A Bird Garland Tutorial

I have wanted to make a bird garland after I saw this  post.  Laini Taylor made this beautiful bird garland and I just never took the time to make my own.  In fact I am still working on it but thought I would post it in progress so you can start your own if you want to.

 First I drew a simple bird shape and traced it onto felt and  

cut it out.

Then I drew a pattern for a wing and cut them out in cotton fabrics.  

This is a great way to use up all those small fabric scraps.

then I cut out many more birds and wings, before I knew it
I had over twenty birds, so it was time to stop and put them together.

I had this box of vintage floss given to me by a local lady 

when I worked on the Thread Project.  I did a blog about it back in 

2005, you can see that here if you are interested. I have been saving 

it all this time and decided now was a great time to use it. The lady 

who gave it to me said it had been purchased by her mother back 

in the 1930's.  I think it was time it got used.

Then I needed something for the birds eyes so I went through my 

stash of buttons and picked out the smallest one.

I sewed on the eyes and then stitched the birds together 

using a blanket stitch and embroidery floss and stuffed them
with some Polyfil.

Here is a closeup of one of the birds.  I have several more to make before I stitch them together into a garland.  Stay tuned and I promise a pic of the finished garland.