Partridge and a Pear Tree

This year B and I got invited to an adults costume-required Halloween party. The theme for the party was Nightmare Before Christmas so we decided to go with Christmas themed costumes. B came up with the idea of a partridge in a pear tree and then I decided he could be the pear tree and I would be the partridge. My costume took me a few weeks to complete, but B's was quite quick and easy to make.
Getting ready to head out. As you can see, N was quite intrigued by my new shoes. He really wanted to wear them.

My partridge costume was inspired by this owl costume I found on Pinterest.


I took an old full slip and shortened it. Then I cut out lots of "feathers" from a faux silk material. I started with larger feathers and sewed them on in rows starting at the bottom hem of the slip. Once I reached the waist, I switched to much smaller "feathers." I continued in this fashion until the whole slip was covered in feathers. I added additional rows of feathers over the straps and the dress was complete. I used a bit of fabric glue to attach the sides of the feathers together to keep them from flapping too much and showing the white slip below.

For the wings, I used this tutorial that I found on Pinterest. I cut out two quarter circles for the wings and sewed the top edge of them to a long length of sheer silver ribbon. I made loops with the ribbon at the end of each wing to slip my hands through.
Inspired by a photograph of a partridge, I decide to do stacks of feathers (silver, white, dark brown, gold). Then I sewed them on in rows starting on the bottom edge of the wing. After I finished the rows of "feathers" I sewed over the feathers back along the top edge of the wings (where the ribbon was) to keep them from flopping down.
Finally I added two snaps to the ribbon where the wings rested over the straps of the dress. This way I could snap the wings to my dress to keep the top edge in place.

I also made some feather earrings and two feather hair clips. I ended up wearing one clip in my hair and one on my dress.

B's pear tree costume was fun and much easier to make.

I bought a green t-shirt at Old Navy ($5) and some fake pears (one bunch of 8 pears) and fake ficus branches at Michael's( I used 3 ficus branches at around $0.75 each). I attached the branches onto the t-shirt by tacking each branch on at various points. I used wire cutters to separate some of the branches into smaller parts as needed. Then I used the wire cutters to cut the pears off the branches they came on and sewed them onto the ficus branches. I used a bit of fabric glue on the thread to make sure the pears stayed secure.


For B's pants, I bought an inexpensive pair of khakis at Wal-mart ($10) and used acrylic paint to make them look like wood/tree trunk.

This is my favorite part.
As you can see below, we had fun wearing our costumes at the party.

So that's how I've been spending my crafty time. Now that the party is past, I can go back to knitting. Hope to share some of that soon.