Patriotic Felty Birds (tutorial)

I hope you enjoy my second felt tutorial. I really enjoy using felt. It's brash and bold and really lends itself to little hanging decorations and brooches.

So, as you know I had brought some red, white and blue felt for a jubilee themed project. And my aim this week was to create something and post a tutorial so you can all try it. I hope you do try it. And would love to see what you come up with.

What you will need;

1. Felt in colours in red white and blue.
2. Sharp scissors
3. Paper for stencils
4. Cotton and thread
5. Scraps of fabric, ribbons, buttons, sequins ... you get the jist .... for decoration.

So first you need to draw a stencil. I wanted to make three hanging garden bird decorations. Obviously you don't have to do birds. You could do somethings as equally English. How about teacups, or crowns, or even diamond shapes for the jubilee.

You can make one stencil for all your decorations, but I wanted to have birds with different characters. Also add a wing stencil.

Then you need to pin the stencils onto your felt ....

and start cutting. I really recommend nice sharp scissors. If your really keep nominate a special pair for you felty fun.

You will need your front body, a wing and a back body. I've alternated my colours, what do you think?

Right now for the best part. Add your decoration. Go crazy! I've made all mine a bit different but in the main I've added a little cross stitched eye, details to the wing and a little detail on the tail. I've used sequins and broke a little bead bracelet I never wore. To be honest the little beads were a right pain! Only about 1 in 4 slide down the needle. Still, its all part of the fun.

Also see the change in the table cloth? That's because I'm OUTSIDE! I'm crafting outside, because today it's English summer time!

Then all you need to do is sew all around the sides, using which ever stitch you prefer, remember to leave a little bit of a gap and add some stuffing. This is the crafty equivalent to God breathing life into a little bird on creation day.

See it puff up and come to life.

Then add some ribbon. I specially brought some "Best of British" and I love it. You can get it here on Amazon. It's very British and suits a crafty kind of item.

You can add the ribbon either after or before you sew up the bird, but think about how you want the bird to hang and have a little play before you sew it up. Obviously I wanted my ribbon to show off the words and flag so its more front facing. You could also use a crocheted chain to hang in your chosen colours.



Add here is the blue bird ....cute isn't he :)

Oh, I do hope you like them. I'm going to get them out every time there's a British occasion.

I've given them all names and called them Holy, Buck and Wind (all shortened names of the Queen's three palaces). Is this going to far?

The blue on is going to be names Buck because he is the most laddish looking.

Here's the red bird, Wind, because she looks like she is taking flight.

And the white one is to be christened Holy, because shes pure and white. Like a dove.

I simply cannot wait to show my craft class tonight. I already know they'll all want a go!

Please let me know if you take inspiration from this and make something. I would love to see it!

Now I'm going to make three similar items, but in Scottie dogs, and then three tea cups. I'll show you some photo's once they are done!

xxx Kate xxx