Perching Owls - a clothes upcycle tutorial

I saw perching fabric owls on market stalls when we were travelling in Asia at the beginning of this year and wanted to try making them myself.

So since I have a growing pile of scrap fabric from this year's clothes upcycling challenge, 

I thought I'd use those scraps to give them a go.

First I drew a basic owl shape to use as my template. You can download the PDF of that here.

Here's how to make a perching owl.

Using the template, cut two main owl bodies. I used denim scraps from old jeans for this.

Then for the features. I used white and black for the eyes, pink for the beak and coloured scraps for the tummy. For these features you will need to use fusible webbing ironed onto the back of your fabric, and then cut your pieces from that, which you can then iron on.

Every time I use this fusible webbing for an appliqué project, I keep the offcuts - so I had a bag full of scraps to cut owl features from too!

Here's my three owls with the features cut out and ready to iron on.

Using a damp cloth on top of the features, press with a hot iron to stick the pieces to one main owl body.

Then using the applique stitch on your machine, or a tight zig zag, stitch around the features to secure them.

Your owls are now ready to put together. Pin the two main owl body parts, right sides together.

Stitch around the edge, leaving a gap in the base to turn the owl right sides out.

Then clip the tips of the ears and the curves a little.

Turn your owls right sides out, and stuff with fabric scraps. I used the really small scraps and threads from my thread catcher!

Once your owls are stuffed, hand stitch the openings closed. Now you're ready to make them perch!

You will now need a stick for your owl to perch on, some embroidery thread for the 'feet', some string and some invisible thread.

 Take your owl and a needle threaded with some coloured embroidery thread. Stitch loops around the stick and through the base of your owl where you want the 'feet' to grip onto the stick.

Once the owls feet are secured, you need to tie some string to the stick on either end with a loop in the middle big enough to hang the owl up.

Finally using some invisible thread, secure some thread from the centre of the top of the owl head and then tie around the top of the string loop where you will hang the owl. this will stop the owl toppling off his perch!

Now your owls are finished. Hang them up and admire them!

For the free downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here.

I think these owls will make a cute addition to the school carnival stall, what do you think?

To see what else I made from clothes to sell at the school fair this year, go here.

Classy little jewellery pouch tutorial

These bags are easy to make – and perfect for jewellery with the

 small individual pockets inside:

First you need to make your pattern.  

You need three paper circles – one large, one medium and one small.  I used a serving dish, a plate from the kitchen  and a cup to draw around. 

The large circle is approx. 31 cm (12”) in diameter, 

The medium circle is 22 cm (8.5”) in diameter, 

The smallest circle is 8 cm (3.25") in diameter. 

This will make a finished bag around the size of the palm your hand – but you can make any size you choose!
Cut these three circles out of paper:

Then cut out your fabric. 

Outer Fabric
One large circle and two small scrap rectangles.

Inner FabricOne large circle Two medium circles 

You will also need some thick plastic – a washed juice or milk bottle is fine, or I used an old kid's table placemat – for the smallest circle.Ribbon or cord for the drawstring, 2 x 50 cm (19.5") 

Take the outer large circle and fold into quarters. Place a pin on two edges.

Open the circle out, and place the pins around 3 cm (1.25") in from the edges. 

Make a button hole where each pin is, in two opposite edges of the circle. This will be where the drawstring cord or ribbon feeds through when you’re done!

Then place the two large circles, right sides together and pin around the edge.

Stitch all the way around, then snip a hole in the centre of the inner fabric. This is where you will turn the fabric circles right sides out.

Repeat this process for the two inner circles. Pin them right sides together, stitch around the outside, snip a hole in the centre of one circle and turn them right sides out.

 Now place the large circle flat with the inner fabric facing up.  Place the plastic circle in the centre over the hole you snipped.

 then place the smaller circle on top of that, with the hole facing down against the plastic.

Pin around the plastic circle to hold it in place.

 Then stitch around the circle, feeling with your fingers as you go to keep your stitching even with the edge. If you use the zipper foot attachment on your machine, it makes it easier to sew close to the circle edge.

Next you need to stitch the pockets.  Stitch straight lines from the centre circle – to the outer edge of the smaller circle. Stitch slightly over the edge to make it a little stronger.

I didn't measure any of these pockets so they vary a little in size.

Since I chose one light and one dark fabric, I also threaded my machine with one dark and one light thread - light on the top for the pink fabric, and dark on the bottom for the outer blue fabric.

Now you need to stitch the casing for the drawstring. Stitch two rows of stitching all the way round the outside of the larger circle – one row on either side of the buttonholes you made earlier.

  So now you can thread your ribbon or cord through the casing using a large safety pin.

You will need the two lengths of ribbon or cord. Thread one all the way round and out one buttonhole.

Tie the two cord ends together.

Then thread the other cord round and out the second button hole – so you end up with something like this.

To finish the edges off, take two small rectangles of the outer fabric (approx. 8 x 4 cm (3.15 x 1.5”)). Fold each rectangle in half, right sides together and stitch down the sides, leaving the end open:

Then turn this mini ‘pocket’ right sides out.

  Insert the ends of the ribbon or cord, one into each pocket.  Fold the ends in and stitch across the tops to secure in place.

All done!  Ready to fill up with jewellery!

They look great in lots of different colours.

The downloadable PDF version of this tutorial is available here.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, why not take a look at

My Free Tutorials Page

There are over 100 free sewing tutorials for all levels of sewing ability.

Jill

NB This tutorial is one I made several years ago. This is an updated version.

Flip Flop Bag from Jeans - another clothes upcycle

After a short break over the school holidays, I'm getting back to some clothes upcycling for this year's school carnival.

This bag was inspired by one we saw in an airport in Asia while we were travelling at the beginning of this year.

I used a brown pair of jeans for the main bag and part of a skirt for the lining (I'd started using some of the skirt for a turtle tote I made a few weeks ago). 

I just made a basic simple lined tote. For the flip flops on the front I used scraps and fusible webbing to applique them, then hand - stitched some old kids plastic necklaces and bracelets (I knew I'd kept them for something!) on for the straps.

I'm really happy with how simple effective this was!

Overall, a cute bag - simple to make and hopefully another hit at the school stall!

To see what else I've made so far from clothes for the school carnival, go here.

Or for more general sewing inspiration, check out 

my free sewing tutorials page. 

There are over 100 free tutorials for all levels of sewing ability.

Jill

New jewellery storage

It's the school holidays just now here in Cairns and I'm really enjoying spending time with my girls.

At the beginning of the week we spent some time tidying and sorting the girls' bedrooms. While we were doing this, my youngest accidently knocked a shelf in her room, bringing it and it's contents crashing to the ground. Unfortunately her big jewellery box was one of the things that was smashed apart in the fall.

I could look at glueing the pieces back together - but I'm not the biggest fan of glue, and a lot of the wood pieces are split quite badly, so I think the pieces might just be de-constructed for another use!

So - my daughter needed somewhere to keep her jewellery. Since her room is very ...erm...full, something smaller is definitely better!

I decided to make her a jewellery bag.

She chose the fabrics, and I went back to my own

jewellery bag tutorial and whipped one up.

It has several small pockets on the inside - so all those chains can be kept separate and not get all tied and tangled up!

It's such a cute little style of bag.  They'd be great little Christmas presents I think.

I'm getting lots of sewing done with and for my girls this holidays. I'll have lots of projects to share on the blog, very soon!!

Jill