Owl Stuffed Animal

Do you need a gift to give to a friend? Do they enjoy homemade gifts? Do they like owls? If you answered yes to any of these questions this is the project for you. People love when you make them gifts, especially ones that they can hold and squeeze. Making plushies is easy, as long as you have the templates, so I went ahead and made the templates for this owl to save you time and frustration. This project takes very little or no sewing knowledge to make. You just have to be patient and you will figure it out.

You will need:

Sewing machine

Needle

Thread

Bobbins

Stuffing (I'm using poly fill)

Scissors

Owl templates

Pins

Fabric (felt, fleece, ect..)

Time

Little knowledge of sewing

Print your templates on thick paper (cardstock). Then cut them out.

Trace your templates on your fabric then cut. Now is the time to decide how you want your beak (it is labeled "nose"). Option one will have part of the beak anchored under the eyes. Option two will not have that. I will be using option two. When you cut the body, cut 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the line you traced. This is called "seam allowance." You will need a body color, a wings color, orange for the beak, white for the eyes, and black for the pupils.

Make sure you have bobbins ready. I am using three colors of thread, so i have three matching bobbins. You can run some practice stitches on scrap fabric. Also make sure that you have pins.

You can either sew the features on now (wings, eyes, etc...) or you can hot glue them on later. I will sew them on for my owl. I am hand-stitching the pupils to the eyes, then using the sewing machine for the rest. Add the features on the opposite side you traced on when you attach them to the body. Remember that you will be needing to use seam allowance, so don't put them right on the edge.

When you sew the halves together leave a one inch hole at the bottom so you can stuff it. You also need to sew it inside out. Whatever you want to be visible needs to be on the inside of your owl when you sew it. Make sure you don't go off the edge.

Now you need to take your owl and stuff it through itself. Luckily you left a one inch hole at the bottom. You may need to use a chopstick to help turn it inside out. Just go slowly being careful not to rip any wings or eyes off.

Take the owl and fill it with stuffing. You will need a lot more than you think. Just keep adding stuffing until you think that it feels right. Make sure that you get the stuffing up into the ears and that you have added enough stuffing. It should be plump and squishy.

Use the ladder stitch to close the hole at the bottom. Just push the stuffing back from the hole to make it easier to sew. Sew it up. It is an invisible seam if you do it properly.

Congratulations. You have made your first owl. Now go make a bunch of them and hand them out to friends or give them as gifts. With some practice, these can be made in around 30 minutes. Just sit down on a weekend and make tons of them, which everyone will love. If you enjoyed this project, please vote for it in the "Homemade Gifts" contest, and the "Patterns" contest.