Beginners H-owl-oween softie

A few nights ago it was a cool 60 something degrees out, there was a small wind blowing. Peaceful.. that’s the best word I can find to describe how it felt sitting on my front porch, pumpkin spice latte in hand, one of my two babies dogs in my lap; carrying on a hilarious conversation with the bff via text. That’s when I heard it. It was CLOSE. Could have been peeking under the porch roof, trying to steal my soul eat me eat my dog be friends, for all I know. But, I was totally creeped out. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love owls.. as long as they’re not real they’re far away from me. They are beautiful birds. And that is where the idea for this tutorial came from: the beautiful, cool night that made me wish it was already mid-fall, and the owl who didn’t understand personal boundaries.

You will need at least two different fabric prints, scissors, a needle and thread, stuffing and patience.

I decided for the body of the owl I would use a black fabric. I’m really no seamstress, I know only the basics needed for the simplest of tasks. So, if I can do it – YOU can do it!

I used a pencil, since my fabric was black and traced the roughest outline of an owl you’ve ever seen. I’m also no perfectionist, so if you are, you may want to find a stencil of some sort. Then I cut it out, two pieces of fabric thick so they’d be identical.. at this point it looks like a cat head.

I cut out plain white circles for eyeballs, and smaller blue circles for the iris/pupils. I also cut out an orange triangle and the ugliest “feet” you’ve ever seen.

I flipped on piece of the black fabric over and placed the white circles where I thought eyeballs would look nice.

Hand-stitched the outer part of the “eyeballs”.

Positioned the “pupils” and sewed them on.

I then sewed on the “beak” and “feet”. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Make sure you give yourself enough seam allowance when you place your feet.

Flip the face back over, “pretty sides in”. I did a small zigzag stitch, leaving just enough open to get the stuffing in.

Now pull the “pretty side” out through the opening you left for stuffing.

Stuff him as full as you’d like.

Fold over both sides of the opening, pin shut, then sew shut.

My three year old goddaughter went CRAZY over this. She held him, sang to him, and rocked him to sleep. Needless to say he found a nice home with her.

Have any of you other novice sewers out there tried something like this and had it not turn out as awful as you thought it would?

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