Felt crafts like this owl ear bud case are easy to sew and can be made in an afternoon. Pick your inner animal and get crafting! I love a hobby like this that you can take anywhere and work on it when you have a few minutes here and there.
I’ll show you how to make the owl case as well as provide tips for creating other animal-themed felt pouches. For more on wool felt crafts, see DIY Wool Felt Phone Case.
Sew an Owl Ear Bud Case
This owl ear bud case is a good project for anyone who enjoys hand sewing and getting creative with embroidery stitches.
If you are new to using wool felt, this project for making a phone case has more information.
The owl has 3 main pieces: the grey back, the white belly pouch, and the grey head (backed with white felt).
The head is only partially stitched on to form an open-able flap revealing the ear buds in the belly pouch.
If you want to make a similar owl, this is the basic pattern (below). I ended up going without wings but I’ll leave that executive decision to you.
Copy what I did or pick your own colors. If it looks good to you, it’s good! That’s the royal rule of creativity.
The file has pattern pieces to print out.
How to Make the Owl Ear Bud Pouch
Use these instructions with the free pattern.
My pouch is approximately 5.75-inches tall and 4-inches wide.
Not all printers print to the same dimensions. You may want to print page 4 of the file first to make sure the pouch is as big as you want it.
If not, either print at larger size or make your own larger pattern.
Related: Sew a No-Fog Face Mask
Materials
Instructions are for my color choices but do whatever you like!
I did my owl without wings but add some if you like.
You can see wool felt here.
- Gray wool felt (body and head)
- White wool felt (pouch, back of head, outer eyes)
- Dark pink wool felt (beak)
- Yellow wool felt (middle eyes)
- Black wool felt (pupils)
- Embroidery floss/ thread (gray, pink, taupe)
Cut Out Pattern Pieces
Print pattern pieces (page 3 and 4).
- Cut 1 gray back piece.
- Before you cut, be sure the head pieces match the size of the back piece (head area).
Cut 2 head pieces. I did one gray (face) and one white (lining). - Cut eye pieces: 2 each of large white circle, middle yellow circle, and 2 black pupils.
- Cut 1 pink beak.
- Cut 1 white pouch. This should be big enough for your ear buds.
Sewing and Embroidery
There are no seams for this project. Make your stitching as decorative as you like, either matching the wool felt or using contrasting colors.
Refer to the photos of the pouch for ideas.
1. Stitch eyes and beak to gray head piece. Start with white circles, then yellow, then black pupils. Then add pink beak.
2. Stitch white head piece to back of gray face piece. This hides your stitches on the back side of the owl face. You can stitch the whole way around the perimeter or omit the top edge which will also be stitched during Step 4.
3. Decorate white pouch piece with embroidery stitches. Attach to gray body piece leaving top edge open for inserting your ear buds. Make tidy stitches and hide thread ends so the back of the body will still look good.
4. Stitch the 2-layers of the head to the back piece along the top edge only. The head piece is the liftable flap for the pouch.
Other Options
Ideas for more projects.
- You can make any animal or theme you like (of course). The thing to keep in mind is, the wool felt is in solid colors and it’s easiest to work with fairly basic designs.
- To make the cardinal (bird) in the next photo, I converted a photo of a cardinal into black and white (using Photoshop Elements).
- I cut out the 3 pieces (red body, black piece, and yellow beak). Everything is sewn onto a piece of background felt. You could also make two and sew them together to make an ornament.
- Use clear quilting thread where you want invisible stitches.
And remember, there’s a whole range of things you can make including broaches, pillows, bookmarks, book covers, phone cases, wall hangings, toys and dolls….
I hope you’ll give it a try. Or dive into some other hobby that brings you the same kind of contentment.
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~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛
