Wednesday 16 February 2011

Little Lavender Birds (Including Tutorial!)

Remember the patchwork throw project in my last post?

I've been using up some of the spare patches to make these:

Little lavender scented birds.

They aren't going to live in my twiggy heart, they just landed there to have their photograph taken!

Eldest daughter has already snaffled my favourite for her new house - the little brown one with the button on. Though being the true goth that she is she has assured me it will be out of sight in her wardrobe to keep little moths at bay!

I thought you might like to know how I made them - so here goes:


  • Take a scrap of fabric. I think mine was approx 9" x   6"


  • Fold in half and iron.

 




  • Use a fine pencil to draw the outline of a bird lightly on the fabric.

  • Take a piece of wadding and cut a rectangle as tall and wide as your drawing.

  •  Make a pocket in the top of the piece of wadding and add a teaspoon of lavender.

  • Cut your fabric in two along the fold line then layer the wadding between the two pieces of fabric. 

  •  Now I sort of discovered later that this next stage is optional. When making another of these little birds I accidentally cut the ribbon off when trimming the bird, so had to re-attach it at the end. To hide the point of attachment I added a little button. Now to be honest that bird, I think turned out to be the best of the bunch. So if you want to add a little button on top of the ribbon and aren't too bothered about the ribbon being incorporated into the seam then feel free to skip this next bit. Otherwise - take a piece of ribbon and fold it in half. Position the ribbon under the top piece of fabric near the top of your bird's back and using a long quilting pin secure it in place.


  • Take the whole thing, and being careful to ensure that the lavender is in the centre of the bird's body, zig-zag stitch through all the layers following your pencil outline.

  • Now cut out the bird shape trimming as close as possible to your stitching. (Take care NOT to cut through the ribbon, but if you do see above!)

  •  To make the legs and feet you will need to thread a darning needle with a suitably coloured yarn (note I couldn't find a proper darning needle so had to make do!), and cut two 1" squares from a suitably coloured piece of felt.

  • Cut the squares of felt into equal heart shapes.

  • Using the needle pass the wool through first one heart shape, leaving a bit of a "tail", then from one side of your bird to the other and finally through the second heart shape. Remove the needle and decide how long you want the legs, under each heart shaped foot knot the wool at the desired length, then trim away the excess.

Et voila - the finished article:

If you skipped the stage of attaching the ribbon into the seam - which frankly I intend to do with any I make in the future, attach the ribbon now covering the point of attachment with a suitable button.

    11 comments:

    1. Sweet, I can see why your eldest snaffled one! Great tutorial as well! :) x

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    2. Great tutorial! I'm definately going to make some of these little birdies. I'll have to put wadding on my shopping list. xxx

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    3. What a lovely idea and really quick and easy.
      The brown one was my favourite too.
      Kandi x

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    4. Great little birdies and thanks for the tutorial. I think I'll give this a go ... :0)

      Shirl x

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    5. Oh they're great! I just picked up a bag of kapock in a charity shop for 75p so I may well have a go at making these. Of course I may need to develop some drawing ability or they won't look anything like birds!

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    6. Love these, really spring-like! I must have a go - although will probably end up hand sewing, as I find it to be a realy stress-buster (and as a full time teacher goodness knows I need something to bust that stress!!)

      Helenxx

      BTW did you get my email re the heart swop?

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    7. Hi
      i couldn't see you email addy on your blog so will say a thankyou here for the lovely gifts you sent in the birthday swap
      wendy x

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    8. OOooo..What lovely little birds :0)
      Thankyou so much for the tutorial...really easy to follow, and for once I have all the ingredients ! :0)

      Have a great weekend lovely Simply Vintage :0)

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    9. That's a great idea - especially adding the little feet on x

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    10. Well, these go on the 'to-do' list with the bookmark! Thanks for another great idea and easy tutorial! ~ Linne

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