The felt bird ornaments were actually really nice and relaxing to make. They weren't quick, but they were pretty easy and mindless and therefore kind of meditative. I recommend this is you've had a stressful week at work and just want to veg in front of the fireplace with your Keller sandwich.
Between the tree and the fireplace, all four cats have been glued to the living room, and they've been uncharacteristically sweet with each other. It's a Christmas miracle!
I created this template from an ornament I saw in the Mexico pavilion down in Disney back when Dad told Randy he couldn't run a marathon.
I wanted to make six birds, one for every household coming to Christmas plus Bryan and Ashley (they were celebrating with Ashley's family this year). I created templates for each part of the bird, extending each one out a quarter inch. I folded the felt in half to double each cut, and cut out 6 sets of bird pieces from different colored felt. I wanted the beaks to all be yellow or orange, so I just cut out multiple beaks from the yellow. I also cut all the eyes out of acceptable eye-colored felt. Forgive me, but I think pink eyed birds are a little creepy.
Then I pinned them together with a sewn-together beak tucked backwards between the bird "faces". I sewed along the mid back, around the head and half way down the tummy. I had to leave it open enough to turn it inside and outside for embroidering (maybe I should have done this first?) and to later stuff them with fiberfill.
Then I sewed on the wings using... my grandmother would be so disappointed... a slip stitch I think? and embroidered them according to the template above. I just did it freehand with no guide since I wanted them to look imperfect, like folk art. Then I stuffed them with fiberfill and added long pieces of different colored felt for the tail. Finally, I held the tail pieces inside the back end of the bird (sorry for the mental image) and sewed a straight line across the tails with my sewing machine, connecting my tails and closing up my bird. Then I made little parallel cuts to the end of the birds to create feathers into the end of their tails.
How was your Christmas/Hanukkah/Festivus/Christmakkah? Did you make any home-made ornaments? We would love to see them!
Between the tree and the fireplace, all four cats have been glued to the living room, and they've been uncharacteristically sweet with each other. It's a Christmas miracle!
I created this template from an ornament I saw in the Mexico pavilion down in Disney back when Dad told Randy he couldn't run a marathon.
I wanted to make six birds, one for every household coming to Christmas plus Bryan and Ashley (they were celebrating with Ashley's family this year). I created templates for each part of the bird, extending each one out a quarter inch. I folded the felt in half to double each cut, and cut out 6 sets of bird pieces from different colored felt. I wanted the beaks to all be yellow or orange, so I just cut out multiple beaks from the yellow. I also cut all the eyes out of acceptable eye-colored felt. Forgive me, but I think pink eyed birds are a little creepy.
Then I pinned them together with a sewn-together beak tucked backwards between the bird "faces". I sewed along the mid back, around the head and half way down the tummy. I had to leave it open enough to turn it inside and outside for embroidering (maybe I should have done this first?) and to later stuff them with fiberfill.
Now they're starting to look like birds! Notice for the yellow one I used an orange beak to keep things colorful.
Then I sewed on the wings using... my grandmother would be so disappointed... a slip stitch I think? and embroidered them according to the template above. I just did it freehand with no guide since I wanted them to look imperfect, like folk art. Then I stuffed them with fiberfill and added long pieces of different colored felt for the tail. Finally, I held the tail pieces inside the back end of the bird (sorry for the mental image) and sewed a straight line across the tails with my sewing machine, connecting my tails and closing up my bird. Then I made little parallel cuts to the end of the birds to create feathers into the end of their tails.
I tried to use all different shades of the colors to get some diversity into my tail feathers :)
I got the mini piñatas and red and green maracas from Oriental Traders (.com).
As it was, I got my six birds done by the skin of my teeth Christmas Eve, but I would have loved to have more birds on the tree.
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