Owl Costume... directions, yeah that's right.

A few weeks ago Michael developed an interest in owls. He likes owl stuffed animals, owl books, owl pictures, owl shows, and will point out any owls that he sees. If asked what an owl says he promptly responds with “whoo whoo”. So I knew that he needed to be an owl for Halloween. The only problem with that plan was that we already had Halloween costumes (more on that theme later). I decided to go ahead and make him a costume anyway, there is a playgroup Halloween party and he has started to show an interest in “imaginative play” or dress up lately. So I started researching (because that is what we do at our house), and I couldn’t find anything that looked exactly like what I wanted. I was bummed, I knew what I wanted, but not how to make it, and I am not the most creative person out there… but I thought “how hard can an owl costume be?”, turns out not too hard.

So here is a brief and confusing tutorial with the worst tutorial photos ever, but just in case you need an owl costume... this is a cute one. I can answer questions... I know this is confusing. 

Items needed:

Costume size 18months-3T

1.5 yards fleece for body and a few additional feathers

.5 yards middle section fleece

.25 yards 2 colors coordinating feathers fleece

.33 yards heavier fleece for hat

2 square inches (if that) orange felt for beak

hot glue gun (high temp)

glue sticks (lots and lots of these)

thread, who cares if it matches

I started by choosing my colors, buying fabric is always my favorite part of projects so I enjoyed this part. I bought 1.5 yards of lightweight grey fleece, .5 yards of cream lightweight fleece, and .25 yards of lime green and blue lightweight fleece. I think that heavier fleece would work just fine but I knew that once I added all the “feathers” and glue this would get heavy, that and we live in Texas so it may be warm on Halloween. I did end up going back to the store to get .33 yards of heavier grey fleece for the hat but more on that in a bit.

Next step… cutting out the body. I decided I wanted the costume to be like a poncho, no like a giant shirt. I wanted it to have arm holes, be sewn on the sides, and slip over his head. I used a vest he had as a guide for the shape. I cut 3-4 inches larger than the vest to allow for a seam and to give him some growing room. I cut 3-6 inches longer than the vest to make sure that it went to his knees at least. In actuality I made this too big the first go round and had to trim it down, but after the trimming those are the measurements. I cut the shoulders on the fold so I wouldn’t need to sew the seams here (it would be great if I had taken a photo but I didn’t).

After cutting out the body I sewed right sides together with a straight stitch leaving the arm holes open (do Not forget this part). I left the neckline, arm holes, and bottom hems alone because after all the gluing is done it wont even matter.

Now for the wings. I decided the wings needed to be stiffer than plain fleece would allow, especially since I was using light weight fleece so I added a back (using plain cotton fabric I had in my scraps), and some heavy interfacing. I drew the swing shape I wanted (so it wasn’t perfect or even owl like), and cut 2 of each fabric from each of the three fabrics (fleece, interfacing, and cotton).

Once my pieces were cut I decided I needed a way to attach the wings to Michael’s arms, you know so he could “fly”, and a strap of 1 inch thick  elastic did the trick. Measure where you would like the strap to hit the child’s arm and attach to the right side of the cotton fabric. Sew this on really really really well.

 

Next I laid the interfacing on the fleece wing, and then put right side of the fleece to right side of the cotton and sewed around. Flip the wing right side out and iron, smooth, whatever. You could press the seams but given that you are going to glue 5 pounds of feathers on and hide them it seems like a waste.

 

Once I had two wings I pinned them to the shoulders of the owl body- right side to right side. Attached them using a straight stitch…. Like 6 times so they wont rip off and went on to the next step.

 

Then I started cutting the feathers. I decided what I wanted the feathers to look like and cut about 50 to 100 of them. I made larger feathers for the mid sections and small feathers for the wings.

 

Now that your costume is sewn together it is time to start gluing. I plugged in my glue gun, anticipated the 2^nd degree burns I would be getting, and started arranging my feathers. Use a LOT of glue- put something inside the costume though so you don’t glue the first and second layers together. Make sure the feathers are secure, Michael tried to pull of the less secure ones. Do the same with the wings.

 

You will have some excess on the wings and the collar, just trim it off.

Ok so the hat… this was a fiasco. I ended up using a pattern I found online, it was great, use it. The only thing I suggest is making the hat a lot larger than you think you should. I made one too small and ended up using the size I needed for me for Michael, he has a normal sized head so…. Use that as a guide. I originally used lightweight fleece for the hat- BAD IDEA. Use heavy stuff, the light stuff will rip and look ugly… just sayin’

Lightweight fleece doesnt make a cute hat. well cute but not as cute as it could be, granted the face is missing.

Glue the face on your hat and stand back an admire… yeah it is just that cute.  

Heavy weight and huge is much cuter... no really.