What's on my hook: Crochet Owl Pillow (and a sorta tutorial)

This pattern isn't written as a traditional pattern with a set number of stitches per row, it's very improvised! I explain what I did as I went along so you can make your own pillow pal too.

I love owls and I'm surprised I haven't actually crocheted other owl-related projects before. But when I saw this post on Crochet Concupiscence, I fell in love with the little owl toy stephaniedavies made. I couldn't find a pattern for a similar project anywhere that was free, so I just made my own version as I went along.

My favorite part are his little feet!

Now, for an explanation of how I made him:

I used a 12x12 pillow form.

I started with a base chain that was just slightly shorter than the the length of the top of the pillow (you want it to be snug against the pillow form not too loose). Then I began doing sc in each stitch across. When I got to the end, I did 2 more sc in the last chain, rotating my work so I could continue doing sc on the other side of the chain. When I got to the last chain stitch, I did 3 sc in that stitch. I did not slip stitch to join. All the stripes were worked in a continuous round using a stitch marker to keep track of my first stitch.

I went 5 inches of single crochet with the colored stripes, added his neck ruffle, and went 7 inches of the star stitch with the white. The star stitch was done in rows where I slip stitched to join and chained up. I recommend visiting YouTube to see a star stitch tutorial.

His little neck ruffle is just a double crochet scallop that I did in the front loops of the last colored row. Then the first row of the white star stitches were done in the back loops of the same colored row.

His wings are half circles done in double crochet, and his nose is actually a circle too (done in single crochet) but I sewed it on in a triangle shape with a little stuffing inside.

The white part of his eyes are 3 rounds of double crochet.

Then I raided my button stash and was so pleased to have those big blue buttons that matched his wings!

His feet were made using this tutorial.

Then to close up the bottom, I finished off the white yarn leaving a super long tail. I slip stitched across until I came to the first foot, then I then attached a needle to the yarn and whip stitched through both the white and orange attaching the foot, sandwiching the foot between the white. When I came to the white again, I grabbed my hook again and slip stitched to the next foot and did the same thing for the other foot.

The end!