Merry Stitchalong - Week 3

Welcome to week 3 of the Tiny Toffee Merry Stitchalong!

Today we will be visiting Mr.Kittle - a very agile old gentleman who stopped counting his birthdays after turning 102 several years ago and who has been the caretaker of the owlery for as long as everyone at the North Pole can remember! 

"Hello folks! Welcome to the owlery! Help yourself to a pair of earmuffs if it is too loud for your delicate hearing! I myself can just turn down my hearing aid whenever my feathered friends get too excited! Post owls have been inhabiting the North Pole ever since I was a little boy and I have always dreamed of taking over the job as owlery caretaker from my father who has taken it from his father and so on. These amazing creatures make sure that wish lists from children all over the world are delivered right to Santa´s front door and they are most reliable when it comes to helping Santa and his elves delivering presents on Christmas!"

Let´s make our own little delivering post owl today, shall we?!

Supplies:

- owl templates can be found right here

- one of the envelope hexie templates from the Christmas delights pattern

- felt for the owl

- a hanger

- candy for filling!

1. Make your envelope using one of the two possible envelope options from the Christmas Delights pattern. You just need to foundation piece it and not turn it into an actual hexie!

2. Cut out the necessary pieces of felt for making the owl. We will need:

- 1 owl body front

- 1 owl body back

- 1 belly

- 1 background eye part

- 2 eyes

- 2 pupils

- 1 beak

- scrap of white felt for the back of the fabric letter

3. Create your fabric letter. Simply pin a piece of white felt to the back of the paper pieced envelope hexie. The scrap must be bigger than the envelope! Now sew around the envelope at least twice, catching the felt on the back. Carefully cut out your envelope and set it aside. 

4. Make the owl. First sew the belly to the owl body front. Stitch on the background eye part, then sew the eyes onto that background you just stitched on. Use a simple "cross-looking" embroidery stitch to attach the pupils.The next step is a little bit tricky, but absolutely doable - promised! We need to slip the fabric envelope under the beak whilst sewing the beak on to make sure it will get caught in this seam. Just go slowly and you will be fine! 

5. Now it´s time to sew the body together- Simply pin the owl body back to the front and sew around the sides and bottom, leaving the top open for filling. Don´t forget to backstitch!

To finish your owl ornament stitch on the hanger to the back side of the owls head, close to the top edge. Fill it up with candy and enjoy!!!

Next week...

...we will be visiting the Candy Store!