"Miss Hootie" Fleece Pillow PDF Pattern and Tutorial...

Hi, friends! As I promised earlier this week, below you'll find the PDF pattern and tutorial for making my cute "Miss Hootie" pillow. I made and gave this sweet "Hootie" to my favorite 9 year old friend, Heather F., whose room just happens to be decorated in owls!! :)

Begin by clicking on my pattern link and printing it off on a piece of 8 1/2" x 14" paper:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Y8wDV7XV3tU0xFc3FkNTY2NWozb25mSjFpUFAyVkZrcHZj/edit?usp=sharing

Cut your pattern pieces out:

Gather your materials...you'll need the following items:

• Sewing machine
• Scissors
• "Hootie" pattern
• Thread
• Pins
• Fiber fill
• Fleece (I used a pink polka dot and chocolate fleece for my "Hootie")
• Misc. embellishments as desired

Pin the pattern to the fleece and carefully cut out the pieces. I used a pink polka dot fleece for the front of my owl, and a chocolate brown fleece for the back...but the sky is the limit on the way you want your "Hootie" to look!

After all of your pieces are cut out, you'll begin sewing everything together on your sewing machine. With the right sides of your wings together, stitch around the edges, leaving a 1/4" seam allowance and a small area left unsewn so that you can turn the wings right-side-out after stitching. Pin the beak in place on the front of the owl, and stitch across the top to secure it. Place your eye circles over the stitched top part of the beak, pin in place, and sew. (NOTE: You can use all 3 graduated circles that I've provided in the pattern for the eyes; or you can use just 2 of the circles and buttons like I did...the choice is yours!) As you can see in the close-up photo below...I sewed a spiral inside each of the blue circles on the eyes for a little extra detail.

NOTE: If you want to add eyelashes like I did, (because my "Hootie" is a girl!), then simply free-hand cut half-circles from brown fleece and then snip the outside edges to form the lashes. Place these under the white eye circles before stitching them down and TA-DAH! - you'll have eyelashes!

 Carefully stitch the owl feet to the bottom edge of the brown body fleece.

Lay the stitched and turned wings on the brown body piece; lining up the edges of the wings with the edges of the body. Place the pink body front of the owl face down on top of the brown body back, with the wings sandwiched in the middle and the feet laying where they are inside the body. Leaving a 1/4" seam allowance, sew around the edges leaving the bottom of the owl open to allow for turning inside out. Your "Hootie" should now look like this:

At this point I decided that I wanted to add a felted heart, crocheted flower and beads to my "Hootie's" tummy...so I carefully hand stitched it together and then stitched it to the owl:

 

Since my "Hootie" is a girl, I also thought that she needed a bow on her head...so I made this bow and hand-stitched it to the top of her head:

Here's a close-up shot of her face and hair bow:

Carefully stuff the "Hootie" with fiber fill through the opening at the bottom, using the handle of a wooden spoon to get into the crevices to make sure they get filled out evenly. Once the owl is stuffed, hand stitch the opening at the bottom of the "Hootie" to close everything up. (NOTE: If you want your "Hootie" to smell extra good, add a few Downy Unstoppables laundry freshener pellets to the inside when you stuff it with fiber fill!)

Here's another look at my completed "Miss Hootie". I hope that you enjoy making these and much as I have...they make perfect gifts for the kiddos in your lives!

Have a WONDERFUL day!