Little A's Owl Costume

Fall in Minnesota... you never know what you're going to get. Is it going to be in the 70's today or the 30's? Do I need a t-shirt or a parka? Can we go to the beach or go sledding today? Those are the kinds of questions one may ask on any given day of a Minnesota fall. Especially around Halloween time.

I loved Halloween as a kid! I loved dressing up as Pocahontas or as a princess or a cute witch. One huge bummer of Halloween, though, was the fact that it's usually pretty stinkin' cold (especially at night) and my awesome costumes were always RUINED by the fact that my mother made me wear my winter jacket while running around collecting candy on these cold dark evenings (how dare she!). I promised myself that I would never make my kids wear their jackets over their costumes, so here I am 20 years later, on the hunt for the perfect Halloween costume for my kids.

So far, I've done really well with either finding a costume that's warm enough to be worn alone (I think it was pretty mild that year) or ones big enough that the kids could bundle up underneath. This year was tough though, not only because by the time I was ready to shop, the costumes were pretty picked over, but also because I refuse to spend $30 on something they'll wear out, at most, three times.

Big A was pretty excited to pick out his costume, but I have a rule: No Scary Costumes until... ever? I can't stand all those bloody masks or creepy things, and for goodness sake, he's five. He loves superheros and wanted a mask and a cape. Well, school doesn't allow masks, so choice #1 Spiderman was out, Superman doesn't wear a mask, so he's out. We ended up with Batman since it's only a half mask and has the required cape. Problem solved.

Little A was a bit more difficult. Dear Target and Walmart, how do you expect me to take my one year old out in the end of October in a tutu and tank top? Hello people! Sincerely, Me.

All they have for little girls are tutus and tank tops and considering she's a big girl, the warm fuzzy baby outfits don't fit her either. So I was on a mission to give this kid a kick ass (and affordable) costume! So I decided to make hers.

I found an adorable owl hat (about $6) at Walmart and a purple sweatsuit ($3.88 for each piece) (fashionable, I know, but it'll keep her warm).

Then we headed over to Joanne's for felt. Lots and lots of felt. I got purple, teal and hot pink.

Actually, I think the teal was called Peacock and the purple was called Orchid,
I don't remember what the pink was called.

I cut tons and tons of feathers. I probably got about 35 feathers out of each sheet of felt. I bought six of each color, not knowing exactly what my plan was yet. I ended up needing about eight of the purple, three teal and two pink. I think I got them for 4 for $1 on sale.

I bought tacky glue, being the novice that I am, thinking "Hey, this is a good all purpose craft glue, this will work perfectly!" Wrong. After gluing a zillion feathers, I realized that most of them weren't sticking. I went back and ended up re-gluing most of them with hot glue. It wasn't that big of a deal as the process went fairly quickly. I suppose you could sew them on, but I don't have time to sew each feather on. 

Here's what it looked like all laid out before I started gluing.

I ended up changing a few things, but you get the idea

After I started gluing, I made a few changes to the wings. I decided to use the teal to make an edge around the wings, which made them pop a little more. The first two rows of feathers on the wings aren't individual feathers, they are rows of five or six connected feathers. I figured they would be easier to put on the bottom of the sleeves if they were all attached.

So here it is, the finished product. Sorry the picture is so blurry. It's hard to catch a kid on a phone camera.