The bird that's not gonna fly

It's been a mixed kind of day, from a crafty perspective. I'd seen on Instagram the collages of Clare Youngs. Including a length of bunting, several paper birds strung together, all vivid colours and eye catching shapes. I'll have a go at that, I thought, but in fabric rather than paper and card. Hmmm, didn't quite work. I cut out my simplified bird, trying to get it as close to the original design as I could. Added applique details for the wings, beak and eyes, and backed with green felt. But it didn't look right. I've not got the overall shape right after all. The whole thing doesn't 'read' as a bird in flight.

Oh well, you try these things and some succeed, some fail. Never mind, it's only fabric and sewing thread after all.

Having put aside my avian misfortune, I finished off a smaller version of the dragonfly slow stitching piece I made recently. Here are the two for a comparison in size.

I was thinking of attaching the smaller one to the front of a piece of folded card, so it could be used as a greetings card for a birthday or other occasion. By the way, I found the perfect way to hang the larger textile piece, using a glass straw looped between two fabric tabs. You can't really see from this photo, but the glass has a pink tinge to it, which is ideal.

The other things I've made lately were - forgive me for mentioning Christmas so early in the year - a couple of fabric gift tags, and a bee. Why a bee? Well - uhmm - because - oh, I don't know! I just fancied making a bee.

Honestly, hand on heart, can you say you've never had the urge to make a bee? Oh, come on!

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Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day. It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice. Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle. Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it? I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning. I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point. Time will tell. This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs. It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday. I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax. The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

HOW TO MAKE: these decorative birds

I suggested yesterday that I'd run through how to make a fabric bird wall or window hanging (can't think of a snappier title for it than that!) so here goes. I'll start with the first decorative hanging I made. It's something you could make in any colour combination you want, and would look good hanging at a window with translucent beads that'd catch the light I used five birds for this, but you could make it longer if you prefer. (Incidentally, if you're wondering about what's hanging off the bottom on this, it's a metal Christmas decoration, shaped like a lantern. For some reason I thought it looked appropriate to leave it there, looped over the end.) WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO GATHER TOGETHER: Assorted scraps of fabric for the front of the birds - aim for a mix of colours and textures. Silk looks good, as does anything with embroidery or intricate patterns. You might aim for a hippy-ish boho look, or maybe you're ...

HOW TO MAKE: a petal gift bag

These petal gift bags are ridiculously quick to make and really pretty. I can't claim the idea's orginally mine - see Instragram for the source - but here's how I made them. The first bag was the one at the top of this photo, so choosing fabric was trial and error. I went for two prints, though the second bag - with the peppermint green material - shows you're better off choosing a plain and a patterned. Anyway, here goes with my first attempt, I picked green floral for my background and pink flowers for the petals. These cotton squares are 7 inches. Put the squares right sides together, sew all around 'em but leaving a gap of an inch or so unstitched. (I used a sewing machine, but hand-sew if you'd rather.) Trim a notch off each corner, turn rights sides out, poke out the corners and sew the gap closed. You might want to give it a press with the iron too. With the fabric you've picked for the petals fa...

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