Hi and welcome to my stop on the Christmas in July Blog Hop hosted by Deby at So Sew Easy! It felt a bit funny to be making a Christmas ornament while wearing shorts here in New Hampshire, but once I started, I got into it and plan on doing this more often. I have a tutorial for you on how to make this holiday bird ornament.
Materials:
Sizzix Fabi and cutting pads
Sizzix BigZ die Bird with Wings #2
Sizix BigZ die Borders & Hydrangeas
Fat quarter of neutral-colored fabric
Scraps of felt in two shades of green
Six red beads (I used carnelian from my jewelry-making supplies)
10" of twine or ribbon
Small wad of stuffing (I used bamboo stuffing as it's soft with some weight to it)
Fabri-Tac or other fabric glue
Sewing machine and related supplies
Let's get started! Cut one piece of fabric the twice the size as the bird die, so that when you fold it in half it covers the die twice. Or, if you use two pieces of fabric, make sure they are either wrong or right sides facing so that you wind up with both sides of the bird. Make a Sizzix sandwich — cutting pad, die blade side up, fabric and second cutting pad. Crank it through the Fabi.
With two scraps leftover from the first pass, die cut an additional pair of wings. There will be two bird pieces and four wings (only two wings are pictured).
Right sides facing, pin the two pieces of the bird together. With 1/8" seam allowance (or as small as you're comfortable), sew around the bird leaving an opening of roughly 1.5" on the bottom. As you're sewing so close to the edge, it's helpful to decrease your stitch length a few clicks. Set aside.
Create the same sandwich as before, but with the hydrangea die and green felt. You'll only be using the smallest of the petal shapes on the die so it's not necessary for the felt to cover the entire die.
You only need to die cut six of the smallest petal shapes — two light green small petals and four dark green. I cut too many, above, but will save the others for another project. Set aside.
Wrong sides facing, create two pairs of wings. With thread that's a similar color to the fabric, sew around the perimeter of the wing twice. On the second pass, try to stitch close to the first line but not directly on it. Set aside.
Turn the body of the bird right side out and press, making sure to tuck the edges of the opening in as you go. Now is a good time to insert the hanging loop. I used a piece of glittery twine. Tie a knot on one end and with a large-eyed needle, draw the twine through the top of the bird's back from the inside. Insert the needle back down into the bird and tie a knot at the end of the twine. Pull taught from above. I happen to have a pair of hemostats that are helpful when inserting stuffing into small spaces, however, they're not essential. Fill the bird until it's 3-D but not round. Blind stitch the opening shut. Set aside.
Using a fine needle, hand sew the red beads around the hole in one of the light green petal shapes so that they cover the hole and are centered. Repeat with the other light green petal shape and the remaining three red beads.
Take the four dark green petals and carefully trim off the tops and bottoms so they resemble the picture, above. Using the Fabri-Tac or fabric glue, adhere two of the dark green shapes to one side of the bird's neck and two to the other side so that it resembles a collar. Glue the light green pieces with red beads on top of where the dark green felt meets in the middle of the side of the neck. Finally, glue the wings on either side of the bird; I made mine slightly askew so that both wings can be seen at once. Ta da! Your bird is ready to hang!
The fabric for the bird and the red hearts in the intro picture are from the new Scandi Christmas line from The Henley Studio, available here at Hawthorne Threads. As always, please feel free to use my discount code for 10% off your purchase at Sizzix: SZ2B. Click through the link on my sidebar.
This is the large, felt Christmas tree that Deby made to kick off the blog hop! Please visit her site here for the tutorial.
Here are the other stops on today's part of the tour:
Leigh Laurel Studios (you are here!)
For all the projects and other stops on the tour please visit Deby at So Sew Easy!
If you'd like to see some of my other tutorials, including Christmas ormanents, they can be found in my tutorials section.
Thanks for stopping by! Do you do Christmas in July?
