Great DIY Lady Owl Halloween Costume

I am wearing my Lady Owl costume to our annual Halloween party for kids and families at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens where I work as an educator. My husband went with me as a birdwatcher!

I got the idea for my costume from the blog, A Beautiful Mess “Lady Bird Owl DIY.” To make my costume I took a tan pillowcase and cut out arm holes and a hole for my head (I used a tank top as a guide). The pillowcase was a little narrow for my hips so I cut a slit in each side about 18 inches long and sewed a triangle of fabric on each side. This gave me enough space to easily move in the dress. The “feathers” are made out of t-shirt, light-weight khaki and other scrap fabric. I made a cardboard feather shaped stencil and traced the shape onto the scrap fabric, I used zig-zag fabric scissors to cut them out. This took a while, but I watch Netlflix while I worked so it was a fun rather than boring. I attached the feathers in evenly spaced rows with hot glue. I started at the bottom of the dress and then moved up, I also made sure that none of the fabric of the pillowcase showed through by layering the feathers. The dress ended up being pretty heavy, which was great because it kept me warm!

The mask is a basic half-mask form, I hot-glued leftover t-shirt scrap to the mask then sprayed with liquid fabric starch so the feathers would stand up. For the rest of the costume I wore a long-sleeved t-shirt, tights and my favorite gray TOMS. I used a sock bun (another fun DIY project!) to make a large bun in my hair, kept in place with a bunch of hairspray!

I had fun making my costume and got a lot of nice compliments on it at our Halloween party!