Owl-phabet

Happy Birthday Abby! You are such a sweet little niece and I know since you are only barely two and can already sing the whole "ABC Song" that you will really enjoy these owls. They have all the letters of the alphabet on their tummies, plus an extra 'letter B' so you can spell out your name! Have fun spelling, sorting, and make believing. We love you!



I got this idea and pattern here. My sister and I loved the idea, but I had no idea how much time it would take. I think it was worth it, though. I love that they are tiny and I could use scraps of fabric and Fiberfill I already had--the only expense was a couple bags of random buttons I got from Wal-Mart for about $1.50 each. I still want to make a set for Miranda, I think, but maybe she won't get them until she turns three. He he.

Also, I wanted to note that the pattern calls for cutting out cardboard circles and then fabric circles to glue on to the cardboard, which you would then sew onto the bottoms. However, about the time I was finished sewing up all 27 of these (including the extra B) I wanted to hide my sewing box and not look at handstiching another thing for at least a month. I was just going to leave them with nothing on the bottom, but then they wouldn't stand up. My mother-in-law had the great idea of attaching buttons, which saved tons of time and sanity, and--in my opinion--goes really well with them. Bonus: now they make a little clicking noise on the table that Miranda loved as she hopped them around. Here's some more pictures of them on Flickr if you want to get up the motivation to make a set for your toddler. Here's a post-embroidered, pre-stuffed photo. I used a mini muffin tin to sort buttons, thread, and owls. Too bad the muffin tin only holds 24--it's the perfect size and maximizes the button 'click click' noise on the bottom!