What You Can Be For Hallowe'en: Thirty

Siobhan's Hallowe'en Costume 2006: Owl.

I know we've already posted "owl" as a suggestion of What You Can Be For Hallowe'en (#27). But I figure someone should be taking these suggestions, so why not me? Besides, I just wanted to be an owl.

However, I think my owl's quite different than the owl in WYCBFH #27. Here's how I made my paper and felt owl costume:

1. Have elaborate mental image of what owl costume should look like, based on a pair of humungous 1970's glasses you found in a drawer at a tourist shop last year and thought "I should buy these for an owl costume!" then not buy because you really didn't feel like spending money that day.

2. Spend two hours after work on the day before your Hallowe'en party, searching in thrift stores, department stores and drugstores for glasses, cursing the fact that the tourist shop with the perfect glasses closed a few months ago.

3. Give up idea(l) of what owl costume should look like, and start with the only thing you managed to buy during your travels: a brown hat.

4. Find photo of an owl. I modelled my costume on a great horned owl. Cut out felt shapes to ressemble the face markings, and glue onto hat with a glue gun. For the ears, cut out a pointed semi-circle, then fold in half and glue to the sides of the head.

5. Cut out wings from construction paper. Make slits in the construction paper to thread the string through (I used leftover bias tape). Glue the string in place on the construction paper. Cover the whole of one side of the wing with brown paper, gluing it in place.

6. Cut out feathers (tear drop shapes) from brown paper. If the brown paper came on a roll, cut the feathers along the length of the roll so they will naturally curl around the edges. Glue feathers to wing base with a glue gun. I also made a tail the same way.

7. For the body: brown shorts with a brown skirt overtop, brown shirt, boots socks and shirt, and a green "popcorn" shirt for the ruffled owl belly. Voila! Hoot! Hoot!