Owl Pillow

[liebschien.livejournal.com]

See a really cute owl pillow







The first time for me to make an envelope pillow case and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be and it turned out great.

EDIT: Wow! Thank you, everyone, for all the wonderful, kind words! You guys really made my day. Craftster.org got blocked from my work's internet today. LJ had been blocked from the get-go, so getting to read all your replies in my email kept a smile on my face even though I was suffering from craft-blog withdrawals.

Since I didn't have craftster to keep me occupied, I made a tutorial for this project.

OWL PILLOW TUTORIAL

You will need some different fabrics, I used six different colors of fabrics.

You will need a pillow form. I used a 20"x20".

Depending on your applique method, you may need either lightweight scrap fabric or lightweight interfacing. I use lightweight fusible interfacing.

If you would like to quilt the owl, you will need something to use as batting. I used fleece.

If you would like to embellish the owl with decorative embroidery, you will need some different colors of embroidery floss. I used 3 different colors that complemented my fabrics.

Draw a square that is 2 inches longer and wider than the size of your pillow form. I drew a 22" x 22" square on the back of some wrapping paper.

Draw out your owl base to look something like the picture below:



You should feel free to vary the angles to your liking - the above pattern is merely a guide.

Cut out the five pieces and use them as your pattern pieces to cut your fabrics.

Sew the pieces together in the following order*:

1. Piece #2 to #1

2. Piece #3 to #1

3. Piece #4 to the left angle

4. Piece #5 to the right angle

5. Sew pieces #4 and #5 together in the center.

The eyes and beak are appliques.

For the eyes, I traced small plates and other circular items to get the sizes I wanted, then I made them into appliques.

Trace two big circles, two medium circles, and two small circles on both your fabrics and your applique interfacing.

For the beak, I cut out a freehand triangle on the fabric and the interfacing.

This is the applique method I use:

1. Sew the fabric and the fusible interfacing together with the right side of the fabric and the fusible side of the interfacing together. Sew completely around all edges. Clip curves and corners.

2. Cut a slit in the middle of the interfacing and turn the pieces inside-out so right sides and fusible sides are out.

Now assemble the appliques:

1. Iron the big circles to the owl body base.

2. Iron the medium circles on top of the big circles.

3. Iron the small circles on top of the medium circles.

4. Iron the beak between the eyes.

Now for the quilting:

1. Cut out a square of batting that will fit the square, about 21"x21".

2. Pin the batting to the back of the owl all over the whole piece, but avoid putting pins over the seams used to sew the owl together.

3. Stitch in the ditch on the seams used to sew the owl together. Stitch the appliques into place.

Scalloped stitching on the owl's stomach area:

1. While it's sunny outside, hold the owl against a window with the batting facing you. You should be able to get an idea of where the scallops should go. Freehand them onto the fleece.

2. Stitch the scallops, either by hand or machine. I did it by machine.

Decorative Embroidery:

Now add decorative embroidery if you would like. I used the blanket stitch around the eyes and beak and I used the fern stitch along the wings and crown.

Finishing:

1. Trim the batting on the edges of the owl square so it's nice and neat.

2. Follow the tutorial at the following website for the envelope pillow case instructions:
http://sewing.about.com/od/freeprojects/ss/envelopepillow.htm?terms=envelope+pillow

3. On the two bottom corners, I rounded them and made them curves instead of corners. I wanted the top to stay pointy.

4. Put the pillow form inside the pillow case and snuggle!

* When I sewed the top triangle to the three pieces of the body, I did it as one piece and it was a real pain in the butt. So I am just guessing that it will be much easier to sew the top triangle in two pieces.