Tutorial: Sew Your Own Owl Pillow

Whip one up one of these adorable little owls for yourself in a little over an hour. Or, you can spend the day and make a whole "parliment" of owls.

You will need 

• sewing machine 
• polyester fiberfill for stuffing 
• fabric for front and back of body 
• fabric for wings, eyes, feet and beak 
• fabric for eye background 
• thread 
• scissors 
• paper bag or other material to cut out pattern 
• pencil or pen 
• wooden spoon to push stuffing in the tight places

Let's get started!

Draw and cut a half an owl shape on a folded brown paper bag. (size depends on your bag or your preference) Unfold and trace owl shape on another brown paper bag, as you will need one for the front and back of owl.

Pin owl shape to desired fabric and cut out, leaving at least a half inch border. This will be the back of your owl.

Cut wings out of second owl shape. Set them aside and pin front of owl body to desired fabric.

Pin wing shapes to desired fabric.

Cut out a shape for the eye background and pin to desired fabric. I used an old wool sweater that I shrunk. I love how it turned out.

Sew wings to front of body.

Make little snips all around wings, just up to the stitching. This prevents fraying and looks cute.

Wings will look like this.

Trace two circles for the eyes. I used a little tin of Nivea cream. Trace two slightly smaller, as well.

As you can see in the image below, because of the design of my fabric, I was able to simply use these circles. Cut out a small beak out of desired fabric. Assembly will look like this!

Sew smaller circle to larger eye circle. Make little snips on both pieces, up to the stitching.

Sew smaller circle to larger eye circle. Make little snips on both pieces, up to the stitching.

Cut out two half circles for feet and sew them on, leaving the straight, bottom edge open. Snip up to stitching, as shown.

Place right sides of fabric together. Stuff wings and feet with polyester fiberfill. Sew front and back of owl together, leaving a large enough opening in top to turn owl right-side out.

After turning right-side out, stuff with desired amount of fiberfill and hand sew the opening closed. A wooden spoon handle is handy to push stuffing down nice and tight.

For more tutorials see my Art/Craft Tutorial Page

I previously published this project in my online women's magazine, Mermaids of the Lake!
Please visit:
Mermaids of the Lake E-zine: www.mermaidsofthelake.com

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