As you know from here and my 30 before 30, I dressed up for Halloween. I decided to not be Punky Brewster, even though I really wanted to be. Turns out that it’s harder to find a purple vest and puffy tennis shoes than you’d think. However, I’m going to stay on the lookout for these items for future Halloweens.
I didn’t choose any of the costumes from here and instead went rogue. Marisa (hello!) was awesome and dressed up like The Mad Hatter and suggested using a large sweatshirt for something as she saw a bunch of them at Wal-Mart. I instantly thought of this image.
I purchased a 3X men’s sweatshirt and a couple yards of $1.00 fabric. I purchased way too much yardage, though I thought I was being conservative. I’d suggest only buying a quarter yard of each. Of course, this depends on the number of fabrics and the size of sweatshirt.
The cream and navy dotted fabric is our tablecloth, so it was not included. I like it where and how it is.
I cut the arms off the sweatshirt. I decided to wear it like a vest/jumper and wore a long sleeve black shirt under it.
I decided to make my feathers with a rounded edge. I started by creating a template and tracing it on the fabric. However, I quickly realized it was much easier to “eye-ball” the size and shape. The feathers were not consistent in exact shape and size, but I liked them better. It added interest. Obviously, the fabric had different patterns and types which added to the interest. I cut out large numbers of each fabric. Then, I hot glued the fabric randomly on the shirt. I started at the bottom of the shirt and hot glued just the top part (the straight edge) of each feather onto the sweater. Working from the bottom allowed the feathers to overlap.
I glued the front and then the back. Then, I put it on and had The Mister spot check me. This is when he announced that he is an owl costume expert as he dressed up as an owl in an elementary school play. I used left over cut out feather to fill in the few gaps on my sides. The Mister glued them on the shirt while I was wearing it.
Due to the thickness of a sweatshirt, and me wearing a shirt under it, I couldn’t feel the hot glue. The section that needed the most filling in were my shoulders.
The Mister, using his supreme owl costume knowledge, decided to alternate the sides of fabric to fill in the shoulders. The black feathers are the same fabric but the underside of it was brown.
Tomorrow, I will share how I made the hat/owl face. You’ll need to know how to make it so you can look this cute.
