Crinkle Owl tutorial

Having 2 children our house is filled with toys, but I have found that some of their favorite things to play with were not toys at all.  For example water bottles, spoons, wrapping from the baby wipes, and paper towel tubes.  So when the baby class that I teach was ending and wanted to give them something that their babies would love to play with.  Originally I was going to make a small “taggie” blanket, but of course I had to make up something a little cuter.  So I came up with the idea to make a owl taggie, but I remember how much my kids loved things that made the crinkle noise.   Here is my tutorial for a owl crinkle “toy.”

Supplies: 
2 10x10 pieces of minkie fabric
Scraps of minkie fabric for wings and eye
Crinkle material (I bought a roll of cellophane at the craft store, but I have read that some people use baby wipes bag, or cereal bag)
Scraps of ribbons for feet
Thread, pins, and sewing machine
Batting (optional)
Instructions:
1.  Cut out all  pieces.  You will need an owl, a pair of eyes, nose, and 2 wings.  To make an owl pattern I looked on Google image search, but they were a little more detailed than I wanted so i just freehanded one.  I am not an artist, but it was pretty easy, and if I could figure out how download one let me know.   To make the wings I traced another copy of the owl pattern and then cut out an oval like shape.

2.  First I sewed the circles together to make the eyes.  This was probably the most tedious part of the sewing because they were so small.  I did a brown, pink and then another brown (you could leave out this piece, but they looked a little “dazed” to me).
 
3.Pin and then  sew nose, eyes, and wings onto the front side of the owl.  I liked using a zig zag stitch to sew them on for added durability.

4. Pin 2 pieces of cellophane (or whatever plastic you are using) to the front of the owl and baste.  Also I liked adding one layer of batting between the layers of cellophane.  You may not want to have the batting go all the way to the ears b/c it is difficult to turn, but since you will topstitch it the batting will not shift.

5.  I then sewed over the nose and wings again with a straight stitch to make sure everything would stay in place (you cannot really see the stitch.)

6.  Pin the back and front of the owl right sides together.  for the feet I pinned  a a scrap of ribbon, making sure the fold is inside (close to the nose).  I forgot the feet on this owl, it still looks cute, but babies love tags/ribbon.  Sew leaving a small opening for turning (I like leaving an opening on straight side so I made my opening between the ears and wings).
 
7. Trim excess and turn inside out.

8. Pin opening closed and topstitch around the entire owl remembering t0 backstitch.
 
9.  Trim excess threads and give to baby!  Sorry the color is not too good on my pictures, but they look really cute in person.


Notes:
- add more ribbon around the owl to make a taggie
- add stuffing to make an owl softie
- Put cellophane just behind the eyes and wings if it is too noisy for you.
-washing: cool water with like colors, and low heat in the dryer or line dry ( I have washed mine once and the cellophane stayed in place and was just as crinkly) 
Let me know what you think and if you make one.  Any tips on downloading a pattern, let me know.  Enjoy!