Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Love Birds!


Most everyone who knows me knows that I love birds.  Joe says it's because I have a bird beak for a nose.  I'll take that.  I do!

Often, when I don't know what I feel like sewing my hands go to bird making.  You can see several Ann Wood birds that I've made in the Misc. page on this blog.  

I make other types of birds, too.  One that I've been fooling with for a few years now is a bird broach.  I've gathered a little flock.


Here they are, all flocked together on the railing of bunkhouse deck, enjoying this ancient red rose in all her glory.  We inherited this rose, I know not the name.

My little broaches, well, they're not so little, are really satisfying to make.  I pull out the bin full of hundreds of fabric scraps and start painting with cloth.


 They are very rough, I don't like to work in an exacting way, nor am I able to so that works out.  I use pearl cotton, embroidery thread and regular sewing thread.  The base is cardboard.  I tape wire to the legs for stability.


These little guys are a joy to make because each piece of cloth is a reminder of a project I worked on. The cloth could be old silk scarves, cashmere, vintage kimono fabric, pieces of garments I made or remade from RTW.


I glue a piece of cashmere onto the back, cut it just a smidge bigger than the cardboard.  I attach a pin back to the cashmere before glueing.
Then I sew the small pieces that make up the bird to that along the edges.  I finish with the stitching.


And I make a big, glorious mess doing it!
Tweet!

Here is a post from Colossal, a wonderful online newsletter that I subscribe to, showing  latte birds.  So delightful.