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DIY Owl Costume for Kids

How to sew a DIY Owl costume for kids. Perfect for Halloween and also for dressup.

fleece owl costume

Nine-year-old Emma loves owls. She also loves turquoise and “all the colors of the rainbow”. I combined the three to create this fun DIY owl costume for her to wear this Halloween.

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DIY Owl Costume for Kids

owl costume

I thought about using the same robe design I had used for the other kids’ cat, fox, and bunny costumes, but I decided that the wings would make it too unwieldy. So instead I adapted this butterfly costume pattern – also from ikatbag. I made the butterfly costume for all three of my girls back in 2013, and they loved them so much that they wore them for TWO Halloweens! As with the other costumes, this costume is made entirely out of fleece (also purchased from fabric.com).

I was originally going to sew on individual feathers. We were running low on time, and when I looked at photos of owls I realized that their feathers run in horizontal color rows. Since Emma wanted a multi-colored owl, I cut narrow strips out of the different colors of fleece we had on hand. I used my rotary cutter to make the wavy edge that is reminiscent of feathers. Emma and I both agreed that we liked the tail better feather-less I sewed the rows of feathers on starting at the bottom and working my way up. I sewed all of the feathers on before stitching down the arm sleeves.

diy owl costume

This costume does require careful planning in one regard: you don’t want the sleeve stitching (see above) to overlap with the feather stitching! We were able to quite easily space our rows of feathers so that, when the time came to stitch down the arms, I could pin them on with the orange row of feathers flipped up. If your feathers and shirt sleeves overlap, you will have to sew the shirt sleeves down by hand to prevent stitching through to the row of feathers.

What are your kids dressing up a for Halloween this year?

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

9 thoughts on “DIY Owl Costume for Kids”

  1. I have 1 ranger, 1 astronaut, and 1 fairy princess this year. I’d probably make it so the wings clipped onto the arms with elastic bracelets, that way you don’t have to worry about sleeves. That may be lazy though….

  2. Natalie PlanetSmartyPants

    Oh, this is an amazing and unique costume! I was actually thinking, Papageno, when I first saw the picture :)

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