Make a Duck Costume

If you need a quick, easy costume for trick-or-treating, a party, or a play, consider making a duck costume. You'll need to pull out your crafting supplies when making the bill, feet, and body, but the steps are still fairly simple.

Steps

Part One: Make the Duck Cap

1. Get a yellow or white baseball cap. Use a white cap if you want to make an adult duck costume and a yellow cap if you want to make a duckling costume.
2. Trace the shape of the visor onto orange felt. Lay the visor of the cap flat on top of a piece of orange craft felt. Draw around the visor, leaving a 1 inch (2.5 cm) margin between the edge of the visor and the pencil mark.
   • Repeat this step once so that you have two visor-shaped pieces of orange felt.
   • Note that the visor and the pieces of felt will be used to make the beak of the duck costume.
3. Glue the felt onto the visor. Cut out both beak pieces of orange felt. Use a glue stick or hot glue gun to adhere the felt to the visor of the cap. One piece should go on top, and the other piece should go on the bottom.
   • The overlap should slightly hang over the front of the visor. If desired, glue the excess felt overlap of the bottom and top pieces together after securing them onto the visor itself.
4. Cut out and attach two felt circles for nostrils. Use black felt. Each circle should be 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) in diameter.
   • Position the two circles at the center top of the beak. They should be placed near the crown portion of the cap, but still on the beak or visor portion.
   • The circles should be placed about 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) to 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart from one another, with the middle point between the two circles being the center top of the beak.
5. Glue two white pom-poms to the front of the cap. Place each pom-pom on the crown portion of the cap. Each one should be about 1 inch (2.5 cm) to the outer side of either nostril and 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) up and away from the visor.
6. Cut out and attach two more felt circles for pupils. Cut out two more 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) circles of black felt. Use hot glue to attach these circles to the center front of your two white pom-poms.
   • This step finishes your duck cap. Set the cap aside as you work on the rest of your costume.

Part Two: Make the Duck Feet

1. Trace around each shoe onto a piece of felt. Find the shoes that you intend to wear with your duck costume. Place each shoe on top of another sheet of orange felt and trace around it in pencil, leaving a 1 inch (2.5 cm) margin between the side of the shoe and the pencil mark.
   • Note that you need to do this with each sneaker so that you will have a foot traced out for both feet.
   • For best results, use a thin shoe for this. You will need to fit a sock on top of this shoe, and doing so might be difficult if you have bulky shoes on.
   • Alternatively, you can skip this procedure altogether and take a shortcut. Instead of making specific duck feet, wear orange rain boots with your costume.
2. Make three webbed toes. Sketch out three triangular points at the top of each foot design. These points should look like the webbed toes of a duck.
3. Cut out each foot shape. Use sharp scissors to cut around the outline of each duck foot.
   • Note that you may still see pencil marks on the felt feet after you cut them out. If so, simply designate the marked side of the felt as the bottom side of the foot.
4. Cut an opening for the feet. Carefully and evenly fold each duck foot in half lengthwise. Make three cuts into the fold toward the back of the foot: one perpendicular to the fold, one diagonal and to the right of your first cut, and one diagonal and to the left of your first cut.
   • When you unfold the feet, you should notice an asterisk shape on the duck's foot.
   • Each cut should be about half the width of the widest part of your foot or ankle. You need the opening of each duck foot to fit over your real foot, but you do not want the cut to be so large that it slips off your foot or wrecks the felt.
5. Apply Velcro to the duck feet and to your socks. Stick one side of a Velcro strip to the bottom of the duck foot, somewhere near the middle. Apply the corresponding strip of Velcro to an orange sock you plan on wearing with the costume, positioning it where the other piece of Velcro will fall out.
   • When choosing socks for your costume, look for socks that are a size larger than usual or otherwise a little loose. These socks will need to be able to fit over your shoes.
   • This step completes your duck feet. Set them aside as you work on the rest of your costume.

