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 more the minimal Scandi type?  Pick your poison.  

Backing fabric - it can be the same on every bird or wildly different.  A fat quarter would be more than enough for this project.  

Enough felt of any colour to cut out five bird shapes from.

Gold coloured thread - I used DMC brand, precious metal effects E3852 

Polyester wadding or tiny scraps of fabric to be used as stuffing.

A good selection of beads in various sizes and colours.  The holes need to be large enough to accommodate doubled-up thread.  

A few sequins, tiny bells, anything you want to add for embellishment.

Sewing thread, a needle and dressmaking pins, scissors.

A small piece of card or thick paper, and a pen or pencil.

A glue stick (optional).

A metal or plastic ring, perhaps a piece of costume jewellery or even a washer!  This is a cheap ring I used.  It might've come out of a cracker!

HOW TO ASSEMBLE:        

The first step is to take your card/paper and draw a stylized outline of a bird.  You don't need to be any kind of artist to do this - I'm certainly not - but make sure your bird's not too skinny.  It has to be plump enough to have a decent amount of filling.  When you're happy with the shape, cut it out and use this as your template.  

Now, decide whether you want all your fabric birds facing the same direction, or two facing left and the others facing right.  Let's assume all your birds will have their beaks facing right.  Use your template to cut out five bird shapes from a piece of felt.  Doesn't matter what colour the felt is as it's not going to be seen on the finished design.  

Next, take your fabric scraps and arrange them on top of each bird.  You want each bird to look unique, so take your time in getting an arrangement that pleases you.  Do you want all five birds to have the same colour beak, for instance?  

Once that's done, either use dressmaking pins or a combination of glue stick and pins to secure your scraps, turning under raw edges to neaten things up.  Then sew the scraps in place, either using a basic running stitch or a fancy embroidery stitch.  The back of your bird should look similar to this in respect of the fabric raw edges being folded over so they're not visible on the front side.

Once that's done, take the DMC gold thread and use chain stitch to represent the outline of a wing.  You could also add lines for the beak if you wanted.  

Once the front of the bird's stitched, lay it on a piece of backing fabric, wrong sides together,  Pin around the edges.  Sew the two pieces together, leaving a gap in the bird's back of about 4cm.  Turn your bird right sides out.  

When all five birds have their backing attached, take your chosen filling and lightly stuff the birds.  You don't want to overfill them, aim for them to be padded rather than full-to-bursting.  Sew up the gap in the back. 

Arrange your birds in the order they're going to hang, and with beaks and tails facing in the correct direction.  Take a strong sewing thread, from which you're going to cut a length that's double your completed hanging.  I used approx 155cm, but better to be a wee bit longer than too short, so don't be stingy with the thread.  

With double-thread on your needle, attach the bead that's going to be at the base, as per the photo below.

Tie a couple of firm knots to secure.  The tails are going to be hidden under the next beads you'll use.

After adding four or five beads, you're going to add a bird.  Push your needle through the bird, through the stuffing, from its belly up to the top of its back.  So the needle goes upward, entering at the lower mid point of the bird's belly and exiting at the midpoint of its back  

Now add more beads.  Try to get a mix of colours, shapes and ones that're translucent and others opaque.  Aim for the spacing between each bird to be reasonably equal, about 9cm.  

Keep adding birds and beads until you've attached all five.  After the fifth bird, use a few more beads then wind your thread a few times around a small ring.  

Make firm knots to keep everything in place, hiding the thread tails under the beads.  I then wound gold thread over the white double sewing thread I'd used, before adding a sparkly ribbon tied into a bow.  

That's pretty much it.  You can sew on sequins, little cat-collar-style bells, fragments of costume jewellery, seed and bugle beads, any embellishment you like.  If you wanted to make a variation on this decorative hanging, maybe use dried lavender to stuff the birds, if you'd enjoy the scent.  I'm sure you've lots of other ideas how to make these birds unique in ways that reflect your style.  

I hope this instructions are reasonably clear, but let me know if there's anything that needs clarifying.