose head, leaving around 1" seam allowance. Sew the eye button on.






6) With the wrong sides out, pin the goose head to the backing fabric. Do a running stitch all around the goose head (i left about .5cm seam allowance between my stitches and the acrylic paint on the cotton). Be sure and leave a rather large opening at the back as shown below.






7) Turn inside out and iron flat. If you do not want to add feathers, jump to stage 11 of this walkthrough.





8) If adding feathers: open up your black feather pack and sort the feathers in to groups like: short, short and super fuzzy, large, large fuzzy and the weird ones. Set aside the really fizzy ones (we use the really fuzzy ones as "finishing" feathers). Fair warning: it's about to get messy, little feather bits go everywhere!






9) To start filling in the headdress with feathers, starting with the weird ones (every pack has them), cut the feathers down to about 2" in length. Once you have a few cut down, attach then to the headdress but spreading a strip of hot glue around 2cm in length and press the calamus/ ranchis (the hollow cent shaft of the feather) into the glue. I did this in rows, but there's no "right way to do this. Just be mindful, keep you work area as clean as possible (trust me, it gets away on you) and make sure to apply a clean contact between the painted canvas and each feathers' center shaft (i used scissors and combs to "hold back" the previously attached feathers' vanes/ barbs (the fuzzy/ feathery part of the feather)





10) Continue with each row of feathers, including switching over to the white feathers where needed. Its hard to see in the photos, but I added some "V" shaped felt pieces to cover up the feather shafts at the base of the beak. Not necessary but I thought it looked cleaner.







11) Reversing the pattern from step one, follow steps 2- 10







12) Using a blanket stich, sew the tops of the beaks. Place on your head to determine where to place the ribbon tiebacks. I used the glue gun to add the ribbon, sandwiched between the felt and the backing fabric "inside" each side. Once your ribbons are in place, close the back of the pieces with glue


























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