Crafts

Euli sewing patternTo sew your own Owlie the first thing you need is the sewing pattern. A click on the picture to the left will open a box with its original size, then you can save it with right click. All pieces of the sewing pattern fit on a DinA4 page in original size and I cut off some free space of the scan. So if you print Owlie on a full page yours should have the same size as mine. Of course you can change the size of the pattern to your liking too as long as you resize all parts. (Enlarging and fitting patterns on several pages can be quite a pain...)

What you need for Owlie:

- Fabric for the body and wings, how much depends on your chosen size and the colours are your choice, of course!
- Felt in black and white for the eyes and in colours of your choice for the outer eye ring, belly and beak
- Thread which fits your chosen colours
- Scissors for fabric and for paper
- Sewing needles
- Fixing pins
- Pencil or trick marker to transfer the pattern
- Sewing machine (optional)
- Stuffing, e.g. synthetics

Tip: Often you can get good stuffing cheap by buying a cheap pillow. I like to use the cheap sofa pillows from IKEA since I know the stuffing is okay and I can also re-use the fabric and the interfacing. Of course you can buy various sorts of stuffing in small and large packages at craft or fabric stores too.

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After printing and cutting out the sewing patterns you need to decide on one of the wing variants. The first variant is the simplest, it's rounded and looks cute. The middle variant has a little detail and the third one is for people who like to make the wings more realistic. In that case you should transfer the feather details to the outer piece of the fabric and embroider them.
The belly also comes in two variants, one is round and the other has an edge.

First of the fabric should be ironed, that makes everything easier. When tranferring the pattern take care to make two wings in reverse. The body and the belly are put on folded fabric so that the edge of the pattern sits exactly on the edge of the fold. (Alternatively, you transfer the first half to the fabric, mark the edge and fold the pattern over to draw the other half.)

Transfer all parts with a pencil or trick marker to the left side of the fabric. When cutting out leave an additional 1cm seam allowance on the body and wings. If you make belly, beak and eyes from felt you don't need a seam allowance on those. If you want to make the belly from fabric though you will need a seam allowance on that part too. Transfer the missing body and belly halves to the other half of the folded fabric.
I cut out the dotted parts on the body pattern too and thus transfer the positions of the eyes and belly to one piece of body fabric too.

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By sticking fixing pins through the marked positions on the left side of the fabric I can locate the right place for the outer eye ring on the right side. (Since the fabric has a regular pattern two pins are enough in this case - on a busier fabric I'd recommend using four or more.) Place the felt within the markings, fixate it with a fixing pin and remove the other pins again.

Sew the outer eye ring by hand with a regular stitch. If you like things extra tidy you can use your sewing machine for this.

Then do the same for the belly. If your belly is made from fabric I recommend to make cuts into the seam allowance all around, then bend and iron it to the back. That way it's much easier to sew on.

The eyes are also sewn on by hand. By changing the position of the pupils you can achieve a wide range of emotions. Let Owlie look upwards, sidewards or make it cross-eyed. You could cut half circles from felt as eye lids and make her sleepy, too.

As a last step, sew on the beak.

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This is what it should look like when it's done.

Tip: If you prefer your craft items to look a bit more crude you can sew and stuff Owlie first and then attach the appliques with random stitches by hand, of course.

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Next up are the wings. Place one wing half and a reverse piece left sides together and sew them with the sewing machine. (Of course you can do it all by hand if you don't have one.) Leave an opening of ~2cm on one side for turning and stuffing.

Make little cuts in the seam allowance all around the rounded edges while taking care not to hurt the seam. This way the wings look smoother after turning. Cut back the seam allowance to 2-3mm all around.

Turn the wing - I use a haemostat for this. If you don't own a turning tool better leave a slightly bigger opening. A thick knitting needle or chopstick can be helpful too. Stuff the wing lightly and close the opening by hand using a ladder stitch.
Repeat for the other wing.

In case you use wing variant 3 the feather detail has to be embroidered before sewing.

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Next up the darts in Owlie's body are sewn (the triangle indentation at the bottom). I recommend to fix them into place with pins and then baste them before sewing them. This will become the bottom, so Owlie can stand.
Fold the fabric right sides together for this.

