DIY Woodland Fairy Costume

If you love Fall and Halloween but not that pesky sewing that usually comes along with making costumes. Sit tight, I have a gorgeous and easy NO-Sew Woodland Fairy Costume for you. You can have this done in under two days!

How to make the Hat

Sometimes we learn best by just diving in when we can’t find anything else that we have the materials already on hand for. I try to not have to buy more craft supplies when I absolutely don’t need to, space being a major issue usually for storing said extras. Trust me when I say if you are a crafter who hoards like me you will have most of the supplies in your cupboards for this easy DIY costume. The hardest part is literally the form. This is a great project that can be made in a day or two (if you have time to let it dry naturally that is 😉 )

You will need:

• scissors
• craft glue/fabric glue
• hot glue
• hot glue gun
• decorations of your choice, see hat for ones I used.
• thin fleece blanket or fabric (I used a 6.00 Walmart fleece throw for this)
• natural found objects such as the acorns I used.
• mod podge (thinned out with water 1/3 water to 2/3 mod podge) (see DIY recipes here )
• spray bottle
• saran wrap
• packing tape
• tin foil
• cardboard
• large bowl

Hot glue may become necessary at the seams, especially if you are an impatient crafter like me…I used fabric glue but it wasn’t drying so I ended up using the hot glue on all my seams, so I would just start with the hot glue and save yourself this heartache of using glues that don’t dry quickly. I also used it to adhere decorations to the hat.

Steps:

• Wrap the cardboard around the bowl you will be using for your base for your head size and tape the cardboard onto the bowl…you may need help with this step as it can be difficult to keep in place until you get it on the bowl.

• Continue wrapping the cardboard with the tape going from all the way up to the tip of your hat. Cutting the cardboard extra off until you get the shape you desire, cutting long lines into the cardboard to bend it over itself, and twisting it as you go upwards to help with the shape.
• After it is taped all up, apply the saran wrap in the same way as you did for the tape you will need another person to help with this step as well.

• Once saran wrap is on you can then wrap your entire form in the tin foil, making sure to follow the form all the way to the tip and making sure to leave enough so that when left inside the tip of the hat you can bend it to your desired shape.

• Now you are ready to begin putting the fabric on. Make sure you have your mod podge mixture 1/3 water to 2/3 mod podge and add together into a spray bottle.

• Spray your entire form well and as even as possible with the mod podge and water mixture.

• Begin at one side of your form and lay on the fabric and smooth it outward around the form and upward as you go working your way around to the back where your seam will be. You can either pre-cut the fabric or wait like I do to ensure I have enough for complete coverage and cut it away as you go.

• Once you are at the back you can lay your fabric over each other and determine how much you want to cut off… leave no less than one inch so they can lay one on the top of the other without gaps.

• continue this process to the tip, cutting off any excess fabric.

• spray entire project with the mod podge mixture again and smooth out over the entire form.
• You can then use a clear line or choose to use twine or rope or even yarn could work for this. (This is primarily to help it hold to the form for drying).
• You will continue to add more mod podge over the top of the fabric, gently smoothing it into the material as you go. This will generally take 3-4 layers of spray to achieve the stiffness of the fabric you need to keep its shape.

• You can add additional glue at the seam to help it hold better as I did (shown here) with school glue or you can use hot glue. I also used colorful twine to hold the hat in place while it dried and ended up liking the effect so left it on.

• I used my hairdryer to help the mod podge dry quicker between layers but be careful doing this as it can scorch your fabric if you get it too hot or too close. And I picked up the edge and pulled it gently upward so that it forms the brim as I dried it, all around the brim.

• Once you’ve determined it is dry enough and won’t fall apart you can gently peel the hat from the form working your hands under and between the bowl/form and the fabric until it comes off. When you get to the tip area you will cut off the remainder tin and cardboard that forms the tip of the hat and leave it inside.
• As it is already inside out now is a good time to check the seams inside and add a piece of fabric over the cardboard and tinfoil piece you cut from the form and that makes the tip of the hat that is exposed inside of it. Hot glue is perfect for this. Also will help fill any gaps and keep the tip in place when you want to shape it.

• I trimmed the edge of the brim to my desired shape.
• Now you are ready to decorate! Hot glue at the ready!
• I then used feather and grass fall floral pics like some of my other projects you will see on the site elsewhere.

How to make the Woodland Fairy Costume Capelet

This is a super simple no-sew capelet. I generally use nonfraying fleece fabric for it’s ease of use but ended up finding this lovely green fabric instead.

You will need:

• Non fraying fabric, fleece works great for this
• fabric scissors
• fabric glue
• measuring tape
• decorations if you choose to do so

I love this pattern I created years ago, it is simple and to the point and yet can be fun or elegant. I’ve given these as gifts in the past when I’ve embellished them to much delight. Hope you love how easy this is to make too!

Steps:

1. lay out your material, doubled over and measure to 36″ x 36″ and cut into a square with one side still folded, do not cut this folded over edge.

3. once you have your square cut out you will double the fabric over once more into a rectangle and cut out a hole at the corner where the fabric has no cut edge (see pic) and meets together. Do not cut too big of a hole, this is the head/neck hole and can be made larger later if necessary.

4. once the hole for the neck is cut ensure edges are lined up still, keeping it in the rectangle.

5. then begin cutting the fabric at an angle as shown.

6. Once cut just open up the fabric and lay it out, it should look like this. Don’t worry if the edges aren’t perfect. You can trim them or and wear as is or embellish the edges with glue and fringe as well as the neck with beads or decorations too. I decided to leave mine plain. But I have taken the added step of touching the fabric edge lightly with glue to ensure it doesn’t fray.

The end result. You can wear a long sleeved shirt and leggings with your choice of other decorations/accoutrements…i.e. wand, broom, elf ears, etc…fairy wings would look cute too…

Hope you had fun and this was an easy and quick costume for you to make. This same process I used for this hat can be used to do other hats as well…I used the same form for the Witch’s hat from the costume you will see posted here as well. Onto the next project!