I’ve been working on a bunch of sweet felt patterns lately to go along with the hand-dyed wool felt that I’ve been creating. This is the first one. He’s a sweet little guy who loves to read and to be played with! You can attach a little ribbon to the top of him to make an ornament, but he’d make a perfect little toy for any little guy or gal.
You can use any type of felt of course, but I have to highly recommend wool. It’s so incredibly soft and strong for sewing with. A lot of cheap felts will pill and get frizzy with just a little playing. Wool doesn’t do that.
Download the pattern here.
Print this pattern onto a sheet of freezer paper for best results.
I recently made a tutorial for using freezer paper to make cutting easier. If you print the the pattern onto freezer paper, then iron onto the felt and cut out!
You don’t have to print onto freezer paper though. You can pin the pattern pieces onto the felt and cut out like that also.
For this pattern, you’ll also need:
– turquoise wool felt- about 8 inches x 5 inches
– small amounts of red felt, purple felt, orange felt, white felt, black felt – You can also use whatever colors you like!
– embroidery floss in turquoise, red, purple, orange and black
– the free Wise Mr. Owl pattern
Cut out all the pieces. The pattern tells you which pieces should be cut from which color.
Just in case though- the body and bottom should be cut from turquoise. The wings should be from red. The tummy should be from purple. The wings and feet should be from orange. The eye whites from… um… white and the pupils from black.
Of course, you don’t have to use these colors! You can use any colors you like.
Place the tummy piece on the body piece as shown and sew in place with a back stitch with purple floss. If you’re not familiar with a back stitch, you can download My Little Book of Embroidery Stitches, which has instructions for a bunch of stitches.
Place the wings as shown in the photos and also stitch with a back stitch, with red floss.
If you want to stitch any designs on the tummy, now would be the time to do so. A little daisy would be pretty cute.
Next comes the beak. If you’re having a hard time figuring out where the beak goes, temporarily place the whites of the eyes to see what looks good. Stitch the beak in place.
You can actually use a blanket stitch for all of these stitches if you prefer, but I was really loving the back stitch.
Now there’s a tiny trick to the eyes. Instead of stitching on each piece individually, we’re going to stitch through the whites and the pupils all at one time. Stack the eyes in place on the body and use a back stitch through all the layers, stitching around the edge of the pupil with a back stitch.
Now it’s time to sew the back and front together! Match the back piece up to the wrong side of the front piece. Use a blanket stitch and start at the * symbol marked on the pattern.
Stitch up the side, around the top and down the other side. Stop at the + symbol marked on the pattern, but leave the floss connected.
Stick the legs inside the body with the feet sticking out. Pin the bottom in place with one of the long sides along the front of the body. Carefully stitch the pieces together across the front with a blanket stitch.
Stuff the owl with a little wool stuffing. Use a chopstick or unsharpened pencil to stuff the stuffing into the points at the top of his head.
Now finish stitching up the bottom!
Voila! You’re finished! What a sweet little owl guy!
What colors are you going to make your owl from?
This post was published on Muse of the Morning.com
