t-shirt owl

gah! I gave in, again. I re-did my blog. just a wee bit.

I have this obsession with fonts lately, and it makes me wonder if I'd ever like the business of graphic design. My dad, along with a being a photographer/canoe&kayak builder/telescope crafter/gardener/puppy owner, is a graphic designer by profession. He would FREAK out if I told him it was something I was interested in. who knows....maybe someday...

well anyway I came across ^this^ fun font in my header on someone else's blog...that I do not know...that lives across the country....sooooo I hope it is okay that I tracked it down and used for my own blog. I hope? she doesn't know I exist. So I think it's okay :) I don't usually copy other people on purpose but it was such a GORGEOUS typeface. love it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and now the fun stuff! I enjoy writing up the occasional tutorial. I say occasional because it's a lot of work to document each step and not something I want to do very often, but I thought that this project was simple enough and Jonathan really wanted to take pictures of the whole process so...why not!

let me introduce you to yet another stuffed owl, this time made from an old t-shirt that was too frumpy on me. I got it at Gap for $3..and I think I only got it because it was cheap. it looks terrible on my body. So it was easy cutting it up into a bunch of pattern pieces!
 

Don't ask why I am so obsessed with owls lately...I'm just bored and trying to find projects that don't require spending money. And its fun to see Charlotte hug her stuffed animals. She really likes squeezing them these days and snuggling with them in bed. And she LOVES tags (like most babies) so I thought it would be fun to have a lovey with some ribbon tags for her to drool on.

I know owls are trendy right now but if you don't like them, you can make any other animal the same way.

So here was the frumpy shirt.

 

I folded it in half and used the v-neck as my outline for the pointy ears. You could just trace an outline for the ears too, but I was going with what would work best for this particular neck shape.

Then I drew a fat owl shape with a fabric marker...

 

                                                   and cut it out with a rotary blade.

 I removed the excess fabric, unfolded it, and had my two owl pieces. It was a very fat owl....

 With the extra t-shirt material I traced out some wings and little feet. There really is no art to this just make them the size and shape you want!

 

You don't have to do this, but I wanted some fun ribbon embellishments on this owl so I gathered a bunch of girly scrap ribbon and laid it out across the front in the way I wanted. It was a good use of my ribbon that I needed to use on something. I kept one long fat ribbon aside for "taggies" around the outside of my owl later.

If you don't have polyfill go get you some for $4 at Walmart. It comes in an enormous bag and will be useful for multiple projects. I sewed the wings and feet shut with one side open and stuffed them with fluff. The fluff stuffing is always fun.

So now that all the pieces are cut out and limbs stuffed, put that aside. I used a candle to burn the ends of my ribbon so they wouldn't fray. Just a little singe- nothing big. I admit I've caught lots of things on fire this way on accident...don't do that.

 Some ribbon I ruffled, some I pleated, and some I just sewed on. It doesn't matter how you do it, just whatever you think looks cute.

 After all the ribbon was sewed on I laid out everything the way I wanted it. My shirt had a breast pocket so I decided that would be one of the eyes closed shut.

 Sew the ribbon taggies inward, also the wings & feet. It all needs to face in so that when you turn it right side out they are showing.

 It took me a while to decide on how to do the eyes and beak, but I ended up making eyelashes with extra ribbon I had and sewing on fabric that had interfacing on the back.

 Turn everything inward and layer on the other owl piece. Pin around the egdes.

Leave a little opening for your hand to go through as you stuff. Turn it right side out and get to fluffing! I handstitched the opening shut because there was no way that thing was going on my sewing machine....

After it was done I decided this owl needed an eyeball...so I sewed on a button. If you couldn't tell, the one-eye-shut-one-open owl is winking...or peeping...or crazed. You pick :]

Now go stuff something with fluff! I promise you it's so gratifying.