It's Fleezing! Fleecy Friends to Fight the Frost

Following the instuctable I made earlier (the Treehouse Birdbag), I decided to make a new bird as wel. The blue one I had had pearl eyes and they fell of all the time. I had to sew them back on again and again...

So here is a bird with fleece eyes, accmpanied by it's fleecy friends. They're realy easy to make.
Or shall I say... FLEASY! haha! right, sorry about that.

For extra warmth you can fill them with cherrypits! Microwave them and put them in your pockets to warm your hands, or let them rest in your neck.
Unfortunately, I didn't eat enough cherries this summer, so these are filled with fiberfill.

Step 1: Get Started

You'll need some fleece, a sewingmachine, pins and filling. For the spider, you'll also need a cord.
You won't need much, small scraps will do just fine! Harvest the fleece from old ugly sweaters and plaids. Check out the thriftsstore!

Fold the fleece and freecut the pieces.
Bear in mind that the pieces will turn out smaller after you've sewn them, so don't cut them too small!
cut:
- the beak
- the head
- the body
- the wings
- the eyes
- the pupils
- and a tail. cut the tail just once.

It's as easy as making a snowman: you put one ball on the other.
except you decorate first.

Fist, you sew the pupils on the eyes, then sew the eyes on the head.

Step 2: Get Rid of the Ends

This is an easy trick to get all ends on one side:
pull the thread so the loop comes out, then pull it out entirely with a pin and tie them.

most of the time it works every time ;)

Step 3: It's an Inside-out World

Put the beak in place and pin it. Then put the other part of the head in place and sew it.

Turn and stuff the head. Not too full though!

Now put the tail, the wings and the head in place. All pieces go on the inside.
Sew around but leave a small opening between the tail and a wing.
It looks like a little ball, but when you turn it...

Step 4: Finished!

Tadah! Out comes the bird!
Always a magical moment. :)
All there is left to do is close the opening.

Step 5: The Owl

In the same way, you can make many other creatures!
How about a Leopardowl?

Step 6: Spider

On the scarier side: why not try a spider?

Step 7:

That's it!
I made these three in about an hour, they're realy quick gifts, great for the coming hollidays.
Offcourse, you can make them as complicated as you like and you could make them bigger. These are handsised, but you can make them pillowsised... or elephantsised! You'll need lots of filling.

Have fun!