A Pottery Barn Knockoff

I love Pottery Barn Kids.  Their catalog is filled with so many fun things.  A great place to get inspiration for a crafting project.

Image from Pottery Barn Kids

I love these owl bookends.  I knew I could create these with fabric I already had in the house.

This is the bedskirt from my daughter's crib (she's almost 10 now).  I have always loved this fabric.  I have saved it and used it on a few projects for her room.

I started by drawing the outline of an owl on a piece of paper.  I just did it freehand and then tweaked it until it was just right.

After cutting out the owl shape out of the crib bedskirt fabric, I cut out the chest of the owl from a sheet of felt.  I have sheets and sheets of felt in all different colors.  I bought them when they were on sale for $0.15 each.

I then cut out the wings, eyes, nose etc out of more felt.

I cut out the eyes in layers of color.

Next it was time to embroider all of the pieces onto the owl.

First I embroidered the grey part of the eye to the green and beige.

I also embroidered on the chest, feathers, nose and eyes to the floral fabric owl.

When I cut out the pink wings, I cut out two per side.  I embroidered them together leaving an opening at the top to stuff them a little.

I couldn't find my stuffing, so I used a piece of batting I had and tore it apart a little.

With both wings stuffed, I laid the wings onto the owl, pinning them in place before sewing the back side of the owl on.  The right side of the picture is correct.  I don't know why the wing on the left is so far over in the picture.  It was moved to the edge before I sewed it.

With right sides of the owl together, I pinned the owl sides in place.

Using my sewing machine I sewed the owl together leaving the entire bottom section open.  Remember, it's going to be a bookend.

I needed to cut out an oval to serve as it's base.  I sewed this base all around the bottom of the owl leaving a small section...just enough to fit a funnel inside.  Why a funnel...because I will be stuffing Mr. Owl with white rice.  I needed something that would make him weighted.  Rice works for me.  But before filling him with rice, I stuffed his ears with some batting.  That way they would stay pointed.

I had to pour the rice in somewhat slowly to avoid the funnel getting clogged.

The finished product is too cute...don't you think?

Mr. Owl is a perfect addition to my daughter's bookcase.

The best part was that I had everything in the house already.  A tip if you're going to try this one...when you draw out your owl, make him a little wider at the bottom than you normally would.  Mine is a little thinner than I'd like, but still cute.

Let me know what you think of my version of Mr. Owl.  I always love and appreciate hearing from you.

Also, don't forget that I will be having my second blog party tomorrow.  The link will open up tonight at 8pm EST.  Last week was a great success.  I hope you will all join in for the fun.

-Judy