Sunday, October 23, 2011

DIY Lady Owl Costume

I was determined to make my own costume this year...on the cheap. The materials for this little owl costume ended up costing less than twenty dollars! I'm so happy with how it turned out and it was so easy. Anybody could do it and it would be great adapted for kids or even babies (how cute would a Onesie with these little fabric feathers be?).

I was inspired by this really cute homemade owl costume by Chelsea over at Seablanket. She used a pillowcase, but my...girly figure (to put it nicely) wouldn't exactly fit in the pillowcase I tried. Easy solution: clearance dress from Ross. I was originally looking for a mod 60's boxier dress shape, but no luck. I did however find this sweater dress for $7.99. Here's the before :


I went to Joann's, 20% off coupon in hand, to gather fabrics for my costume. The fabric I decided on is actually lining. It's lightweight, cheap, and it has a pretty sheen. I originally bought the zebra fabric thinking it might look feathery  once cut in the right shape. But in the end, I decided against the zebra print.

I cut out large petal shapes from each fabric color. The only problem with the fabric I chose was that it frayed easily. So I ran a little Fray Check along the edges and problem solved. When it came to putting the petals on the dress, my little hot glue gun worked like a charm. Quick and easy.

I cut the turtleneck flap and the sleeves off of the dress. Not being able to pass up a little bling, I took the buttons from the sleeves and glued them on to the collar.
    
Almost done...

Time for the final touches. I cut out some little wings from the extra fabric. Never mind the fact that they look more like bug wings than owl wings. Whoops. I ran some copper glitter glue around the wing edges (any excuse for extra sparkle) then hot glued them to the dress. To jazz up my face we found this face paint and these feather eyelashes on Amazon.

              

Luckily, I have Ryan and his great artistic ability around to help. We looked at some examples of owl make-up on Youtube. There are some incredible face painting tutorials! He "owlified" me in about ten minutes. I slapped on some glitter and my feather lashes and the budget-friendly transformation was complete.

You might be thinking that you don't have the time to put this together. But there are quite a few ways to cut down on the time. The easiest way would be to make the "feathers," what I've been calling petals, much bigger cuts of fabric, like Chelsea did. Also, the wings can easily be left off the costume. The most time consuming step for me was running Fray Check along the edges of each petal. With different fabric or if you just don't mind a few dangling strings, skip that step completely = major time saver.


We had a lot of fun at the costume party! Ryan dressed up as a poacher and ran around shooting me with his Nerf shotgun. Who hunts polka-dotted owls? My guy. I was even given a tiny little trophy for "Best Costume." That tiny golden jack-o-lantern made it all worth it.


Pin It

8 comments:

  1. I absolutely love this!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amazing and sooooo cute! (mamon)

    ReplyDelete
  3. i love this, i was wondering if you could tell me how much fabric you used, i would love to try to recreate it! it wont look nearly as good as yours though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good question Nicole. I'm trying to remember. I think I bought 1/4 yard of each pattern/color. But I also ended up with a lot of feathers/fabric left over. It's possible that I started with a 1/3 yard of each.

      I would say that if you choose 4 fabrics you like and start with 1/4 yard of each you should be fine. And I'm sure yours will turn out lovely. It really is an easy costume to make, so have fun with it! :)

      Delete
    2. and how large were your feathers?

      Delete
    3. My feathers were 2 3/4 inches at the widest point and 3 3/4 inches long.

      Delete
    4. They may be strange measurements but I just eyeballed and drew my own feather template on cardstock and cut it out.

      Delete
  4. I'm doing an owl costume this year and so excited. I am using a long sleeved brown shirt for the wings. cut it off under the first button and leaving the sleeves and collar (think SHRUG). Then take the piece of the shirt body just cut off and cut in half and apply to each sleeve from cuff to armpit (fabric glue) for wings. !!!! I then bought $2 bag of feathers and a boa and applied to the collar and cuffs and edges of the "new" wings. make sense? thanks for the great tips and makeup!

    ReplyDelete

Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...