Homemade Christmas Ornament ~ Fabric Bird Tutorial

Yesterday I showed you some bird ornaments.  Today I’ll give a quick little tutorial on how I put them together.

Related Article: Winter Wonderland Ornament

Before we begin, I need to explain something.  As I was working on this project, I did grab my camera and take some pictures of the steps.  However, I didn’t spend any time at all “staging” the pictures.  So, here is my creative process in real life…mess and all!  You will soon discover that my ironing board is my most often used work surface!:)

Remember how I referred to my first attempt at a bird ornament yesterday?  You know, the one that looked like a 1st Graders art project?  Well, it actually became my cardboard template for the “real” bird ornaments.  I used it to trace the pattern on to the underside of damask…

I wanted to do a whole bunch…so I traced a whole bunch…

and using my ridiculously dull scissors, I cut them out…{Note to self:  Buy some fabric scissors!}

On another piece of damask fabric, I ironed on some heat n bond to the underside of the fabric.  Heat n bond makes the fabric stiff. (Iron on interfacing would work well, too.)

I peeled off the paper and then made a fabric “sandwich”.

The middle layer is some beautiful, fuzzy batting (I think it’s called “Warm and Natural”) that I had leftover from previous projects.

The cut out birds become the top layer.  {Layer one: Damask with heat and bond.  Layer two:  Fuzzy batting.  Layer three:  Cut out birds.}

Please pretend all those birds are now pinned on.  I forgot to take a picture of that…  Once they are pinned on, roughly cut them apart so you can get them easily under your sewing machine.

Sew a topstitch 1/2 inch from the edge.  {I use the sewing machine foot as my guide.}

Once sewn all the way around the edge, trim the bottom two layers to match the shape of the top bird.

Then have fun accessorizing!

I used burlap as “wings”.  The tail feathers are a strip of canvas torn and ironed like an accordion.  I just glued with a hot glue gun and “floofed” them until I liked them. I think these would also be fun with miniature tattered flowers…and ruffles!  Hmmm…I might need to make some more…