Handmade Gift: Easy Stuffed Owl

This weekend we celebrated my niece’s 2nd birthday.  Caroline just seems to get cuter with every day that goes by.  The night before her birthday I was inspired to make her a new stuffed animal, hoping it would go better than my attempts at making a doll the previous winter.

I remembered that my friend Sunny had posted an awesome template and tutorial for a stuffed owl that looked foolproof, aka Janeproof.  I printed it out, and gave it a shot.  The results were awesome!

Note:  If you don’t have a sewing machine, I still think you could do this project.  sure, the hand-stitching to pull the back and front together could be tiresome, but not too bad.  Just pop on a movie or something!

It took me about two hours, but most of that time was spent with indecision as to what fabrics to use.  It was really quite simple, and I highly recommend following Sunny’s template.   It’s also a great way to use up fun fabric scraps, for those of you who can’t bear to throw anything out. 😉

First, I pinned the template to my fabric, then cut out the back and front of the owl.  I cut about 1 inch wider than the template all around, so that it would be a little bit bigger.

 Then i grabbed my fabric scraps and had a blast mixing up colors and patterns.  Knowing that little kids are very tactile, I also added some different textures, from the chartreuse velvet owl front to the fleece eyes and a silky minky fleece pocket (white) on the back.

Once I had all the pieces laid out, I ironed them into place with some fusible webbing.  Then I used a zig-zag stitch on my machine to sew them into place and prevent edge fraying.

And because I just couldn’t stop there, I hand-stitched a little silk heart onto the pocket.

Finally, I turned the pieces wrong-side out and stitched the sides together, leaving a small hole in the bottom for me to turn it right-side out.  Then I stuffed that owl full of polyester fiberfill, and hand-stitched the bottom opening closed.

Here is the finished owl, in all his or her glory!

 

As for my niece – she seemed to love it.  She pulled it out of the bag and squealed with happiness:  “My owl!” (And to think I was worried she may not know what it was.)

Caroline is just the cutest kid ever.  Hopefully she’ll love the owl and it will stand up to her 2-year-old antics and beatings and heaven knows what else she may inflict upon it.  If not, then I’ve always got more fun fabrics in the overflowing scrap bin.

Huge thanks to Sunny for sharing the awesome tutorial!