Owl Sewing Kit

Hello Everybody,

My friend was having a sewing party for her birthday and I thought it would be nice to make her a gift that she could use when crafting and sewing. I found this cute little owl on Etsy and decided to copy it. You can buy the embroidery design files here and quite a few people on Etsy seem to be making these owls and selling them. I'm not sure what embroidery design files are and I'm fairly sure my antique Singer sewing machine is not suitable for using them! So, I decided I'd just have a go at trying to copy it.

Here is the finished product:

I started off by drawing a template on paper, pinning it onto my two differently coloured fabrics and cutting them out. I then ironed on some stiff interfacing to give it some more support. I used a fabric scrap (curtain fabric sample) to make a little pocket on the front for bits and pieces and machined it on, making 3 separate compartments. I then cut out some felt eyes and a beak and hand-sewed them on using black embroidery thread. I used 2 tiny spotty buttons for the centre bit of the eyes as I thought they looked really cute.

I then cut out 2 long purple felt rectangles with pinking shears, folded them and machine sewed them into place. I made a little pin cushion for the other wing using turquoise felt. I hand stitched this into place and left a little gap to stuff it later. Next, I added 2 elastic loops for a stitch picker and 2 buttons to the underside wings for the closing clasp.

I pinned the two pieces of fabric together with the right sides facing inwards and machine sewed along the edge, leaving a gap at the bottom. I turned the owl inside out and lightly stuffed the wings. I then machine sewed a line along either side of the body and stuffed the body well with toy stuffing. At this point, I also stuffed the pin cushion and finished attaching it to the left wing.

Once I'd stuffed the body, I sewed it shut. The seam was a bit messy and lacking something, so I found a rectangle of denim and chain stitched my friend's name on it with embroidery thread. I then attached this to cover the seam. Finally, I added 2 elastic loops at the bottom to hold a couple of spools of thread and added a little elastic closure to attach to the buttons.

I bought a pair of pretty polka dot scissors, a measuring tape, stitch picker and a few pins and needles to complete the kit.

She seemed to really like it. It took quite a long time to make but I think it was because I was doing a lot of guessing and hadn't really thought it through before I started making it. I would definitely like to make another one as a gift. If I'm honest, I'd quite like one myself- they're rather handy!

Thistle Girl x