DIY Embroidered Owl Burlap Canvas

I get that owls are huge right now. Even my mom loves them. To the point that my dad is all “enough with the owls!” And since I am an enabler, I thought I could make her some cute owl art that she can hang up in her hall bath.

There are a few problems with bathroom art that I have encountered myself including that anything with paper gets weird and curled up or discolored from the steam. Or sometimes water droplets form inside of the glass frame and if professionally framed, it’s freaky to open that sucker up and try to fix it.

This is why I decided to go with burlap and embroidery for this little project. You can also embroider burlap or another fabric to make cushions. Or get white canvases or art paper instead of the burlap canvas. If you’re not into embroidery, you can also paint the little x’s in the design. It’s really pretty darn versatile. This makes me think this could be super cute on guest towels… hmmm.

Now the plan is to make four of these to be hung in a grouping on the wall, all with different colors. But for now, only one has been completed.

For this project you will need:

• Burlap canvas (mine is 8×8)
• Metal tapestry needle
• Yarn in 2 colors plus black and white
• Free printable pattern (scale to fit your canvas)

Download your pattern, print it to fit your canvas, and trim the excess paper around the pattern.

This is a big ol’ tapestry needle. It looks mean because it is. Be very, very careful and wear a thimble if you don’t mind one. My finger looked like a polka dot factory after about 30 minutes of working on this project!

Place onto the canvas as squarely as you can and hold it with your non-stitching hand.

First poke a hole from the top side, through the paper to start your stitching. Come back through the hole from the bottom and finish the first half of the cross.

You’ll need to start your first hole from the top rather than the bottom because the inside of the canvas has a tough, plastic-like coating that makes it impossible to simply poke around until you find the right spot.

Keep on working it until you have completely stitched all of the available slots.

Carefully tear away the paper from underneath when done. Alternatively, you can use a transfer pen or pencil to get the pattern onto the canvas, but since you can’t really toss a canvas in the washer I went with paper.

And there is the finished cutie! Now I’m not a big fan of owls myself, but dang!

And I just know my Momma will like it and I hope that you do also! Owl is seeing you next week. (I feel like that was so awful that it’s gone back around to awesome.)

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.