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Place both body halves right sides together and fixate them with pins. Since this almost always generates some variation I sew with the side with the face showing upwards. If I would sew along the markings on the back part and both halfes are not placed exactly on top of each other the face might become misaligned.
Baste at least the bottom to make sure it fits well together.

Sew all around with the sewing maching, leaving an opening of 5-6cm at the bottom for turning and stuffing.

Turn Owlie right side out, then stuff it. Use a knitting needle, chopstick or haemostat to stuff the ears first, then work your way up to the bottom. Many stuffing materials tend to shrink a bit over time so stuff generously and tight - but not so tight that the seams burst!

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After stuffing close the opening with a ladder stitch.

Tip: If your Owlie is supposed to stand firmly (e.g. as a bookend) sew a small sack and fill it with clean pebbles, sand, rice or heavy pellets and position this sack in the bottom of Owlie's body. It should be wrapped by stuffing so Owlie doesn't get an unsightly bulge and depending on its size you should leave a more generous opening so it actually fits through.

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As a last step Owlie gets wings. You can use various methods to attach them. My Owlie uses buttons. You can also use beads, decorative embroidery thread or attach them invisibly by just sewing their underside to the body (which might look more attractive with wing variant 3). Up to your taste!
If you use wings with detail make sure that the smoother edge shows forewards and the wavy edge to the back.

I used an extra long doll needle (13cm) to sew on the wings. That way I could go completely though the body and attach both wings at once. If you do such projects at least now and then it's a useful addition to your tool stash. It's not vital though.

Well, Owlie is done! Have fun with it!

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Want to make your own Akshi wool doll to cuddle and love? Great! Here's how!

Material:

First of, you'll need the How to make a Pompon tutorial and all the materials listed for that. To make the pompons for Akshi you need yellow wool.
Furthermore you need the following:
- darning needle, sewing needle
- decorative yarn in orange and pink
- orange, pink and white felt 1.5mm
- thick (3mm) yellow felt for the tail
- 2 wiggly eyes (about 10mm in diameter)
- waterproof black pen or black yarn
- stuffing
- for alternative ways to make her you can use needle felting supplies (wool rovings) or acrylic paint for her eyes

Of almost all those things small amounts will do. I typically need 1-1.5 skeins of wool. It depends on how thick your wool is and how fluffy you want to make your pompons. You also need to print out the template. I added a scale so you can check for accuracy of your print but there's no harm in making Akshi bigger or smaller as long as you can arrange an alternative for the wiggly eyes. (They are available in other sizes too, bzw.)

 

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Step 1:

Print the template and cut out all parts. The rings for Akshi's body are transferred to cardboard. (Like all pictures in my tutorials, you can click the template to get a popup with a larger version which you can then save with right click.)

Use the template to make the pompons for Akshi. The tutorial linked above shows you how. You need one slightly oval large pompon for the body and a smaller round pompon for the head. Don't cut off the threads you use to fasten the pompons in the end!

 

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Step 2:

From orange felt cut the three parts of Akshi's beak. You need two of the rounded triangle shape and one of the longish part.
Put the two rounded parts on top of each other, get out the decorative yarn and start sewing along the rounded part (A). Once you reach the end of that line add the third part. The more pointed end of that one should go in front while the more rounded part is used to close off the beak at the back. I hope the photos help understand this better. Sew B to B and then fold the long part upwards and sew C to C. Then use a new thread to sew D to D on the other side but don't sew E to E yet.

Tipp: If you don't like this beak you can use your needlefelting supplies to make another one. For that I provided the template at the bottom as a rough sketch of how much felting wool is needed. The beak must be very strong in the back, therefore the template is much longer than Akshi's actual beak should be to allow for firm stitches. You can also use other materials too, of course. Make a beak from pipecleaners like Akshi v1 has, fold a piece of triangular paper and glue it in place with pva glue, crochet or knit a beak if you have an idea how or make a simpler felt beak. It's up to you.

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Step 3:


Stuff the beak with stuffing, cotton, even a leftover piece of soft fabric or a paper handkerchief ripped to shreds will do if you don't have anything else at hand. Once it's fluffy enough for your taste sew E to E to close it off.

Next up cut the feet from orange felt. You need two identical parts for each foot. Sew them all around, add stuffing and close them too.

