Lots of Sparkly Felt Owl Ornaments!

I've been trawling through my photo archives a lot lately looking for old project photos and a few weeks ago I found a folder of photos from a project I never shared here on my blog!

 
Way back in 2012 I posted a tutorial for making felt owl ornaments, adapted from the plush owl sewing tutorial I'd shared the previous year.

A few years ago I decided to revamp this tutorial, sewing lots of colourful felt owls as samples and taking step by step photos to make the post even more useful.

I stitched a whole batch of sparkly owls and took and edited photos of them...

... but never got round to taking the step photos or writing a new version of the tutorial!

I think I ended up being too busy and deciding that the original tutorial was perfectly good (which it is!) and just selling my finished felt owls and forgetting about them.

Having rediscovered the photos, though, it feels wrong to just let them sit gathering virtual dust so I thought I'd share them with you guys today.

Maybe they'll inspire you to visit my felt owl ornaments tutorial and make some cute and sparkly decorations of your own during the holidays? 

 

If you're celebrating Christmas tomorrow, I hope you'll have a great one xxx

Felt Barn Owl Mask Tutorial

UPDATE: my barn owl mask tutorial is now available via my Patreon page.

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The next project for my newsletter subscribers? A tutorial for making a fun felt barn owl mask!

 

This mask is really easy to sew and would be great for summer festivals, costume parties, Halloween or just dressing up like an owl because you feel like it. (And why not, right? Owls are awesome!)

 

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots of free patterns and project ideas... including a step-by-step tutorial for sewing this embroidered owl mask!

Felt Barn Owl Brooch Tutorial

The next free project for my pattern newsletter subscribers is gonna be...

... a little felt barn owl!

I made this fella a couple of years ago as part of my (rapidly abandoned) 100 Day Project. I thought it was high time I turned him into a pattern and I'm really looking forward to sharing it with you guys.

I'm still running a bit behind with my "monthly" patterns but I'll hopefully catch up soon. The emails might land in your inbox at slightly unexpected times but you'll still get a free project for each month this year.

Click here for more information about my newsletters and to subscribe!

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots more free patterns and project ideas.

Snowy Owls

Here's a quick snap I took a couple of weeks ago and forgot to share with you guys - I was sewing a whole bunch of snowy owls and realised that the movie I was watching at the time was rather appropriate!

How To: Felt Owl Ornaments

Look! I made some owl ornaments!

This is a slightly lazy how-to as it's not a new tutorial, but instead a suggestion for adapting my felt owl pattern to make some cute ornaments for your Christmas tree. 

Use the templates from this post, but print them at 50% instead of 100% and don't cut out any of the feather shapes. I did think about just making a mini version of my original owl in some festive colours but the feathers are pretty fiddly to cut out at half size and I wanted to add a bit of sparkle instead. 

To give you an idea of how they both work out, size wise, here's one of the owl ornaments...

... and here's the original plush felt owl I stitched last year:

You could use shades of brown felt for your owls as I have or pick your favourite colours or shades that tie in with your festive decorating scheme. 

A) Follow steps 1 & 2 as described in the original tutorial (just leaving out the feather shapes). 

B) Skip steps 3 & 4.

C) Follow steps 5 & 6 as described.

D) Then decorate your owls! 

I added gold sequins to one owl,  laying out the sequins first to work out the best arrangement and then stitching them in place one by one with orange sewing thread. I used two stitches per sequin, which I think helps the sequins look a little like feathers, maybe? I love how sparkly the finished owl is. 

I then embroidered the other owls with rows of single stitches, sewn with gold metallic embroidery thread (floss). I used half the number of strands, and took care not to pull my stitches too tight and distort the shape of the felt. Metallic thread can be quite fiddly to work with so if you're a beginner I'd recommend choosing a nice shade of standard thread instead. 

E) Add a loop of narrow ribbon about 15cms (6 inches) long. You can see how to do this over in my felt Christmas Tree ornaments tutorial. I used some super cute mini ricrac from my stash, but any narrow ribbon that matches your owls will do nicely. 

F) Follow steps 7 & 8 to sew up and stuff your owls... and you're done!

Your finished ornament will look something like this:

I think the owl ornaments would make adorable Christmas gifts - if you know someone who is a big owl fan, you could even sew them a whole parliament of owls for their tree. 

You could also make a garland by hanging the ornaments onto a length of matching ribbon, with colourful felt beads/balls strung in between and maybe add some felt oak leaves too for a woodland theme... or use an owl ornament as a gift topper on a larger Christmas gift decorated with oak leaves and faux bois paper.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it for as many ornaments as you like for yourself or as gifts for friends but please don't make any for sale. Please feel free to borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial or any pattern pieces on your site. Thanks!

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Show and Tell: The Owl Edition

This is a very special edition of my "show and tell" series. Instead of crafty things made by my customers, today I'm sharing things made by my blog readers. Well, one specific thing actually... felt owls made using this tutorial.

I've been collecting these photos for a while (for at least a year!) and have finally got around to putting them all together to share with you guys. It's been so lovely seeing so many owls popping up around the internet since I published the tutorial - it's wonderful that so many people have liked my owl enough to sew one for themselves!

Sandra from Homely Pursuits made her owl as part of a pledge to do a "monthly make" throughout 2012:

Michela of FantaFeltro made a trio of mini owls:

Alexis at Wagon Full of Stars made a felt owl...

... and a fun felt owl activity board for her son who shouted "Owl! Owl! Hoo hoo!" upon seeing my tutorial :)

Georgina stitched a couple of purple owls:

Kristin from Domestically Unemployed used my owl pattern to make her very first felt stuffie: 

Karen from Sunburnt Quilts made a whole parliament of owls...

... including a cute Christmas-themed owl!

Jessica got in touch via Etsy to share some of her first felt creations - including an owl and some flower hairclips made using patterns from my book, Super-Cute Felt.

Daniela from Assim ou assado adapted my owl pattern to make a case for her phone:

Laura of Betula'Loo wrote a guest post here last autumn about the fun crafternoon she had making felt owls with her friends:

Rozantia used a recycled woolen jacket & sweater, plus some felt to make this tweedy owl:

And (last but by no means least) Chris from 365 days of DIY used my owl pattern as inspiration for adding some awesome felt owl elbow patches (or "owlbow" patches) to one of her cardigans:

Thanks to everyone who shared photos of their owls! If you'd ever like to share pics of what you've been making from my tutorials, please do get in touch. You can leave a comment & a link here on my blog, or get in touch via my website contact form. 


Want to make your own owls, or to give as gifts? You can find the free felt owl pattern HERE.

How To: Felt Owl

UPDATE: my step by step felt owl tutorial can now be found as a printable PDF pattern over on my Patreon. 

Subscribe to get instant access to a growing library of PDF embroidery patterns and craft tutorials, and updates when I add something new! 

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As promised, today I'm sharing a tutorial to make your own felt owl.

This cute little guy would look really sweet propped up against your books (wise owls love books!). Alternatively you could fill him with lavender instead of polyester stuffing to make a cute lavender sachet, or add a loop of ribbon before you sew his front and back together and display him on the wall or hanging from a door handle.

Subscribe to my newsletter for creative updates and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots of free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns: