My middle son loves birds and their feathers. He really loves feathers. So much so, that when we were at a local amusement park, he barely took any interest in the rides. He was too busy collecting the sea gull feathers on the ground.

He wanted to be a bird for Halloween, with a costume made out of his feather collection. His mother (the costume designer) quickly nixed that idea and turned to the internet for inspiration.

I loved these wings, but he didn’t like that they were made out of fabric.

I had remembered spying these wings on Pinterest, and he agreed because they looked more realistic.

We bought two large bags of mixed feathers from Joann’s and started the very long sorting process.

I started making the wings first. I had intended for it to be a fun family project, but after about ten minutes of very slow progress, it was soon just me and my glue gun.

I wish I would have actually read the tutorial on wing construction, before I began. They had a better way of attaching the elastic.

We had only planned on making wings originally, but since they turned out so beautifully, we kept on going.

I had a length of fleece in my stash that I envisioned using as a sort of tunic. I cut a hole for his head in the middle and started gluing feathers. It took a long, long time. It was a team effort: I did the work and the children entertained the baby and took full advantage of the relaxed screen time rules.

By the time I finished the back, I had no desire to “feather” an entire front – so I cut it off, turning it into a cape.

I was impressed at how easily the hot glued feathers adhered to the fleece. If I had known how well it would work, I might have tried to make an arm band/sleeve to pull on rather than using the cardboard.

I loved the ring of yellow around his neck. It was so cheerful and Big Bird-ish.

After I had finished the back, it looked incomplete without some sort of hat. My son wanted to use two party hats, cut in half to create a working beak. This idea was vetoed, much like his earlier one, when he said he wanted a bird costume that people “could pull feathers out of, and then put back on.”

I folded cardboard into a triangle and started gluing yellow knit fabric around it. I chose this fabric because it was what we had in the right color, but the knit really draped nicely.

We stuck the long feathers into the folds, glued some fluff along the top, and added a piece of elastic to keep it on.

He was thrilled with the costume and all of the color. When I put it on him, he boasted that he would have the most “colorful costume on Halloween – you know, unless we see a rainbow.” Love that kid.