An owl softie for Cameron

I have made some improvements over my last owl. I love the bright, springy, girlie but not icky fabric. And the sewing has improved drastically since the last effort, if I may say so myself.

This owl, along with some baby blocks, was a gift to my cousin Cameron for her first birthday. She was giving the owl hugs before we left, so, I am hoping that’s a good sign!

Another Martha Stewart project – what can I say, I love her.

This is a super sweet project, and you may already have everything you need to complete it.

– Pair of gloves

– needle and thread

– Polyfill

– Buttons

– Ribbons

This project, from start to finish, takes about 20 minutes. Project found here.

Whoo-too: How to owl softie

I would make some changes to this softie the second time around, but this is a really simple, quick, simple softie project that requires only a few items that you probably already have.

1 fat quarter

random scraps of felt

thread

sewing machine or handsewn

Ignore the top - yours won't have the same mistake 🙂

Take your fat quarter and fold in half. This should create fabric that’s 18 X 10.5 inches. Cut a shape similar to a gummy drop with the folded part uncut at the bottom. Pick one side of the folded piece of fabric to be the front of your owl. Cut two wings out of felt and sew onto the edge of the body. Then cut a giant  triangle to serve as a beak, sew on. Then, cut two large white  circles for eyes, and sew so they slightly overlap onto the beak. Sew on two smaller black circles to create the pupils for the eyes. Then, sew two little feather-shaped felt cutouts to the top of the face.

Now that your face and wings are done, fold fabric the other way so that right sides are facing in. Sew around the open edges of your shape (be careful to keep the top feathers sticking out), leaving about 1.5 inches to turn the fabric right side out, then fill with polyfill, sew the remaining hole closed, and you’re done!

The mistake I made in this that I would not make again is choosing to have the hole to flip the owl inside out at the top of his head. This made for an awkward seam. It would have been much better to the hole along the bottom edge. Next time I will do it this way.

For variations, add glasses or even little felt feet.

Another dose of (softie) inspiration

One day I was looking for inspiration for a new softie project to make for home decorating, when I stumbled upon LucyKate Crafts. I seriously love her blog – so many beautiful projects, great pictures … it’s a great blog to spend an hour perusing.

I fell in love with her fox softies, and was inspired to create my own fox. It didn’t turn out as adorable as hers (she is a professional, after all), but still pretty cute.

Oh foxy, foxy

I have a soft spot for foxes, too, because our Cairn, Netta, reminds me of a fox.

Cairn Terrier

Actual fox

Handsewn puppet

I absolutely love making cute little projects out of felt. It’s a cheap, quick material to craft with. Total cost for creating this puppet was less than $1.

It’s part of the beginning of a series of admirable career-based toys. Coming up with this pattern, cutting everything out and sewing took a total of 1.5 hours, or about the length of one movie that you 1/2 pay attention to.

The doctor is in

Materials – white, off-white, black, chocolate brown felt. Several colors of embroidery floss.

Monster mittens

Ever since I saw this on Martha Stewart’s Web site, I have been dying to make them. I bookmarked them on my computer and waited for the perfect occasion.

Enter my cousin Riley’s 4th birthday party, coming up at the end of the month. This will likely only be part of his gift, but what a fun little homemade trinket to throw in the mix.

Finished!

This was a super easy project and would take someone who is good at hand sewing about 15 minutes. I found the mittens at KMart – they were actually Superman mittens but had a removable tag. It’s surprisingly difficult to find plain mittens nowadays. I freehand cut spikes for the monsters’ backs out of two pieces of felt, used red embroidery floss to sew on the spikes and button eyes, and make little nostrils. Simple and so cute.

Completing a craft project in our house is not easy with three out of control dogs. To give you an idea of what I was working with, our giant goldendoodle, Rufus, was quite offended to not be the center of my attention.

Can I eat those monsters?

How about if I bark at you?

Oh, hi. Were you trying to sew? How about giving me a haircut?

Matadors

For a former vegetarian, I have one of the strangest collections ever. Ceramic matadors. But that’s another post.

The ridiculously gaudy statues inspired one of my latest softie creations, a stuffed matador and cow. And later, a matching cowboy and cow to go with.

Matador, cows, cowboy

My ridiculous collection of matadors also inspired an early, perfect Valentine’s day gift from my husband – a red ceramic bull. Awesome.