Monday, December 20, 2010

Stuffed Owl Pillow

I've been making things for Christmas presents left and right. Mostly clothing. A painting. A few crafts. I needed something different. Something I haven't made before. And then one of my favorite bloggers, Ashley at Make It and Love It, posted about a pattern she made for Bernina's Sewing Republic. I thought this would be great fun to make, but didn't really have anyone left to make it for. (I'm sure I could come up with someone...but thankfully I didn't have to!) Puppy Girl saw me looking at the Bernina site and said "OH! I have a friend that would like that! Can you please make it, mommy!!?" Why yes my darling child, I can! haha!
So I printed off the pattern piece pages, and then copied them at 75%, and again at 50% the original size. This way I have three options to choose from. And hoo who knows?! One day I might make a little owl family for someone.
I have to admit that I didn't read any of the directions. I know...I should read pattern directions. Buuuuutttt..... *shrug* It wasn't all that hard to figure out! I made a slight alteration. Instead of sewing down the wing panels I made wings that can come off the body. This was also at the request of Puppy Girl. I really love the way the whole thing turned out.
I used the middle sized owl pattern (75% of the original size) and random scraps that all had one thing in common - blue. The girl I was making this for has a favorite color - can you guess what it is?!
Crazy-eyed owl!
I also deviated from the pattern in the eye placement, and what the black part in the middle of the eye is made of. In this case it's black sparkly puffy paint instead of fabric. I used scrap strips of "liquid metal" fabric to go around the outside of the wings. I quilted the two sides of the wings together with a piece of batting in the middle. I followed the square pattern on one side of the wing to do the quilting.
The inside of one of the wings. And you can see the fabric really well on the bodice in this picture.
You can see the quilting from this angle - I used purple thread for the quilting since the outside wing fabric has purple in it. The bodice piece and the inside of the wings is from a bandanna from the dollar store - 2 for $1! YAY!
View of the other inside wing.
The owl back.
For the front and back of the owl base I used one of Hubby Babe's old button-up shirts. It had a hole in it that couldn't be fixed - so I confiscated it! I used the breast pocket area for the back of the owl. How fun will it be for the little girl to put things in it!? I used to stick things in my Popple's pouch....I loved that thing! ... Please tell me you remember Popples.
For the back I used the "correct" side of the shirt so the pocket could be used. But for the front I used the "inside" of the shirt. I thought it looked neater on the inside than on the outside! For the rest of the bits I used scraps from other projects.
Note on time: It took roughly 2 hours to make, including the quilting for the wings.

1 comment:

  1. I love your owl! I posted a link to Make it and Love it and saw your link. Here's mine ;) http://home-momblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/last-minute-holiday-gifts-part-1.html

    I love how your wings fold back. I really had no clue what I was doing and didn't follow the pattern but glad I've got one down and three to go ;) Great Job!

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