How to make an owl doorstop

Hi guys! Here's the tutorial on how to make an owl doorstop. I'm not very good at writing instructions but will try to make it easy and understandable.

1. Draw an owl on a piece of paper and decide how you want your owl to look, then cut it out, so that you have your pattern. 

My owl is 20.5cm wide at the bottom and about 19cm high, but you can make it bigger or smaller, those measurements simply work for me best. For the bottom you need a circle and it took me a while to figure out how large I need to have it... Mine has a radius of 6.5 cm, but don't forget to add about 0.5cm for sewing allowance (so you need a circle with 7cm radius).

2. Copy all shapes onto a pattern copying paper (or any other paper), cut them out, pin the shapes to the chosen material, draw around them and then cut everything out.

3. Using sewing machine, sew satin stitches around the edges of your material. I did it for the belly, wings and beak (I stitched only the top of the beak). I used felt for the eyes, so I could sew it using a straight stitch or hand stitch it. You don't need to satin stitch felt as it will not unravel like other materials. Use buttons or glass beads for the pupils.

4. Once you're finished and happy with the look of your owl, lay your owl back face up and lay the front of the owl on top facing down. Pin it together so that it doesn't move when you sew it and machine stitch the sides and the top. Remember to leave an approximately 10cm gap at the top for turning and stuffing. Make small scissor snips round the stitched curved edge to have a smooth finish.

5. Pin the bottom of the owl and machine stitch round the edge. I found it the trickiest bit, as it was a slow and annoying process for me, but after making several owls it's not that scary any more.

6. Your owl is nearly ready now. All you need to do is to turn the owl out the right way through the gap and fill with lentils, split peas or rice to make the doorstop heavy. 

I never fill my doorstops right to the top, I just make sure it's heavy enough and then fill it up with toy stuffing. You can of course put as much rice or lentils as you want, or you can fill it up with some material scraps. 

Stitch the gap using invisible stitch and ta-da! You have a pretty owl :)

I hope you'll enjoy making your own owl doorstop. If there's anything not clear in my tutorial please let me know and I'll try to improve it.

Have fun!!

Kat