Wednesday 20 April 2011

Owl inspirations


One of my friends is due to have her baby boy in a couple of weeks and I needed an idea for a baby shower present.  I just happened to be reading Jacqui's amazing blog "Jack and Georgie"  (http://jackandgeorgie.blogspot.com/) and saw the beautiful owl that she made for one of her friends.

I used her owl idea to make an owl mobile.  I forgot to take photos of how I made the owls but you can refer to "Jack and Georgie" for the original instructions for this anyway. There were only two things that I added to my owls from Jacqui's idea.  I sewed the ribbon into the owl head as I sewed the owl together and I made some embroidery feet.  I decided that the baby would be looking up so the owls had to be anatomically correctish - ie. they should have feet of some description! I just used embroidery wool to make two or three "claws?" on each foot.  It is a stitch that my Grandma taught me when I was a wee thing but I have no idea of the name sorry.  


I bought some 5mm dowel from the hardware shop and asked Matt to saw them into 30cm (ish) pieces for me. I also asked him to drill some holes for the owl ribbons to thread through.  He was reluctant to do this for me and I found out why when I threaded the owls on - they did not balance!  So before you drill the holes for your owls make sure you balance them on the dowel first!  I sanded and stained my dowel pieces as well.  I used the clear stain that Matt uses to paint our deck.

 The last job to do was to thread the owls onto the dowel and to connect the two pieces of dowel together with another long piece of ribbon.  I then sewed a loop into the top of the hanging ribbon and the mobile is complete.   

                    

My next task is to make a pink owl pencil case for my 6yr old niece.  She has been obsessed with owls for many years after reading the story "Owl Babies".

Thanks for the inspiration Jacqui!