No-Sew Angry Birds Costume

For those of you living under a rock Halloween is coming up in a few weeks. I normally buy the kids' costumes at yard sales. With the move, I was a little distracted. Now I'm at the mercy of whatever their little brains come up with. Natalie is undecided. Ainsley wants to be a bat (for the love?). Ryan... Ryan doesn't know what he wants to be. He's two-and-a-half. But he knows what he likes. It looks like this:

I looked an Angry Bird costume up on the internet. It was big and bulky. And not really that cute. So I decided to make a dumb-down version of my own. Here's what you need...

Stitch-Witchery; sharp scissors; a red t-shirt; black, white, and yellow felt; an iron, a permanent marker, round things to trace, a scrap piece of material, and safety pins.

Start with a t-shirt larger than your child.

Measure a panel of scrap material and iron it onto the interior front of the t-shirt with stitch-witchery leaving the top open to make a pocket.

Cut your face parts from the felt. I traced the bottom of Henry's contact lens solution for the eyes, you can use a small glass if you need to. For the eyebrows I cut a rectangle, folded it over and cut angles from it until it resembled angry eyebrows. I was afraid the eyes were too Simpson-esque, but I kept the faith.

For the bird breast, I used a plate to guide my curve. I did not trace the circle. I made my arch wide enough to cut on the inside of my line in case it bled through.

Here's where it got a little tricky. The felt is too thick for the iron to heat through to melt the stitch-witchery. So I had to line up the pieces one-by-one with stitch-witchery and flip the shirt inside out to iron them on. I layered from the bottom up. If you have a better idea, go with your gut.

Or your butt..... okay, kidding. Here are the tail feathers. The kids thought they were hilarious. Even Ryan.

Then I tried several different things to stuff the front pocket of the shirt with. You forgot about the front pocket, didn't you?

I found a small stuffed animal the size of a ladies size 8 shoe. I guess I could've measured it, but I'm a busy mom of three young children so I had to think on my feet.

I folded him up into a circle and stuffed him in the shirt. Ryan laughed and thought I was tickling him.

I told him to hold still with his hands at his side for a picture. He thought I said "hands to the sky."

He finally got the idea and I decided I didn't like the poof.

It's much better without the dog, but with the pocket which flares the shirt out a little. Now to work on being angry.