Out on a Limb

I'm a big fan of birds (birds in nature, fabric birds, paintings of birds...you get the idea).
When thinking of ways to decorate my girls room, I wanted to incorporate birds. I saw this free pattern on 'Spool', for cute fabric birds. I'm not great at sewing, but this looked easy enough. And it WAS easy!

Here's the free pattern with sewing instructions: 

 http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/birdpattern1-1.pdf

I used fabric scraps I had on hand, but you can also buy 'fat quarters' (quilters packs of  18” x 21” rectangles) at your local fabric store ($2-$5 for a pack of 10-12) in different patterns/colors.

You can also buy remnant packs at your local fabric store, peruse thrift shops for vintage material you like or use your own unwanted shirts, sheets, etc.

The birds don't take that much effort or fabric (each bird took me about 15-20 minutes). You will also need some stuffing (I used some from a pillow I no longer wanted).

There are many things you can do with these cute fabric birds.  You can insert bells or squeakers and give them as a unique baby gift, string several to make a baby mobile, make them as ornaments, paper weights (just put beans in the bottom) or display them on a branch and hang with clear fishing wire.


You can also make the birds more masculine by choosing different fabrics and by treating the branch differently.

I grabbed a fallen branch from the backyard and spray painted it white, then hot glued the birds on the branch and displayed. I do have plans to hang it, eventually...but I rather like the way it looks just hangin' out now.

This photo below is from Spool, showing the birds hung as large mobile.

You can Google image 'spool bird mobile' and see these birds in many different style treatments.



Spool Bird Mobile

This does remind me of Pottery Barn 'Brooke' room, with the usage of branches, birds and butterflies in a bedroom. You could easily duplicate this idea with the spool bird project as well.

Pottery Barn 'Brooke' Room

To hang, turn eyelet screws right into the branch and paint the same color as your branch.  You will have to use a few of these screws, to balance it with clear fishing wire before hanging.