Angel Wings

Recently, I am designed and created costume pieces for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at John Jay College. Two of my characters wore Angel Wings. I had bought some inexpensive angel wings online, but it was clear that those wings were only going to work for rehearsals. I did not want the wings to be much wider that the ones they had already been using. I tried to find some commercially available wings that were taller, so they would be seen above their bodies, but no luck (at least within our budget). I made a decision to make my own.

I started with making a rough pattern on my actress using poster board. I pinned it on her during the fitting and marked how tall and wide I would like the wing to be.





















I used my rough pattern to draw out a shape that I thought that would work. I made a new paper pattern of the shape.




I decided to use buckram and millinery wire to make the base of the wings. I cut two pieces of the buckram for each wing. I then sewed millinery wire around the entire wing using the widest zig-zag stitch on my machine. This has to be done slowly and carefully. If you are not an accurate stitcher, you will end up breaking a lot of needles.



To add stability, I sewed diagonal pieces of millinery wire across the wing.



Next, I started to sew feathers on. I purchased 15 bags of white turkey feathers from ESKAY Novelties here in New York City. I alternated sewing the feathers on the front and the back of the wings, once again using a zig-zag stitch. I started from the bottom and worked my way up. I just had to be very careful not to hit the millinery wire as I was stitching.







I just kept layering feathers, till I made my way all the way up the wing. The top layers once again laid over millinery wire, so I had to be very careful. I was very happy with the end results. The wings were extremely lightweight. I wish I would have made a few more cross bars, especially at the top of the wings, just to add a bit more in the stability department, but really they worked quite well.



I cannot stress enough to be very careful when dealing with the millinery wire and sewing on a machine. Broken needles can fly off and can cause injury.