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Fairy wings are a beautiful choice for any ethereal costumes or even weddings! The majority of fairy wings are made using cellophane which has a crinkly look, but follow this tutorial to learn how to create smooth and polished wings.

You’ll need a few things to make your wings:

• Color Gel Sheets
• Clear Vinyl Fabric (optional)
• Steel Wire 12 Gauge
• Floral Tape
• Duct Tape
• Spray Adhesive
• Shiny Fabric (optional)
• Elastic (optional)
• X-acto Knife (optional)
• Flowers/Rhinestones/LEDs/ETC (optional)
• Lighter (optional)

Color gels are translucent and colorful plastic sheets that are perfect for fairy wings, yet it’s much thicker and stiffer than cellophane so it won’t get wrinkled and will stay smooth. You can find it at photography and film stores. When buying floral tape and shiny fabric, choose colors that will complement your wings as they will both be visible in the final product.

Your first step will be to sketch the design and shape of your wings. You can have your wires in just about any shape, so be creative and have fun with this!

To ensure that your completed wings are sturdy and don’t flop around while you wear them, you’ll need to make some sort of base. This can be just about any shape as long as it’s big enough to keep your wings from flopping. When deciding on a shape, keep in mind how you want to attach your straps later. I made mine a simple square shape because it’s sturdy and I can easily loop my straps through.

*If you want to make your wings strapless, make two long bars sticking downwards from the frame. They can then be inserted into a corset or some other sturdy garment for support.

Lay the wire against your sketch to make sure the shape and length is right, then leave a few extra inches to attach it to your base. Using duct tape, attach your different wires to the base. Use a lot to make sure everything is really sturdy.

Tear long strips of floral tape and tightly wrap it around the entire wire frame, including the base. It’s self adhesive, easy to apply, and gives the wire a nice finished look.

If you want extra sturdiness consider using a layer of clear vinyl on top of the color gels, however it’s completely optional. Lay your wire frame on top of the color sheets and vinyl and cut out two pieces for each wing. Next, place your frame on top of one piece of the color gels. Spray it thoroughly and then carefully place the other piece on top. Smooth it down between the wires so both sides stick together really well, especially around the edges. Repeat this step with the vinyl fabric outside of the color gels if you want to use it.

Be very careful during this step to make sure everything stays very smooth, because some wrinkles are still possible.

Now it’s time to cut out your final shape! It’s best to use an x-acto knife for precision, but scissors work just fine. You can then use a lighter to slowly burn the edges of your wings. This gives the edges a more natural look, but it’s entirely optional.

After cutting, you may find that the colored sheets may have separated slightly around the edges. You can fix this with a hot glue gun to glue the edges together.

If you want to use straps to wear your wings, now is the time to attach them. Cut a long rectangle of the shiny fabric and sew it together to make a long tube, while leaving the ends open so you can thread your elastic through. To attach, loop the straps through the wire frame, and sew the ends of the elastic together for each of the two straps. Hot glue the ends of the fabric down so it doesn’t move around.

It looks nice to cover up the back part of the base with flowers and other fairy-esque accessories. You can get really creative with this step and even glue on rhinestones and glitter to the wings. After this, you’ve finished a set of beautiful, polished fairy wings!