A few years ago, I turned my Joyful Owl into a tree topper that now sports a jaunty red scarf. This gray-colored owl looked sweet on past trees, but not this year’s Christmas tree, which has a more natural white, green, and brown theme. What to do?
In October, I spent time cleaning out mom’s closets. Amongst a lifetime of belongings, I found a plastic tote filled with real fur that she had purchased from thrift shops. I imagine she planned to use these in some of her creations. Curious, I brought two of the pieces home with me, uncertain what I might do with them.
My Sleepy Snowy Owl uses faux-fur trim, so I thought, why not experiment with a brown owl for my tree topper and use some of this real fur for the wing? I carefully ripped out the seams, traced the wing, and then carefully cut the fur with an X-acto blade. Stitching the fur to the felt was challenging; even my sharpest needle was difficult to poke through the fur hide. The result of this experiment is an explosion of fur. It looks more like she’s donning a cloak. She fits in regally with this year’s tree, but the jury is still out on real-fur wings!
What do you think?
Love your owl topper and your tree! Love all the lights! Please share what type of lights you used. Your tree is magical!
Susan, you are so creative, I love your furry owl! It really completes your beautiful tree.
Cathleen Carroll
I love the idea of an owl as a tree topper, but have to say, in MY house, the tree is definitely NOT colour coordinated! And yes, fur and feathers?? Not sure it works? But cute all the same.
Kudos to you for tackling that fur. Even fake fur is a pain to sew because you can’t see where you are working very well. I think tree toppers are a challenge. Yours turned out well. Merry Christmas! Thanks for your informative emails.
These are tiny LED lights on wires–I think they’re called waterfall lights. I do not recall where I purchased them!
You have to use your imagination! 😉
The fur wings are unexpectedly marvelous! Hmmm… maybe I need a snowy owl in my tree.
Perfect! Perfect! Perfect! I remember those removable collars from my childhood Harris Tweeds! You are so clever! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
Thank you! And you’re welcome!