How to Make Easy Duck Costume

eHow may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.

Things You'll Need

  • Your Child’s Shoes That Will Be Worn at the Event

  • Orange and Yellow Felt (about 2 ft of each color)

  • Scissors

  • Black Sharpie or Other Permanent Marker

  • Double Sided Tape

  • Yellow or White Baseball Cap

  • Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

  • 2 Wiggle Eyes (should be 1.5 or 2 inches in diameter each) or 2 White Pompoms

  • Yellow, Orange, or Red Pajama Bottoms or Leggings

  • Yellow, Orange, or Red Pajama Top or Long Sleeved Shirt

  • Old Feather Pillow or Feather Boa

When it comes to dressing up your child for a pageant, school play or Halloween, a homemade duck costume is quite possibly the cheapest and easiest way to go! The odds are good that you already have a lot of the items you need in your home and your child's dress up box, and with just a few simple tools and a little know-how, you can quickly and cheaply make a great looking easy duck costume that is durable, cute, and will be the talk of the party. Best of all: no sewing required!

Advertisement

Image Credit: FatCamera/E+/GettyImages

Making the Feet

Trace the Shoes

Take the shoes your child will be wearing and place them on top of the orange felt. Trace around the shoes leaving 1.5 inches extra all the way around.

Advertisement

Video of the Day

Cut Out the Feet

Cut out the traced feet, but instead of exactly following the rounded front, go ahead and cut three peaks to mimic webbed duck feet

Trace Your Child's Shoe

Place the duck feet over your child's shoes and mark on it with a sharpie where the child's foot will go into the shoe.

Advertisement

Fold the Duck Foot

Fold the duck foot in half and with the sharpie mark being the center, make a narrow cross cut. This provides an opening big enough to allow your child's foot to pass through.

Advertisement

Secure the Feet

As your child dresses, you will secure the duck feet to the top of the shoes with the help of double sided tape.

Making the Head for Your Duck Costume

Trace the Duck Bill

Image Credit: FatCamera/E+/GettyImages

Take the baseball cap and use the sharpie pen to trace a duck bill shape onto the brim. Usually this means simply either slightly narrowing the brim or—if it is overly pointed—trimming it back a little.

Advertisement

Cut and Glue the Felt

Use some of the leftover orange felt and cut it to fit the new shape of the brim. Hot-glue the orange felt to the top and the bottom of the brim.

Advertisement

Snip Away the Excess

After the glue has dried, gently cut off any excess felt that might stick out over the brim's edge.

Advertisement

Draw the Nostrils

Locate the middle of the newly fashioned duck's bill and with the sharpie draw two dark circles (one next to the other) onto the orange felt glued to the top of the brim. The best location is the spot where the felted brim meets the cap portion. These are nostrils for your homemade duck costume.

Advertisement

Glue on the Wiggle Eyes

Take the wiggle eyes or pompons and glue them to the cap above the brim, spaced equally to the left and right of the nostrils. If you choose pompoms, use the sharpie to draw a dark pupil onto the front of each pompom after gluing it onto the cap.

Advertisement

Making the Body for the Duck Costume

Make Spots for Feather Locations

Dress your child in the pajama bottoms or leggings she is going to wear. With the sharpie mark the spots where you want to glue some feathers.

Let your child put on the pajama top or long sleeved shirt that will be worn with the costume. Once again use the sharpie to mark the perfect spots for some feathers.

Mark for the Wrists

Also mark on the sleeves the general area where the top of the wrist will be located.

Prepare the Feathers

Remove the feathers from the pillow or cut them from the feather boa.

Advertisement

Apply Feathers to Your Homemade Duck Costume

Image Credit: FatCamera/E+/GettyImages

With the hot glue gun, place glue on the spots you marked on the outfit and then apply the feathers to them.

Making the Wings and Tail for the Duck Costume

Trace the Hands

Place your child's hands with the fingers spread wide on the yellow felt and gently trace around them with your sharpie, adding an additional 1 to 2 inches around the shapes.

Cut Out the Handprints

Cut out the handprints with your scissors, taking care to cutting the fingers of the shape in sharp edges rather than rounded. They will look like five feathers on your homemade duck costume.

Securing the Wings

Once your child is wearing the costume, you will affix the wings with double sided tape to the spot you marked earlier in the wrist area.

Advertisement

references

Report an Issue

screenshot of the current page

Screenshot loading...