Mini-Tutorial: How to Re-Fluff Feathers

I pulled Regina out of storage today only to realize that one of my cats had mistaken her for a litter box. Ew. I decided I might as well turn lemons into lemonade and make a quick tutorial out of the incident. 

This tutorial works best with feathers that have been very securely fastened down.

It was incredibly nerve-wracking to wash one of my most beloved costumes, but the price was either that or have people wrinkle their noses every time I was near them in cosplay. So I gritted my teeth and put my Regina coat into a laundry bag (the mesh kind with all the holes) and put the bag into my washing machine on a delicate cycle using a detergent specifically designed for delicates (woolite for delicates in my case). As soon as the cycle finished, I removed the costume from the washer and hung it on a hanger with the feathers facing me. 

**ONLY USE YOUR WASHING MACHINE IF YOU DO NOT MIND THE FEATHER DYE BLEEDING A BIT **

Otherwise hand wash. My Regina fabric is completely black, but some of the dye from the red and black feathers did seep into the white feathers every now and then.

Now it's time to fluff! All the feathers  were very sad and limp looking after coming out of the washer. At first, I was worried the the washer had stripped the fluffy bits away, leaving only quills. But as soon as I began playing with the feathers I realized that was not the case; the fluffy bits simply stick to the quill while wet. Begin the fluffing process as soon as possible or your feathers will dry all skinny and sad :(

First things first: use your fingers to gently pull the fluffy bits of the feather away from the quill. Make sure you’re not pulling too hard or you might pull them right off! I had bunches of 3 feathers so I finger floofed them individually.

Then all I did was hit the feather bundle with the hair dryer for about 30 seconds! I used a warm setting so I wouldn’t burn my hands, and used my fingers to manipulate the feather bundle so the hair dryer could hit it from all sides, paying particular care to the angle from the tip of the quill all the way down to the base to tease up any bits of fluff that were still sticking to the quill.

And that’s it! My feathers were once again happy and full, probably even fuller than they were before washing!