I am shocked at how many compliments I have gotten on this costume. Thank you so much! As I said, I have been called "craft impaired, craft-tarded, and the anti-crafter." I have complained about my anxiety over walking into the store Michaels. I refuse to make things and would rather buy them.
This Halloween, however, Benny's costume started at $50. Then we saw it was sold out and was going for $200 on ebay. So what does a dad do? He tells his son that "WE" will just make it for him. Yikes. For some reason I doubted that "WE" included more than one person, and I also doubted that one person was him.
Anyway, I figured someone else had also made this costume somewhere in the world, so I googled instructions on how. I came across this blog: http://theclockblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/angry-birds-costume-instructions.html
Some have asked for instructions, so here are my revisions to the above guidelines:
You will need: colored fabric of choice bird (black here), other fabric for inside of costume, thread matching bird, stuffing/batting, grey fabric for bottom of bird, flannel for face.
I used as much stuff as I could find around the house and spent $7!!!
1. First, there is no pattern, so get some butcher paper or tissue paper and trace around the person to get an accurate size. I then tied a string to a pencil to create a circle from the center of Benny's body. I measured the circle and bought fabric accordingly.
2. Fabric is actually kind of expensive I found. You will need at least a yard of colored fabric for the front and one for the back depending on how large the person is. I got away with 2 yards total for Benny and it is large on him. I didn't want to buy the expensive fabric, so even though the blog recommends flannel, I decided a twin bedsheet would probably be good enough. I went to Walmart to spend $5 on one and ran across some flannel throws for $2.88 each and bought two.
3. You also need fabric for the inside of the costume, so I cut up an old white sheet we had lying around the house.
So essentially there are 4 pieces of fabric, 2 black (or red, yellow, whatever bird this is) and then 2 of whatever color for the inside that no one will see. They are all exactly the same pattern/size cut from the butcher paper pattern you drew earlier. The pattern should include the fuse at the top of the head if doing the black bomb bird, or tufts for the red etc.
4. Sew both of the outside/black pieces to the inside/white pieces leaving a small open area at the bottom to be able to stuff it. Now there are 2 pieces, the front and back of the costume.
5. On the front piece, cut arm slats, whatever size you want and wherever you want. Cut a hole for the head but DO NOT make it too big (Benny's is waaay too big). They recommend making it smaller than you think it should be and should use a cereal bowl to trace the head circle. Also make sure not to place it too high. I was worried Benny's would be too low and cover his face, but I made it too high and it doesn't cover enough head to stay on well (this could also be because the hole is huge).
6. For the grey area on the bottom of the black bomb bird, I cut up an old Tshirt. You can also find cheap Thirts at Walmart's craft section ($2.50)or Michaels, or just buy a little fabric. I didn't have dark grey so Benny's is a little on the light side. Sew this onto the bottom portion of the front piece. Save some small scraps for the eyes.
7. Stitch up all rough edges from head hole, arms holes, etc. Sew front of costume to back of costume so now there is one piece, making sure to leave a large opening at the bottom for the wearer's body to enter.
8. I used some red, yellow and white felt pieces and cut eyes, mouth, and eyebrows. You can stitch or glue them on.
9. Stuff the costume with batting and then stitch the openings closed. I used an old pillow and took out half the stuffing for the front and the other half for the back.
10. And that's it! Hopefully this won't take you, Bethany, as long as it took me as I had no idea what I was doing!!!! Good luck
