Owl Tutorial (photo heavy!!)

Hi All

I'm afraid I didn't do a monday sequence this week as I was busy with something else. I have been meaning to do this tutorial for yonks! Literally! But due to school and not having a sewing machine it had to wait. So... Please give a hand to Mr Owl...

He is rather wacky but really sweet and due to the way he is stuffed works well as a paper weight! He is also very simple to make! So...

1. Choose the material for the main body. I used ordianry cotton but it needs to be fairly durable as you don't want the owl to break when you stuff him! Fold your material so right sides (pattern) are together and pin.

2. Cut out the template at the bottom of the page. I'm afraid it is quite rough but it does the job! It needs to be printed at A4 size. Pin it or draw around it onto the material.

3. Cut through both layers of fabric so you have a shape like the one above. Pin the two pieces together again with right sides together.

4. With a simple running stitch on the machine sew around the whole owl about 0.5cm from the edge. Be careful around the ears as this defines the shape. REMEMBER to leave a hole at the base!!

5.Now using the hole you have left turn the owl inside out so that the pattern is now the right way around. If it helps use a lollipop stick to push out the ears as they look so much better with sharp corners!

6. We now need to fill the Owl. I used dry rice which works really well. I guess lentils would do the job just as well though! The best way to do this is to make a cone like in the picture, put this into the hole at the base of the owl and spoon the rice in! Far less messy! Make sure the rice is tightly packed as you don't want a saggy owl! Lol!

7. Make the owl as full as you wish and once you are happy pince the hole closed and fasten with a pin.

8. Using hand stitch sew the hole closed whichever way you find easier. It doesn't have to be too neat as the feet will cover the join!

9. The eyes are really down the personal preference and as such I haven't made a template for them. The basic idea is to cut two circles of different sizes and layer them up. I find it is easiest if you push a pin through them and then before you sew you can adjust the position to your liking.

10. for the centre of the eye I used a flat glass bead glued on but a small button works just as well. To sew the eyes on I used handstich again. This is quite tricky as the owl is full. One easier way is to sew on the eyes before filling.

11. Cut out the template for the wing twice onto thin cardboard. Using a different fabric fold it right sides together again and pin.

12. Cut about 0.5cm from the edge of the template. Glue the cardboard to one of the  material wing pieces and sandwich it between the other fabric wing piece. This just stiffens the wings a bit and means they hold their shape a bit more.

13. Using a small zig zag stitch with the machine, run it around the edges of each wing. It holds them together quite well and gives a fluffy kind of feel.

14. Again with the template or freestyle it cut out the two feet. I cheated and glued these to the bottom of my owl but you could sew them!

15. Handsew the wings at the base of the ears. I just sewed at the top so the wings had a bit of movement.

16. Finally using a toggle or another suitable button attach a beak to your owl. Play around with him until he stands up nicely and voila!!! One owl!

Feel free to adapt these instructions, make him bigger or smaller. Just to stress though, he's cute but isn't a toy as depending on your sewing skills he is a little bit fragile! Oh and below are the very rough hand drawn templates that may or may not come in use!!!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, I had so much fun making this little fella! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Loves xxxx