Tipp: In earlier reincarnations Akshi had simple, thick orange felt (3mm) for feet. You could do it that way if you prefer. Maybe still with a decorative trim?

 

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Step 4:

Cut the tail from thick yellow felt and sew all around it with decorative yarn. The tips of Akshi's feathers are pink so make sure to take that into account.
Once that is done also cut both eyes and the nose from white and pink felt. Now you have all parts ready to assemble Akshi!

Tipp: There are several alternatives for making Akshi's tail. You can leave the thick felt as is and only add pink yarn at the top, or use paint suitable for fabric on it. Or you could needlefelt the tail. (Warning though: I did so for Darkest_Secret's Akshi and in my opinion it's a bit prone to sagging. Maybe incoorporate some wire into such a project.) You can twist pipecleaners like v1 has or cut two tail parts from thinner felt and sew and stuff them like the feet and beak. Heck, you could even use real yellow feathers if you want.

 

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Step 5:


Start by tying the two pompons together. Simply use the threads for this that you finished them with. Make a knot that keeps them snuggly together so Akshi's head doesn't sag - but not so tight that she ducks! At this point it's also a good idea to take the scissors and give her a haircut. I shortened the wool on her chest so it's almost in line with her head. It's also good to flatten her belly to make her less likely to tip over. Apart from that just trim her so she looks smooth.

Next up Askhi gets feet. Use the same wool you used to make the pompons and a darning needle, take the wool double and make a stitch into the first foot. (Note: actually it's best NOT to make this stitch in the middle but closer to the inner side of her feet, then she doesn't have such strong knock knees as mine has ^^)
Definitely use a darning needle for this, as you can hurt yourself quite much when feeling around in the wool ball for a real needle and blood doesn't look that good on Akshi!
Pinch the needle through the harder core of her body and bring it up on the other side. From there make a stitch downwards, again going through the harder core. Attach the other foot and make a stitch upwards to the other side. One last stitch downwards and you're back where you started from. Tie a knot to secure the feet. The harder you pull the closer to Askhi's body the feet are but the more knock kneed she becomes. The final position is up to your taste. ^^ Cut off the loose ends.

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Step 6:

Put the pink felt for the nose on the beak, with the little gap pointing towards the beak's tip, shortening the left and right size if needed. (I made the template for the nose slightly on the big side since depending on your sewing style and the amount of stuffing the beak might differ in size. Just shorten the nose on both sides equally until it fits your beak.) Use some pink thread to sew it to the end of the beak, then fold the other end over. Secure the lower ends of the nose with a few stitches to keep it from flopping back into its initial position.

 

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Step 7:

Time to get out the wool again. With two strands of wool in the needle make one or two horizontal stitches through the back of Akshi's beak. Make a stitch through the core of her head from front to back and another stitch back to the front, then stitch it through the beak again. Tug on both ends until it sits nicely. The nose should sink a bit into her feathers so that all stitches made on the back end of the beak are hidden. Make a knot and cut off the loose ends.

 

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Step 8:

Time to prepare her eyes! Use a wiggly eye as guidance for the eye but don't glue it on just yet. Just use the marker to paint Akshi's lashes and make sure the upper eyelid touches the wiggly eye or Askhi will have a manic stare. For better effect also paint the sides of the felt, not just the front.
If you don't want to use a marker (the colour bleeds a bit and if it's not lightfast it will fade) you can use black thread instead and stitch the lashes, but I must confess this usually just wears the felt out and it might even rip. You might try to harden the rims of the eyes with some PVA glue first or glue a piece of paper to the back. If you don't want to use wiggly eyes you can also draw the eyes on or use embroidery for them. In that case you should know that Akshi has golden/amber eyes.

However you design her eyes, remember to make the second one mirrored. ^^

 

 Step 9:

With a single thread and the darning needle stitch the eyes to the head, going through the core as always. Start at the backside of an eye so that your knot will also end up behind the eyes and get hidden in the head. The eyes won't sit as tightly as the other body parts and you might encounter them turning or sagging while playing. If that annoys you you can use a bit of PVA glue on their back later to fix them to the head more securely.

As a last step the wiggly eyes are glued on with PVA glue or superglue. Superglue creates a stronger bond but for me PVA glue always did the trick so far.

