Owl Ornament Pattern + How to Sew a Blanket Stitch

Deby at So Sew Easy invited me to participate in her Christmas in July and I’m excited to be on board with so many other talented bloggers! Deby is sharing a tutorial for an adorable felt Christmas tree and invited other bloggers to make ornaments! My contribution is an owl ornament made with a blanket stitch.

This cute little owl is stitched together with a blanket stitch and features multi-colored feathers on the belly. He is lightly stuffed with fiberfill and finished with a loop of gold elastic for hanging. This project is a great way to use up felt scraps! I had quite a bit of felt left over from the fishing game and monster puppets I made.

Get the free owl ornament pattern

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After you grab the free pattern you’ll also need felt in various colors, scissors, embroidery floss, a needle, 2 buttons for eyes, elastic or ribbon for hanging and hot glue.

First cut your pattern pieces from the felt. You should have 2 bodies (front & back), 2 eyes, 1 mask, 1 beak, and approximately 24 feathers. You may need a few more or a few less feathers depending on how close you place them together when you sew them on.

The next step is to hand sew on the owl’s “mask.” Knot the embroidery floss and insert the needle from the bottom to the top and back down again as shown below.

Continue around and repeat for the eyes and beak. Then stitch on the buttons for eyes. Next, overlap approximately 8 feathers along the bottom and stitch in place with a single stitch on each feather. Using a single stitch allows you to move the feathers around somewhat if you need to reposition them slightly to fill in gaps. This is how the owl will look after you sew on the first row of feathers.

Continue sewing on feathers until you get to the owl’s neck. I ended up with 4 rows of feathers. Next, use hot glue to attach elastic or ribbon for hanging. I decided to use hot glue instead of sewing so that stitches wouldn’t show on the front. Below is how the reverse side will look at this point.

Then you’ll attach the back body piece to the front body piece with a blanket stitch.

How to sew a blanket stitch

To sew a blanket stitch, knot the tail end of your embroidery floss and insert the needle from the bottom to the top about 1/4 inch from the edge.

Loop it around the owl and insert it again in the same place you started so you end up with a loop all the way around the edge.

Insert the needle under the loop stitch you just made by guiding it sideways along the edge of the felt.

Insert the needle from the top to the bottom, about 1/4 inch from the edge and about 1/2 inch over from the first stitch. When you pull the needle through make sure you pull it through the loop of the thread as shown below.

As you make each blanket stitch the thread will form a line down from where the needle was inserted to the edge as well as on the edge of the felt from the last stitch.  After completing the first few blanket stitches the edge will look like this.

Once you get going, it’s really quite easy. Continue around until you have a small 2-3 inch unsewn section left.

Then stuff the owl with fiberfil.

Then continue the blanket stitch until you get back to where you started. When you’re done you’ll have an adorable little owl ornament!

Make sure you pop on over to So Sew Easy today to see Deby’s tutorial for the felt Christmas tree as well as check out links to the other ornament tutorials!

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