Hedwig, the Owl!

Seeing as how it is Sunday morning, and I need to go up to get ready for church, I don't have time for much explanation, but I wanted to show you my Hedwig, the owl from Harry Potter, costume.   I started with this pattern.

 Here's the body.  As you see, I used the pattern and added wings.  The fabric is some kind of synthetic, soft stuff that doesn't ravel and looks kind of feathery when it is cut into feather shaped strips.  I sewed them on in rows after sewing the 6 pieces together, except for one seam so that I could do it on the flat.  I left one panel bare for the belly of the owl.  I later glued real feathers on that panel.

 Here's a close-up of the fabric feathers next to the real feathers. 

 The wings are stuffed a little.  It looks like a lot in this photo. 

 Miss R's arm will fit inside the wing, but if she wants her hands free, she can stick them through this slit.  I didn't even stitch around it because it won't ravel, as I said above.

 There's an old pillowcase inside for the lining. 

 For the eyes, I began with two bracelets from my grandkids' dress-up clothes in their play area at our house.

 I first glued the black lining fabric around the bracelets, then, I cut gold velvet circles.  I cut the inside circles out of the center of the gold, glued those onto the black and secured with glue around the back.  This reminded me of making covered buttons.  Then, I took a little piece of white plastic to glue on to give the eyes some life.  The beak is made from the same gold velvet.

 The headpiece has the fabric feathers underneath with the real feathers glued on top of them.  I was just going to put them around the eyes, but I'm glad I decided to cover the whole head.

 Next, I will make Hedwig's talons.  Miss R will wear yellow or gold tights.  The talons will be made from this mottled patterned quilting cotton, and will slip over her shoes.  I'll show them to you when I finish.

 Yesterday morning, I got a call from a lady at a local bank asking me if I would paint on their 

windows.  We have a big event in our community coming up that will sponsor the Boys and Girls Club, the local arts council (I'm on the board of that), and perhaps a few other non-profit groups.  It's called a Turtle Tumble.  It's like a rubber duck race, except they use rubber turtles.  This bank is one of the sponsors so they want to advertise it on their windows.  Even though, I do not have time to do this, I'm going to anyway.  My grandmother would not approve, but I am going to paint this afternoon, yep, on a Sunday.  I will pray for forgiveness.  It is for a good cause and it is the only time I can come up with to do this project.

Today is my husband's 59th birthday!!!!  He caught up with me!

I do not have time to proof read this post, so if I made errors please overlook them!