A bird in the hand

The spring banner is still slowly unfolding - even though the summer solstice is almost here . . .

Adding a few more birds seems like a fun idea, but I've struggled with how. Tonight, I finally put all the pieces together.



The body is a simple stuffed shape. The eyes are French knots. The beak, wings, and legs are all made from "fabric paper" (a la Beryl Taylor), which is a layered concoction of muslin, bits of interesting papers, and tissue paper, all held together with watered-down glue. (You can find a tutorial about it here.)

One reason that I like working with fabric paper is that it's fairly stiff, but you can sew through it. I placed two pieces back to back when I created the legs on my sewing machine. The wings are a single thickness, sewn through the buttons, so the back of the wings flare out from the body a little, making it more three-dimensional.



Now I can create a few more birds, and then assemble the flock to finish the banner!