I am so proud of this one, friends. I had to sacrifice my me-sewing time to make it, but it’s been well-worth the effort. I was very inspired by all the suggestions I received from you all and pondered how to make this costume for a long time (I especially loved the Burda one here, thank you Kristi!).
I borrowed some ideas from the linked costume, but I didn’t use the pattern and this is all self-drafted. I tossed caution and my pragmatism to the wind and decided to make exactly what K wanted: a grey/brown owl with wings.
I used linen, of course (and some linen-blends). But first, I started by sewing a longish jersey knit tee in brown, and then cut out dozens and dozens of linen feathers in grey, khaki brown, cream and dark chocolate brown….
I sewed rows and rows and rows of overlapping feathers, and then did the same thing for the wings. The wing base is made out of fleece to give her some extra warmth for trick-or-treating. I really got into sewing these rows – very meditative!
The mask is all felt. I had K close her eyes with the felt piece over her face, while I made “x”s for the eye hole positions. This involved a lot of wriggling and “OW! Mommy!” utterances. I see now that the elastic holding the mask in place got twisted…better fix that.
The wing construction had me scratching my head for awhile. I decided to make actual wing shapes and then sewed them onto a ring of grey fold-over-elastic that slips over K’s head. In the beginning, I had the bodice feathers covering the elastic (at least in the front), but this costume had her dancing up a storm, so you can see it clearly in some of the images.
To ensure that the wings would stay in the correct position, I also sewed some FOE on the inside of the wing so she could put her wrists through them or hold onto them for maximum flapping.
It’s an owl costume with no other purpose than to be an owl costume. And I love it. So does K. We are now officially ready — bring it, Halloween!
{I will return to regular programming of posting a me-made outfit next Thursday.}