Project

Bluebird Costume

Everyone loves the cheerful bluebird. This costume captures the complexity and beauty of the bird's plumage with simple creases, stitching, and snipping. Moreover, it slips on and off easily and won't restrict a baby's motion. Dressed for trick-or-treating, your fine feathered baby can stretch his wings.

Photography: Janelle Jones

Source: Martha Stewart

Introduction

Note: This costume is appropriate for babies ages 12 months and older. Because our costumes were assembled from household materials, they do not conform to all of the safety requirements that store-bought costumes do. Therefore, children wearing them should be supervised by an adult at all times. Make sure that the bluebird wings fit properly so that your child won't trip with them. For each template, draw a 1-inch grid on pattern paper, and sketch pattern pieces following our background grid. For this project, you will need wool felt (as opposed to synthetic felt, which is prone to melting under a handheld iron.) This bluebird pairs well with our birdwatcher costume for an adorable "Mommy and Me" family ensemble.

For more ideas, scroll through our entire collection of Halloween costumes for babies, kid costumes, and family costumes.

materials

Bluebird's Wing and Tail templates

White long-sleeve snap-bottom shirt (Pictured: Primary The Long Sleeve Babysuit, $10, primary.com.)

Blue pilot cap (Pictured: Amoureux Bebe Super Soft Turkish 100-Percent Cotton Knit Baby Hat Bonnet, in Blue, $10, amazon.com.)

White tights

Wool felt in 3 shades of blue, 2 pieces each (Pictured: Wool Felt Pieces, in Navy 55, Sky 75, and Periwinkle 58, $9.50, purlsoho.com.)

Fusible interfacing (Pictured: Thermoweb 3338 Heat'n Bond Heavy Weight Iron-On Fusible Interfacing, in White, 20" by 36", $5.66, amazon.com.)

Fabric scissors

Fabric glue (Pictured: Beacon Fabri-Tac Permanent Adhesive, 4 oz., $11.34, amazon.com.)

Velcro

Elastic

Handheld iron

Blue embroidery floss

Embroidery needle

steps

Download and print Bluebird's Wing and Tail templates. For wings, cut two Wing No. 1 pieces from navy felt. Cut a third piece from interfacing that measures one a half inch smaller than the felt pieces. Fuse interfacing to one felt piece; sew 8-inch elastic loop to its other side at X mark. Iron creases in other felt piece at dashed lines. Sandwich interfacing between pieces; glue around edges. Cut slit at shoulder, tuck one edge of slit under other by 2 inches; glue. Cut No. 2 from periwinkle blue and No. 3 and No. 4 from sky blue; crease, and create tucks at slits; glue to No. 1 at shoulder.
Velcro to underside along slit and to shoulder of onesie. Repeat for other wing, reversing orientation.
For tail, cut out periwinkle tail, iron in creases, and glue to onesie.