Out of the Mouths of Babes and Other Things

As you may know, I walk my Goddaughter to school on Friday mornings. She greeted me at the door last Friday with a big cuddle and said "I can smell your house". "Can you?" I replied, "Yes. You smell like your house.  I like the smell of your house".  I spent the rest of Friday walking around, bosom swollen with pride and feeling pretty good about everything.  Especially as I've been lacking in the housework department of late.  I just can't seem to get back to any sort of routine.  I'm telling myself its because I've been busy sewing a Birthday gift for my friend Betty, but I don't really believe that.  However, it has been GOOD FUN to pick up the needle again.  Betty collects Owls and I saw a soft toy kit back in November in Hobbycraft, fell in love with it and decided to make it for Betty, who's Birthday is at the end of January.

As you can see its produced by Anchor.  I decided I didn't want it to look exactly as the kit and so set about 'doing my own thing'.  I thought the wings would look better if they were laying on the front rather than stretching out to either side and I replaced some of the material with some from my stash.  Here she is with all the layers tacked on:

I used a mid-green perle thread and stitched either chain stitch or blanket stich around each shape for definition.  I felt I wanted it to be completely hand stitched rather than machining these shapes in place.  Oh and how I LOVED stitching.  I had completely forgotten how much I enjoy using needle and thread!  Thinking back it was at least ten years ago when I last did any embroidery or even machine sewing - oh, no, I lie, I did make a pair of curtains.  Anyhoo, it was a long time ago.  I decided eventually that I had to machine the back and front together, mainly because the seam allowance was such that it was so small I was afraid it would all tear apart as I was turning it right side out and thought machine stitches would hold it all together much better.

Ta-Dah

Looking at it now, I think perhaps I should have kept the wings outstretched as they probably needed to be placed just a little higher than they have ended up.  I didn't put the feet on either because they stuck out and looked odd as nothing else was sticking out, except the beak.  All in all, it was an enjoyable project, but if I do it again I will definitely cut the material much bigger to allow for a 'proper' seam allowance (the material provided was only just big enough for the provided pattern pieces) and I would place the wings and feet as per the original instructions.  I think she is absolutely gorgeous and I'm very pleased with the end result.  I hope the recipient will be too.