The owl and the pussy-cat

Making toys out of gloves is a great craft for the beginner sewer. Usually there is no cutting of the glove involved, which means no fraying if things are not sewn as neatly as they could be. Also, you can usually choose to glue on some of the details, making the sewing bit of the craft a little bit easier. Try making this cute owl and pussy-cat from the famous poem by Edward Lear.
You will need: Old gloves (one per toy) Buttons Scraps of felt Stuffing Needle and thread Ribbon (for cat) Scissors PVA glue (optional)

For the cat: dont tuck the wrist cuff in, just sew it shut (your cat will be taller than the owl). Shape the head by stitching a line of running stitch (see diagram on p159) just below where you want your cats head to be. Pull the threads tight to gather the fabric and shape the head. For a simpler alternative, use an elastic band, and then hide the elastic with the cats ribbon.

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Both the owl and the pussy-cat start off in the same way. Turn your glove inside out and lay flat. Sew across the fingers and thumb (see diagram on p156) so that the little and index fingers become the ears. Turn your glove back the right way round and ease out the ears. This may take a little fiddling. Stuff your glove. You can shape your toy whilst you are stuffing and neaten out any unevenness. For the owl: depending on the size of your glove, you may have to tuck in a little of the wrist cuff before you stitch it shut. Before doing so, cut some owl feet from your felt, and sew these into your seam as you go along.

Now make your owl an owl by adding big bright eyes, a beak and some wings. You can either stitch the buttons and beak on, as shown here, or use PVA glue. If gluing, use circles of felt for the eyes instead of buttons. (Some cheaper types of synthetic felt may not glue well, in which case you should sew on the features.) Here they are all sewn on (securing the eyes with the buttons, the beak with stitches across the top and the wings with a short running stitch). Sew or glue a tummy and felt eyes and a nose to the cats face, add a pretty ribbon around its neck and youre done! 43