Suzy Stitch Owl

Owls were one of the first ever projects that we worked on when I began Hope & Gloria Sewing Clubs at St Jude's School six years ago.

Over the years they have featured as design choices for our sewing club members and I am still surprised by their popularity. This half term we made pocket pet cushions and the owls were just as popular as the other pocket pets on offer to make. Why wouldn't they be? After all these adorable birds have such appealing faces and shapes and they fit in so well with this time of the year with the fabulous Autumn colours to be found in the woodlands.

Suzy Stitch Owl began life as an old lambswool sweater that I had felted a while ago and was sitting around in one of my fabric stashes. "Something Old From Something New" was one of the categories at the Virginia Water Show in September and I had intended to make an owl from the sweater to enter in to the competition but as with many things, I never got around to it.

After an incredibly busy start to the school year at our sewing clubs, last weekend I finally began time to begin work on this project. Once the basic shape had been cut and I was cutting out the feathers and wings I began to think about using stitches as decoration and I decided that I could use the feathers to showcase a range of simple embroidery techniques and then I came upon the idea to use my owl as a teaching aid in my sewing clubs.

One of the many aims we have at Hope & Gloria is to teach children new stitches and introduce simple embroidery. Children always respond really well to a good visual to learn from and I am hoping that this is what Suzy Stich Owl will prove to be.

She features nine different types of decorative stitches on the feathers on her chest and star stitches on her wings. The wings are sewn on and edged in blanket stitch, the eyes sewn on with over stitch and the beak with back stitch. There is so much creativity to be had from just a needle and thread and this is what Suzy Stitch Owl is all about.

Many of the ladies from the Hope & Gloria Team will also be working on stitch owls to use as teaching aids and I am really looking forward to seeing how many of these stitches are being used by our clever and creative sewing club members by the end of the school year.

Happy sewing!