Hoo! Hoo! Wants to be an owl for this year’s costume party? My DIY owl costume sewing project is super easy and it comes with a free owl face mask template!
It’s the time of the year again when kids are getting excited about picking costumes for Halloween. My daughter is going to have a costume party at her daycare and she chose to dress up as an owl. So I came up with the easy DIY owl costume sewing project. Also, you can make this owl costume for an adult. You’ll need to cut more fleece feathers and sew it to an adult size shirt, front and back.
To make the owl costume I used fleece fabric and felt for the mask, and I recommend you do the same. I love sewing with fleece because it doesn’t fray and I don’t have to worry about overlocking the raw edges. This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)!
What you need for a DIY owl costume sewing project
Free feather and mask template is ready to print in my resource library – to get the password, fill out the form at the bottom of this post.
Step 1. Lay the t-shirt flat and using a fabric pencil draw lines where you will stitch the feathers.
Step 2. Cut a bunch of the feather pieces, start pinning them from the bottom line up and stitch row after row. Pin the feathers just on front of the t-shirt because you will make the wings cape to attach to the back. To make it easier to pin the feathers put a piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt.
Trim the feathers around the neckline.
Step 3. Measure your child’s back from fingertips to fingertips, and the length from the base of the neck to how long you want the wings cape to be. Mine numbers are 38″ wide and 20″ long.
Step 4. Fold the fabric in half and mark the length on the folded edge (mine is 20″), and half of the width on the aligned raw edge (mine is 19″). First, mark a semi-circle from one point to the other and cut the wings cape piece out.
Step 5. Lay flat the wings cape corners on leftover fleece pieces, cut it out, and put it aside. You will stitch the cut out fleece triangles to the wrong side of the cape corners and they will work like packets where the child will slide in their hands. For now, cut lots of feathers.
Step 6. Pin the feathers to the right side of the cape and stitch row by row starting from the bottom.
At the top edge sew one row of feathers in the opposite direction from the other once.
Step 7. Turn the cape over, pin and stitch the corner pockets, making sure to get the feather out of the way and not to stitch them over. You can use a zigzag stitch to do that.
Step 8. Lay the t-shirt in the middle of the wrong side of the cape and install 3 pairs of snaps. One part of the snaps on the back neckline of the shirt and the other part of the snaps on the edge of the cape.
Install a set of snaps on the bottom of both sleeves and right by the hand pockets as shown in the picture.
You are done making the main part of the DIY owl costume sewing project!
Step 9. Print out the free owl mask template from my resource library and cut the mask pieces out of the felt. Note: cut two orange beak pieces. The picture below shows just one but you cut two. It will make the beak sturdier.
Step 10. First, stitch together the big main pieces of the owl mask, then pin and stitch the eyes.
Use zigzag stitch around the eyes and inside the eyes but cut out the insides first and then stitch around.
Pin and stitch on the rest of the owl mask pieces. Also, attach the ribbon elastic to the sides of the mask right by the eyes.
And you are done! Pair the owl costume with leggings and boots. You are ready to hoot around!
I hope you enjoyed making the DIY owl costume sewing project and made your little hoot happy. You are welcome to share a picture of your costume project on my Facebook page.
