Tutorial: How to Make a Dragon Wing Cape (or Bat Wings)
Learn how to make wing for a dragon cosplay. I specifically made this for Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon, but just change the color to use it for any dragon cosplay. It could also work really well as bat wings.
This is a pretty simple tutorial that attaches the dragon wings to sleeves so that you can hide your arms and make them look like part of the wings. I found an awesome textured Taffeta fabric for the wings, but this will work well with many different kinds of fabric.
The template that I made for this tutorial is below, but you may have to adjust it to make sure it fits your size. I’m a tiny 5′ girl, so it might run a bit small for most people. Make sure you scale up as necessary.
Supplies Needed:
This template was made to fit someone with an armspan of 25″ from the base of the neck to the wrist. If you use a stretch fabric, there is more flexibility in the size and it’s more likely to fit as is. To adjust the pattern for your own size:
Step 1
Draw the lines onto your fabric
Use tailor’s chalk or an erasable fabric marker to draw the lines from the pattern onto the wings
Step 2
fold the fabric over the lines and top stitch
with right sides together, fold the fabric over the lines you made. Then stitch close to the edge to create an indent in your dragon cape for each of the lines.
Step 3
finish the edges with double fold bias tape
If you are using a fabric that frays a lot, it’s a good idea to finish the edges with black double fold bias tape (or whatever color matches your dragon wings). Encase the edges with the bias tape and sew in place. Do this for each curve of the bat wings.
If you are using a knit fabric, this is not usually necessary since stretchy knits don’t typically fray too much, so you can skip this step.
Step 4
Hem both sides of the sleeves
Step 5
Sew the Dragon wing into the sleeve seam
With right sides together, line up one side of the bat wing with the top of the sleeve. Then fold the sleeve over top of the bat wing so that it’s inside the sleeve. Sew through all of the layers.
Step 6
Turn the sleeve right side out
When you turn the sleeve out, you’ll see the bat wing is connected along the seam.
Step 7
Repeat for the second sleeve
There will be a gap in the middle for your back/neck.
Step 8
make a narrow Hem along the neckline in between the two sleeves
Finished!
