Handmade Parade: Part 4

I'm on a roll! I finished the other belated Christmas gift this week, too. It also fits both the pillow theme and the owl theme. This one is now winging its way to my sister-in-law Courtney in the southern part of the state (just one of the many owls heading south this winter).

It's heavily influenced by this one that I spotted on Etsy several years ago (a little earlier in another owl irruption, the one where every handmade item possible includes an owl version). I had ideas then about making an owl pillow and collected a bunch of inspiration photos, but that's as far as I got. So I pulled up my folder of photos to show Courtney, who is recently also enamored with these winsome birds. She chose this design, and I was happy to try to recreate it. I usually like to switch things up more so that my projects aren't such obvious copies of anyone else's, but this one was pretty much perfect. So I must simply offer my thanks to the original designer, along with the oft-quoted phrase: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

One of my favorite things about how this came out is the textures. The owl is corduroy, the tree is a soft uncut corduroy, and the leaves are some wool-blend felt. The felt was fairly thin on the bolt and said "dry clean only," so what did I do? Brought it home and threw it straight into the washer and dryer, of course. It came out much thicker, and the greens seem more mottled and interesting now, too.

I have plenty of everything left to make another of these, and I think I might just need one on my couch, too!