It is 1:13 am on Friday morning. I cannot sleep - so I decided to blog. The worry surrounding a cross-country move has set in (the highs and lows have been hitting me constantly!).
These little guys were the most stressful aspect of my handmade Christmas gift giving. They were impossible to work on in front of my children: gone are the days when Gregory is oblivious to what I am making. Finding the energy to work on them after the kids had gone to bed was not easy! I was also stressed about the eyes: I get worried that if I mess up softie faces, the whole project will be horrible. Long story short, I was saved by using plastic "safety" eyes - although I do think the original eyes called for in the pattern are cuter (the pattern is from a real-life friend, Shannon Orr, and is found here.)
Anyway, I persevered with my goal to provide a matchy-handmade gift for each of my children. I know these days when they are young and like things like this are fleeting. A few years down the road, they will be begging me for gadgets and other teenager-y things and I know I will yearn for the days when they appreciated my handmade gifts.
I loved that the pattern has you put a layer of fusible fleece to line the main body pieces- at first, I thought this could be skipped, but I soon realized that you definitely want that extra firmness when sewing so many things to the owl.
I changed a few things from the pattern besides the eyes: I added 9 feathers (25 instead of 16) and I added flat wings and feet instead of stuffing them with filling. The feathers are my favorite aspect of this project - it's too cute!
The kids love them so far, the favorite activity has been making them fly by throwing them around.
The final gift I sewed together was a Take Along Tote for my mom. I used a Vintage Modern charm pack and other stash fabrics to put it all together:
I will be back with a 2013 year-end wrap up post. Thanks for reading!
5 comments:
Those two owls and their owners are certainly adorable. You did a fabulous job on all! And what a gorgeous tote you made for your mom! I would love it if you would add this post to the linky party on my blog for the last TGIFF of 2013 at http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com
I love the tote for your mom fantastic job and beautiful fabrics.
the owls and the recipients are adorable.
Wow! I love the owls. They are so adorable. I definitely like how the feathers look fuller.
Can you post a link to the tote pattern please? It is just what I need to make and my Google-Foo has let me down in trying to find something similar!
Love these owls - what fantastic gifts to make for the kids!!
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