More on the owls

A few weeks ago, I posted pictures about my version of Pottery Barn’s adorable owl bookends.  I finally found a naptime to stop and write the instructions in case you want to make one(or four like I did) for yourself. 

Materials:

3 different fabrics(I used 18” x 24” quilting squares and it was more than plenty fabric)

pattern

a contrasting thread color for belly/eyes/nose

2 big buttons for eyes(If you are looking for good buttons for sewing and paper crafts, try Papertrey Ink.)

polyfill or any kind of stuffing material

beans or rice if you plan to make it a weighted item

needle for hand stitching

Trace the pattern onto your fabric.  Cut out the body(2, one for front and back) and bottom with one fabric, eyes(2) and belly from another fabric, and nose and arms(2 front and 2 back) from the last color of fabric.  If your main body fabric is light enough in color, you can lay it on top of the pattern to see where to pin the belly and eyes on.  This is also a good time to pin the wings, with pretty sides together, to sew.  Make sure you leave the straight side open on the wings while sewing.  Sew the belly and eyes on the front of the body using a 1/4” around the outside.

After you sew the eyes on, then you can place the nose and sew it on.  The bottom tip of the new actually lays on top of the belly on my owls.  Once those pieces are sewn on, then hand sew on your button eyes. 

Sew around the edges of the wings and then flip right side out.  Lay them on the front of your owl to see where you want them to be and then pin them down.  Then lay the back on top with the pretty sides together and pin.  Sew around the edge with a 1/4” seam.  This step is VERY important.  Flip your owl right side out and make sure that all seams are sewn shut and that the wings are securely in place.  Then flip inside out again.  Now start stuffing. 

Please keep in mind that I am not an expert seamstress by any measure, so there is probably an easier way to do this step.  You now pin the bottom of the owl to the rest of the body.  Make sure when you sew that you leave around 1-2 inches so that you can flip the owl right side-out.  I made sure this was on the backside so you wouldn’t notice my hand stitching as much.  After you flip the owl right-side-out, then fill your owl with stuffing.  If you are wanting to use it as a bookend too, make sure you add stuffing first and then beans later.  I used a funnel to get the beans in the fastest.  Then stitch your small seam closed with a simple hand stitch and you are done!

I hope these instructions make sense to everyone.  If you have any questions please let me know.  This really is a fast and easy pattern.  I spent most of my time deciding which fabric to use.  Below you can see how using the same fabric, but for different parts of the owl makes a completely different owl.  Happy Sewing!