DIY- Make This Cute Owl Plushie with My Free Template

Here's a super easy to sew project that you can finish in about an hour or so. My owl plushie, who I've named  the Far Out Owl, is made from simple cotton quilting fabric, felt and fleece.  He's got a little bit of hand stitching to give him some handmade yummyness, too.

Here's the template for the owl. You may have to enlarge or reduce it to the size you want your owl to be.  Just whatever size you want to work with. Right click the picture and save it to your desktop to print out. It might be a bit blurry, but that's ok, I'm going to walk you through it and the pattern pieces aren't rocket science - just make them about how you see them in the template.

Materials: cotton quilting material in 2 colors, felt in 4 colors, fleece, embroidery floss, a little piece of fabric bonding material such as Steam-A-Seam Lite, needle and thread, and polyester filling material.

Cut 2 of the whole body shapes from the fabric you'll be using.  This will be the lower front of the owl and the entire back. I used a dark green swirly pattern. Take one of these and put it aside. The other one will have all your applique work added.
Cut 1 piece of the contrast quilting material that will be on the top half of the owl. I didn't show it on my template, but it goes completely across the front of the body in a straight line. DON'T cut it around the eyes. It will be behind the eye pieces.
Take the bonding material and cut it into 4 or 5 little pieces. Use these to hold the contrast material to the main body material and iron them into place. This makes it a breeze to sew later. You don't need a lot of it, just a piece here and there. Mine were about a half inch square.

After you bond the materials together, take the triangle you cut out for the beak, put it in place with a pin and sew all around it about 1/8 inch from the edge of the felt. Then, place the large circles for the eyes and do the same thing.
Using a full strand of embroidery floss, stitch the middle size felt circles in the center of the large circles. Use a large, loose overhand stitch. You want to see these big stitches and it makes it look nice and handmade, too. Stitch the smaller circles in the center of the middle circles using matching sewing thread. The last step for the eyes, use embroidery floss to add large stitches all around the large circles.

Place the wing pieces in  position and baste them by stitching 1/8 from the edge. Just do the area that is on the cut edge. You will sew the rest by hand later.

Now, place the back and front sides of the owl together, with right sides facing. You should see the "inside out" of your fabric. Pin the layers together and stitch 1/4 inch all around, leaving an opening at the bottom for turning. Turn the owl through the hole and stuff firmly. Close the hole with a slip stitch.  Using sewing thread, stitch the wings down with a small overhand stitch. Use a full strand of embroidery floss to make large running stitches on the wings.

That's it! You're finished! See, wasn't that easy? The directions just looked long because I'm probably too wordy.

Leave me a comment if you see that I've left something out in the directions.