 

 

 Step 10:

Last but not least attach the tail. I have no clue why I forgot to take pictures of this, my apologies. It's basically the same technique as for the other limbs though. Start with a horizontal stitch through the tail (starting at the back to hide the knot later), go through the core to the front and back, then make another horizontal stitch slightly above the first. Tug on both ends slightly and check if the tail sags. If it does repeat the stitch through the core and make a third stitch through the tail. Once it sits decently tie a knot, cut off the loose ends and give Akshi a last haircut.

Your done! Put her on a shelf and cuddle her a lot!

This tutorial is now over and you can ask questions if you still have any. You can view some more photos of the finished Akshi v4 in the gallery.

 


 

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Pompons

Pompons are soft and fluffy balls commonly made from wool.

They are incredibly useful for a number of projects so I decided to make a spin-off tutorial for them instead of explaining their making with each in-depth project.

Pompons can be used to decorate all kind of clothes - typically bonnets but I've also seen them on legwarmers, bags, gloves etc - and you can even make small toys and decorations from them.

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For a pompon you need the following materials:

- wool in whatever colour and strength is required or to your liking

- cardboard. Although medium thickness is best you can abuse anything from an empty cereal box to a moving box. If you feel like your cardboard is too thin and rips you can simply add another layer and glue them together if needed. Don't buy cardboard for this, as it will just end up in the trash.

- a big darning needle

- scissors

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To make a pompon first cut two equally sized "doughnuts" from the cardboard. The finished pompon will have approximately the same size as the outer measure of the ring. The bigger the inner hole is the fluffier the pompon will be. Don't make that hole too small or your pompon will look very poor.

Basically a pompon is a round ball but you can somewhat influence its shape by using oval or even triangle shaped cardboard rings. This comes in handy when making pompon animals or other objects rather than when you make a pompon for a woolie.

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To start the pompon put the two cardboard rings on top of each other and take a piece of wool. It should be long enough to last for a bit but not so long that you get tangled up. While the hole is still big you can fold the thread to have 2 or even 4 threads at once for faster progress. Hold one end of the thread against the cardboard rings and start to wrap the wool tightly around them. Follow the ring in any direction and keep wrapping. Make sure to wrap all parts of the ring evenly. When you reach the end of the thread cut a new one, hold it in place with your fingers as before and keep wrapping. Sooner or later loose ends will vanish beneath new layers of wool and you can forget about them.

Keep doing this until the hole gets too small for your fingers, then use the darning needle for the rest. Put on more wool until the hole in the middle is completely gone and you have a nice woolen UFO.

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Now you need some good scissors or a sharp blade. When using a knife or scalpel remember the regular safety precautions! DON'T do it like in the picture when handling a sharp blade, put the thing down on a sturdy surface that's protected against scratches!

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Anyway, use the scissors to open the UFO on its brim while holding it tightly in your hand. Keep cutting until you find the cardboard, then use the space between both rings as guidance for your scissors. Cut the pompon all the way around.

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Almost done! Take a sturdy piece of thread, e.g. two layers of wool or thick string, squeeze it between the cardboard rings, wrap it once around the pompon and make a tight knot. Better be safe than sorry and wrap it around another time to make a second knot.

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Now it's time to remove the cardboard rings. Gently rip them off or if they are too sturdy cut them with the scissors. See, told you they are trash. I hope you made yourself a paper template first if you wanted several pompons of the same size.

All that's left to do is take some scissors and trim the pompon into shape.
It's recommended to not cut off the thread you used to fasten the pompon - it's perfect for sewing the pompon in place on the woolie or animal you're working on.

Some concluding tips:

- If your finished pompon falls apart your knot wasn't tight enough.

- If your pompon falls apart while cutting the sides of the UFO you didn't use enough wool to close the hole. Don't be stingy.

- If your pompon is supposed to be multicoloured carefully check the instructions or your horse might end up with two white shoulders instead of a white belly. If you want a truly colourful, mixed pompon I recommend using all colours at once, e.g. by wrapping with a four-ply thread. For single dots in a different colour wrap a short single thread of wool randomly and loosely around the rings and repeat that every few layers. If you do a whole layer in a different colour your pompon won't be dotted, it will have a coloured ring on each hemisphere - kind of like a billiard ball.