'Little e' the Owl

So I alluded to a costume I was making for little e and I hope I don't disappoint.  He was an owl for Halloween this year and I made almost his entire costume.  I started by dyeing a onesie with dark brown RIT (my first attempt at that and I think it turned out pretty well).  I used an old onesie that was stained and figured with feathers covering the whole thing it wouldn't matter.

Then I made a template for the feathers (totally winged that - no pun intended) and cut out individual feathers.  Arranging them and not allowing my OCD to kick in was a little difficult but I think it looks random without looking too 'planned random' as I sometimes seem to create.

Then I got to working on his hat.  I am a knitter first and foremost but the cutest owl hats I could find were crocheted so I had to step out of my comfort zone.  I used this pattern from Repeat Crafter Me (how clever is that?) to make his hat.  I bought the Vanna's choice barley for the top b/c in all the pics of these hats I saw online the ones with that color top were the cutest (to me) but I used leftover scraps for the bottom of the hat.  I have to say I crocheted this hat about 7 times.  Once TOTALLY with a blue bottom and then realized the blue feathers I had in the costume just didn't seem 'owlish' so I made it again in green - with the wrong stitch.  Then again, and again for different reasons but I think all in all it turned out pretty great.

Finally it was still a few hours before trick or treat (and lucky for me nap time) so I decided I could still pull off wings for him too.  I am really glad I did because I think they made the costume.  I used this tutorial for the wings after seeing the adorable ones on Ashley Ann's blog (I absolutely adore her btw). I used the same fabrics as the front of the costume but in longer strips and pieced them together.  I also didn't cut my wings in the middle since the little guy wouldn't really be 'flapping' them.  I added elastic at the edges to go around his wrists and had to safety pin them up in the middle - but it worked out just fine.

Finally we met up with little e's good buddy - Alfalfa :) - and went trick or treating (after our photo shoot of course)

And what owl doesn't fly ....

We Moore's had a great Halloween - how about the rest of you?  

Up next even more knitting (I am doing pretty well at finishing the stuff in my 'unfinished business' box) as well as more sewing.  The Holidays have me in a tizzy of handmade gifts and fun things for little e to wear to celebrate the season!