Hoo'ville returns

I made another owl. This one is slightly more advanced than my first attempt. Slightly.

This time I appliqued all the pieces using zig-zag stitches around the entire piece...it looks MUCH better than my initial attempt when I just used a topstitch and left unfinished edges. I drew up a pattern for myself (something I've never done before), to make sure that I liked the proportions before I started cutting the fabric.

Since this was a gift for a newborn I made sure that all the fabrics were pre-washed...I also made sure to use materials that were washable so that the new mommy could easily stick this in the laundry, if needed.

I started by piecing together the eyes...which was much more difficult than it sounds. I didn't use any kind of stabilizer, which meant that keeping the two very soft fabric flat was a challenge. (note: I did, very stupidly, try to iron some fusible interfacing to the back of the fleece to help... DON'T do this! it melted. onto my iron. it was a nightmare)

(i made 3 eyes before i finally succeeded...)

In the end, I used two eyes that weren't exactly the same...which I thought gave a wonky-fun look...right?

(appliqued)

After all of the pieces were appliqued to the front of the owl, I sewed the front and back together, turned it inside out and...

(before stuffing)

Then I stuffed 'er up.

(stuffed! the iron is cold...I'm never taking fleece close to an iron again) 

I could have been clever and sewn a tag on BEFORE sewing the sides together and stuffing, but I didn't think that far ahead.

(tagged!)

Then I shipped her off to the brand new baby! (along with this fleece flowered hat).

c'est tout!

alina