Molly's Sketchbook: Simple Sewn Bird Ornaments

I used a bunch of special fabrics to make these little birds, mixing the delicate Meadow line with bolder favorites like Kona Cotton and Cake Rock Beach to create a vibrant patchwork flock. They are easy and quick to sew. You could make one to bring as a gift to your next holiday party or make a bunch to hang on your own tree. Either way these little guys will spread holiday cheer wherever they fly!

Materials

• Nine 1/4- yards of assorted prints. I used (from top to bottom): Kona Cotton in Snow, Moda Muslin in Natural, Olympus Sakizome-Momen in Beige, Seven Islands Meadow Beige Leaves, Meadow in Tan Flowers, Cake Rock Beach in Fire Waves, Net of Jewels in Ruby, Kona Cotton in Pomegranate, and Kona Cotton in Cerise.
• One piece of Wollfilz Wool Felt in Bright Pink
• One piece of Wollfilz Wool Felt in Ecru
• A craft size package of high loft cotton batting
• 100% cotton thread in colors 1040 and 5860
• Valdani Embroidery Thread in Magenta

This is enough to make a whole flock of birds!

Download and print our Simple Sewn Bird Ornaments Template here

Cut Fabrics

Download and print the templates above.

To make 12 birds:

Pick out two fabrics, one for your bird body and one for the wings. Press the fabric and fold each piece right sides together. (In the picture above I am using the Pomegranate Kona Cotton for the bird and the Meadow in Beige Leaves for the wings.)

Using a fabric marker or a pencil to trace the bird template onto the doubled body fabric and trace the wings twice onto the doubled wing fabric. Make sure to transfer the markings from the templates as shown above.

Trace the body template once and the wing template twice onto a single layer of your batting.

Repeat for the remaining 11 birds.

Cut all the pieces out. You will have: One batting body, two batting wings, two fabric bodies, and four fabric wings.

Pin together the fabric body pieces together right sides together. Pin each pair of wings together, also right sides together.

Cut twelve 1/4-inch X 7-inch strips (six from each color) from the wool felt. This will be enough for twelve birds, so you can put eleven of them aside for now.

Sew Fabric

Staring at one of the transfered marks sew around the body with an 1/8-inch seam allowance stopping at the other mark thus leaving a little opening as shown above. Repeat for wings.

Turn all the pieces right sides out. You can use a small knitting needle to poke out the corners of the beak, the tail and the wings.

Stuff and Finish

Take your wing batting and fold it in half lengthwise and slip it into the wing. Make sure the batting piece is oriented in the same direction as the wing.

The batting should fit snuggly inside the wing.

Repeat for the second wing and close both with a slip stitch.

Slip the body batting inside the fabric body tail first.

You might need to use that small knitting needle again to get the batting in every corner.

Fold a wool strip in half and place the ends into the opening.

Use cotton thread which matches the body fabric to close the opening with a slip stitch. Sew the wool strip into place as you do.

Thread an embroidery needle with the magenta embroidery thread and tie a knot. Pull the thread through the backside of one of the wings at the point where you'd like to attach it to the body.

Place both the wings where you want them on the body and pinch all three pieces together as shown above. Push the needle through the wings and the body as shown above to attach the wings to the body. Sew through all the layers again, making a "X" stitch on either wing and pulling very tight.

Once both wings have these little "X"s pull your needle through a wing but not the body and tie a knot where it will remain hidden in-between the wing and the body.

Repeat for the other eleven birds and you'll have your own beautiful flock!