Stuffed, stitched, and eyed

Now that school is finished, I have much more time to finish all the little projects I've had tucked away!

The photo above shows the assortment of felt I found in my things, leftover from various projects. I made the bird and wing stencil, all the other pieces I just cut as needed.

These are all the felt bits needed for a bird- two sides to the body, two wings, a beak, and six tail feathers, three per side. I also used stuffing to make the birds dimensional, two small buttons for eyes, and string with a button on the end. The button went inside the bird as I stitched it up so the string wouldn't come out.

These were the assembled, pre-stitched, eyeless unstuffed birds. Basically, the layout.

Birds, stuffed, stitched, and eyed.

The mobile- not the best photo. Five birds, four shapes, hanging from two wooden clothes hangers screwed together. Happy birds!

Heather's How-To

Let's call this project "Things to do with leftover fabric." Click on the photos to see a larger picture.

1. Cut into strips of equal width and length. Lay out in pretty pattern.

2. Sew right sides of strips together. Notice I didn't pin them together or anything... I was lazy!

3. Ta da!

4. Cut into strips the width of your original strips. (Yes, you do have to remember the original width!)

5. Sew right sides of strips together. Turn every second strip around to vary the pattern.

6. Once again, no pins. I used the guides on the sewing machine to keep things even-ish.

7. Make something with your fabric. I made a pillow.

I am content that the squares aren't even and the corners don't line up- I wasn't trying to make it absolutely perfect! That would have required pins, and effort!

Time spent: About 3 hours. My fabric was already in strips. It would have taken less time if I didn't keep sewing a right side to a wrong side and then had to unpick it all. Or if I hadn't put the bobbin in the wrong way around.

Evaluation: Fun! I wanted something quick and easy- I don't have the patience for long, exacting projects right now. I have enough leftover fabric (in strips, sewn together, like #3) to make another pillow... but a stripey one.