How to Make Butterfly Wings Out of a Pair of Tights

Purchasing butterfly wings for a costume at a store can be expensive. Instead of spending extra money, make the wings yourself out of a pair of tights or pantyhose. These wings are easy to make, and you can add extra touches to personalize them to your own style.

Things You'll Need

• Woman's tights size large
• Basic sewing supplies
• Glitter glue
• Fabric paint
• Two white coat hangers
• Silk artificial flowers

Instructions

1. Select two wire coat hangers, preferably with a white coating, and shape them into a butterfly wing shape. Be careful not to distort the hanger too much because you don’t want the joints at the top of the hanger to come apart.

2. Spread out the tights or panty hose flat and see if they have any reinforced areas. If they do, cut around those areas and use the part that is light and wispy. Once the reinforced areas are cut off, cut the hose open flat so you can pin the flat fabric onto the hanger frame. Be sure to have very sharp scissors for this because you don't want them to skip or your edges will be jagged and a run might start within the hose. Lay the fabric flat and pin around the edges of the hanger.

3. Sew around the inside of the edge of the hanger to secure the hosiery to the actual frame of the hanger.

4. Trim off the excess fabric and decorate the wings. Decorate with fabric paint as desired. To make the swirls and circles it is much easier to have the wing lying flat so that you get the proper viewpoint of the proportion of the shapes.

5. Join the wings together after the wings dry. Interlock the loops of the hangers, wrap both of them with batting and cover them with felt. Gather the ends by sewing them and attach the two loops of elastic to that area. Decorate the front middle section of the wings by hot gluing silk flowers to the middle section.

Tips & Warnings

• To make fairy wings, simply change the shape of the hangers.