Here is the owl costume that I made previously, Lauren has sent me some photo's of her wearing it; in full costume with a mask. Seeing the costume being worn makes it look even better and the mask enhances it further!
A family member came to me with an idea of making an owl costume for a fancy dress costume, we researched online for a few ideas and here is what we came up with. This costume started out as a brown long sleeved jersey dress bought online. I started by making it shorter; I cut and re-hemmed the dress to the desired length. Now that it was the correct length, I measured the length from the end of the sleeve (at the wrist) down to the hem of the dress. From this measurement I made a pattern for the wings; below is a diagram of how to construct this: I made the two wings out of brown cotton, which matched the dress. I sewed each of these onto the side of the dress along from the cuff (end of the sleeve) down to the hem (bottom) of the dress. I also bought some `fun fur’ fabric, which I cut an oval out of for a fur patch on the front of the dress. This was top-stitched with a zig-zag stitch onto the front of the dress. Next came the fun task of gluing each individual feather on by hand! For some this would be tedious but I loved it! I started at the edges of the wings and glued a row on at a time – this was so that I could overlay each row to hide the top stalks of the feathers. I started by gluing on larger feathers (black, white, cream and brown) and I filled both wings with these. I had also bought some small delicate feathers to add a little colour and detail to the wings – I had speckled brown and blue feathers, which I stuck on over the top of the other feathers. I also used these to cover any small holes that I had missed or any glue that had been left exposed. I think in total I used 600-700 feathers! To finish off the dress I have stuck feathers (both small and large) around the bottom of the front of the dress – this joins across the wings. I also stuck some feathers on the fur patch and on the front of the dress. I have left the back of the dress plain; this really gives the front the wow-factor! I love how the costume has turned out but it was quite expensive to make and is really heavy! It is a fantastic one off piece and will look spectacular at the party; I want one for myself now!
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AuthorHolly Vintner. Graduated with a 1st class BA hons in Fashion from Plymouth College of Art. Archives
May 2015
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