Angry Birds are go! Part 4- The finale

In our final instalment of the adventures in Angry Bird costume making (or 'Avian Fury' as we have dubbed it) we come to the end of what has been a really fun and sometimes hilarious sewing project.

If you'd like to skip to the part where you learn how to make your own costume, I've written a tutorial which can be found here

Anyway, those darling cross eyed birds really get into your heart, and have even been found flapping around in my dreams. Last night I woke up with a fright because I thought my curtains were the big black Angry Bird looming over the bed. Scary!

We left off last time after I had finished the red bird costume and given it to the boys to test out. We went to a nearby park so the boys could run around and see just how hot it is to wear a pillow in the middle of the day.

Here's a little montage of those pics, taken as usual by Mr Elegantpaws.

handmade red angry bird costume






After much fun and laughing at Seb running around like a crazy person, I went away and bought the rest of the fabric, 5 bags of polyfill, some felt and some vliesofix to attach the face pieces to the body.

I got to work on the yellow bird and black bird, cutting fabric, stitching on the bellies, making the front pillow form piece and the back piece. Our cats Claude and Madeleine decided to chip in by sitting on the pattern pieces as I tried to position them correctly, or helpfully rolling around on the fabric covering it in fur.
I got there in the end, with only a few mistakes and one near disaster which I managed to recover from.

Here are some photos to give you an idea of the process.
the patterns

Madeleine enjoying the yellow bird

pinning the lining to the main fabric

cutting out the fabric using a rotary wheel

Madeleine being cute

nom nom nom I love rope

We all decided it would be good for the boys to come over for a little 'working bee' to help finish off the costumes. This way they could get creative and  contribute to the end result making wearing them all the more special.

To prepare for the working bee, I traced all the face pieces onto the Vliesofix so all they needed to do was cut them out, fuse them onto felt, cut them out again and fuse the face pieces onto the body of the costume.

Here are some pics of Josh and Seb working it and the cats continuing to enjoy the costumes. They love fabric!
Josh gets cozy with the iron


attaching the face

Seb irons on his face while the other birds chill out

Madeleine and the yellow bird face off

Claude emerges from the red bird's arm...

The final stages involved stuffing the remaining birds (then pulling some of the stuffing out as it was too tightly packed and VERY heavy) and stiching up the gap in the seams. Done!

Here are some photos of me having fun in my creations. I am really happy with how they turned out.


D day: Playground Weekender Costume Night

All reports from the festival suggest a fun time was had by all. The boys managed to get me a few snaps and I was happy to hear the reaction from other festival goers was enthusiastic! The costumes did turn out to be really hot (given that it was 30 degrees all weekend i'm not surprised!) but they held up well and the boys enjoyed their time as crazy, squawking crossed eyed Angry Birds.Win!

Here are some pics from the festival:






I like the one where they're kicking back with Fred Flintstone. 

So, boys and girls, we have come to the end of our adventures in Angry Bird costume making. It was fun seeing it all come together slowly and I definitely learned a thing or two about sewing. 
I hope you enjoyed the story and feel inspired to make your own one day!

Let me know what you think of the end results!!






As seen on CraftGossip.com

17 comments:

  1. They look fantastic! Great work. You are definitely NOT a novice sewer like you mentioned. Great work!

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  2. Black bird here: the costumes were amazing and double as a rather comfortable pillow for your tired festivalgoer :)
    So many amazing comments as we walked around the festival.

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  3. Awesome costumes and awesome story to the making of the Angry Birds costume

    Love it :)

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  4. So so so awesome!! Thanks for sharing. I just stumbled this, it's so great! I want to wear one and crash into a tower of foam blocks!!

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  5. Thank you all for your lovely comments!

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  6. I love these costumes. You can reuse them as a kitty bed afterwards!

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  7. These are so awesome! I'm so glad you showed them to me, thanks!

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  8. Hi, how did you get the perfect giant circle?

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  9. Hi, awesome job! I have a site which sells the official Rovio costumes but I have to say these are just as good! Looks like you guys had fun too

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  10. Thanks jay! I'm sure the quality isn't as good as the official ones, haha.
    My friend made the perfect giant circle using a pencil tied to a piece of string then using it like a compass. Clever.

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  11. Saw this link from Tip Junkie -great job!

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  12. These are fabulous. My son wants to be the black one for Halloween. Can you post more details about how you made them? Material, pattern design, etc?

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  13. There are some instructions on the clock blog here: http://theclockblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/angry-birds-costume-instructions.html

    I'll have a go at posting some instructions too. Stay tuned!

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  14. I'm sure you've been asked a thousand times; I hope you will indulge me; how did you or did you sew the arm & neck holes (right sides together) then turn right side out? Or just sewed them from the top (right side)? my e-mail yaya41@peoplepc.com Great design. I'm stuck here on the red bird. Signed - Gloria

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  15. Hi Gloria. The holes were the biggest challenge and a friend had to explain it to me. It really depends on how you've made it- Mine was basically a pillow form for the front where you put your hands and face and a back piece that draped over the back of the head and down your back like a sheet. The pillow form front had an outer piece and lining so you could stuff it.
    I cut the holes for the face and arms in both pieces first and stitched them together by creating folds from the cut fabric and top stitching with pieces right side out. It was a little messy but worked ok. Then I stitched around the perimeter of the outside pieces (right sides out) leaving a gap to stuff it with polyfill. Then you put the back piece right side together with the front pieces and stich around the top, leaving the bottom free to put it on. You can then turn it to hide your stitches.
    Hope that makes sense, sorry if it doesn't! I'll try to do a tute with some pics soon. x

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  16. love it! We will be a whole angry family if I can figure this out!

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