Part Three: Make an Adult Duck Body

1. Gather a thick amount of polyfill. Bunch up the poly-fil until you can gather a thick cylinder's worth that is about as wide as your waist (or the waist of the intended wearer).
   • The polyfill is not strictly necessary, but adding it will produce a plumper, more rounded duck costume, so it is strongly recommended.
2. Tape the polyfill into a white sweatshirt. Turn a white sweatshirt inside out and place the cylinder of polyfill along the inside back of the shirt. Tape the stuffing in place with masking tape.
   • Note that the white sweatshirt you use should be long enough to cover your rear. The stuffing will be added to the stretch of sweatshirt between the bottom of the shirt and the waistline of your pants.
   • You might find it helpful to try the sweatshirt on after you add the filling to see how it looks. Remove or add more filling as necessary to get a smooth yet plump look you can deal with.
3. Cut out and attach white felt tail feathers. Trace three skinny almond shapes onto white felt, each one measuring roughly 12 inches (30.5 cm) long and 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide at the thickest point.
   • Tape or glue the top 3 inches (7.6 cm) of each tail feather to the inside of the center back of your sweatshirt. Each feather should connect at the same point on the sweatshirt yet fan out in different directions from underneath the sweatshirt bottom.
4. Design two wings. You will need a separate rectangle of 21 by 8 inch (53.3 by 20.3 cm) white felt for each wing.
   • To make a wing:
     • Fold the rectangle in half, shortening it from 21 inches (53.3 cm) to 10.5 inches (26.7 cm).
     • Trace a simple three or four feathered wing shape onto the felt. The ends of the feathers should point away from the folded part of the felt.
     • Cut the shape out. Leave the folded edge uncut.
     • Glue or tape the tips of the wings together, but leave enough room on the inside of the wing, near the fold, to slip the sweatshirt sleeve through.
   • Repeat for the second wing.
5. Attach the wings to the sweatshirt arms. Slip the sweatshirt on temporarily. Slide the wings through your sweatshirt arms so that the feathers point down when you hold your arms out. Tape or glue in place.

Part Four: Make a Duckling Body

1. Attach part of a yellow feather boa to the arms of a yellow sweatshirt. Hold the feather boa up to the sweatshirt you plan on using for the costume. Place the boa over one arm and cut off enough to extend from the shoulder to the tip of the sleeve. Place the rest of the boa over the other arm and repeat, giving yourself another arm's length of feathers.
   • Use a hot glue gun or a needle and thread to attach the feather boa strips to each arm of the sweatshirt. Make sure that the feathers will be positioned on the top of the sleeves, rather than on the bottom or along the sides.
2. Apply more feathers to the upper chest. If you have enough length left from the original feather boa, drape the boa over the front of the chest, covering the distance between your two feathered shoulders and curving down below the neckline of the shirt. Cut off the appropriate length with sharp scissors.
   • As with the sleeves, use hot glue or a needle and thread to attach these feathers to the front of the sweatshirt chest.
3. Consider adding a few more feathers to the duck cap. If you still have feathers left from the boa, you can glue up to 5 inches (12.7 cm) of boa to the top crown of your duck cap.

Part Five: Assembling the Full Costume

1. Put on the duck or duckling body. Slip the sweatshirt on, being careful to avoid knocking off any of the felt or feathers.
   • If the sweatshirt feels uncomfortable, you could wear a separate shirt beneath it. Make sure that the under-shirt cannot be seen once you put the sweatshirt on. If it can be seen, choose a shirt that matches the color of your costume's body: white for the adult duck, yellow for the duckling.
2. Add orange leggings. Most duck and duckling legs are orange, so to mimic the appearance of duck legs, you will need to wear orange leggings.
   • If you are uncomfortable with actual leggings, use orange sweatpants or orange yoga pants. You could also use orange dye to color an old pair of white jeans or other lightly colored structured pants.
3. Put on shoes, then duck-feet socks. Slip your shoes on. Place your orange Velcro socks over the shoes, and slide the orange duck feet over the socks and above your foot. Fix the duck feet in place by pressing the Velcro squares onto the Velcro of your socks.
4. Top it off with the duck cap. Place the duck cap on your head. Adjust as necessary to make it feel comfortable.
5. Admire your work. Take a look in the mirror and straighten out any aspect of the costume that seems off-balance. Once you finish, your duck costume is complete and ready to show off.

Things You'll Need

• White or yellow baseball cap
• 1/2 yard (45.72 cm) orange felt
• Pencil
• Sharp scissors
• Glue stick or hot glue gun
• Black felt
• 2 white pom-poms
• 2 self-adhesive Velcro strips
• 2 large orange socks
• Orange leggings
• White or orange sneakers

Adult Duck

• 1-1/2 yards (137 cm) white felt
• White sweatshirt, two sizes too big
• Masking tape, duct tape, or white cloth tape

Duckling

• Yellow sweatshirt
• Yellow feather boa
• Sewing needle (optional)
• Yellow thread (optional)

Sources and Citations

See also

• Make a Unicorn Horn
• Make Cat Ears
• Make a Sheep Costume
• Make a Cow Costume
• Make Furry Cat Ears
• Make a Crocodile Costume
• Make a Bird Costume
• Make a Lion Costume
• Make a Jellicle Cat Costume
• Make a Peacock Costume

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