Bird Food...Sewing Smackdown #2...

VOTE NOW on my sister's blog for your favorite sewing craft....(but read this first...hehe)

Today is day two for the Sewing Smackdown and I have one theme..two projects. The theme is Valentines this round.  And here are sew simple gifts to sew for friends, teachers, loved ones...that will last longer than a chocolate bar!

First....felt fortune cookies. I did a lot of research in January on these faux cookies and this is what worked for me.

Get out your handy-dandy nesties!  And cut some Valentine colored felt!

Fold in 1/2 and sew like this.

Open your circle and stitch on a tag cut from twill.

Now, fold in half, so that the first seam is perpendicular to the fold and on the inside of the cookie.

On the outside, sew the curve...as shown.  I used white thread here to show in the tutorial. But on my cookies, I used acrylic thread so I didn't have to match or change the thread.  To hold it's shape, I stuffed a little bit of fiberfill inside. 

Next, are you a love bird?  Do you know a pair of them? Well, let's make them!

(Adelle adores these birds...well, the pink one!)

What you need are some squares.  You can figure out what size. For my small birds, I used  two 4 inch squares. The yellow beak material is 2.75 inches.  The wings were 3 inches...about. You'll want some embroidery floss or yarn for legs. Beads or buttons for eyes. 

Take your beak material and fold it in half, to make a rectangle...iron.  Fold it in half once more to make a square, iron.

Open to the rectangle, fold in to make corners...then fold in half once more...ironing all along.

Putting right sides together, sew along top edge of 4 inch squares for the body.

Take your wing squares, fold into a triangle with right sides together. Sew down one side, as shown.  Flip rightside out again.

Now, I saw this bird on a blog but wanted to make it my own for the Smackdown. And a bird simply isn't a bird if it doesn't have wings.  So I added that to my rendition. Of course, I far too many to count...trying to figure out what fit best, how to sew it on best...stayed up too late...wait...I digress. So...pin your pieces on, sort of like I have done in this pix.  Sew the wings on.  (I top stitched some and zizaged others.)  The beak will be sewn in the next step. I pinned it in so you could see where and how and what.

Then sew the left and right sides. Becareful that you don't pick up the bird's wings in your seam.  You will be sewing the bird beak in at this time.

Clip corners and turn rightside out.

For this small bird, 1/3 cup of regular rice was just the trick.

Now, you can braid yarn or floss.  Or I bet ribbon would look cool But...haha...if you know how to make FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS...like me...then this is the way to go!  I used a couple of  yellows to verigate the color.

Then, fold the bottom in but perpendicular to the original seams. So match the side seams and they become the front and back. Like when you are folding dresspants.  Pin in your legs.  Be sure to keep the rice out of the way of your sewing. I used a few more pins,  horizonally, to keep the rice back. Top stitch the bottom edge.

As I said, I wanted to make this more "Mine."

So, I had a few extra quilt squares (that never were made into said quilt). Basically strips of cloth sewn together.  Finished, it was just over 6 inches square. I used fiberfill and rice for him.

This bird is really great at Whoonu!

Oops...and when you are finished sewing, sew on eyes using buttons or beads!