How to Make a Felt Owl Ornament With Sequin Eyes

Run your felt through the die cutting machine with the owl die. You need two of the large body shape and two wings. Everything else gets cut once: the face, the eye piece, two small eye circles, two ears, the beak and four scalloped feather strips. Lay the pieces out by color so you can see that nothing is missing before you start sewing.

Stack the two grey body pieces so the punched holes line up. Thread a blunt needle with black embroidery floss and leave a tail at the bottom. Come up through one hole, go back down through the hole behind it, then come up two holes ahead. That backstitch gives a solid line of stitching with no gaps. Work around the owl, stopping a little short of where you began.

Take a small pinch of fiberfill and pull it apart between your fingers until it is light and wispy. Tuck it into the gap one bit at a time. Use your thumbs to work each piece up into the head and out to the sides. Small pieces spread evenly, so the body comes out smooth and plump with no lumps showing through the felt.

Pinch the opening shut with your thumb and finger so the stuffing stays in. Keep stitching until you reach the starting tail. On the last stitch, bring the needle up between the two felt layers instead of through the front. Both thread ends now sit inside the seam. Tie two or three snug knots without puckering the felt, then trim the ends close.

The face, the eye piece and the second wing get a decorative stitch too. Use a thread color a shade lighter than the felt so the stitching shows. Work the same backstitch through the punched holes. On the face piece, skip the long side tabs. The wings hide them later, so there is no reason to sew them. Jump across and keep going around.

Dab tacky glue onto the smallest grey feather strip and press it across the bottom of the body. Add a white strip above it, then grey, then the last white. Flip the owl upside down to line each one up. It is easier to see that both ends reach the edges. The top strip should end right at the waist where the body narrows into the head.

Fold a length of cord into a loop. Put a dot of glue in the center of the head and another near the top, then lay the cord ends into it. Glue the two small ear pieces at the top corners of the head. The face piece goes on next and covers the cord ends, so the loop ends up sandwiched and hard to pull out.

Spread glue over the back of the face piece, heaviest along the stitching where the felt sits highest. Lay it over the head and press all around the edges. Then glue on the white eye piece and the two small eye circles. The glue stays wet for a few minutes, so nudge anything that sits crooked before it grabs.

Dab glue down the inside edge of each wing and press one to each side of the body. They cover the unsewn face tabs. Add a drop of glue in the middle of the face and set the little orange beak between the eyes. Go around the whole owl once more, pressing each piece. Then let it sit until the glue dries completely.

Brush a small dot of matte gel medium in the center of each eye. Place a large clear sequin with tweezers. Stack a 6mm turquoise sequin on top, then a tiny 4mm clear one in the middle. The layers give the eyes depth and a little sparkle. Finish each eye with a dot of silver glitter glue in the center.