Baby Birds

I found these pictures from forever ago but I thought they were crafty so I wanted to share.

These are some of the baby gifts I made for my first niece Alina when she was born. (I recently saw my sister in law recycling the burp cloths for my new niece Maya though! It always makes you feel so loved when your gifts are used. ^_^)

I sewed the little birds using a pattern I found online, and added the tulle feathers to give the birds a little more texture to make them visually appealing. I sewed them by hand so they took forever and a year to make. (especially because I initially made a few with a different pattern that I decided against.)  I wasn't happy with the assembly of the  top portion (which is mostly cut off in these pictures) but I was really happy with the birds.  The colors matched her nursery and it was a lot of fun to put something together for my teeny niece and my sister in law. (Like I've said before- SUCKER for home made gifts.)

At the time Pinterest wasn't really around and the whole "homemaker" internet movement hadn't really blown-up yet so I was kind of working blind- building the airplane as I flew it type of thing.  Just now though I googled "stuffed bird pattern" and a TON of amazingly cute ideas popped up.

If I were to make this mobile again, I think I'd do some kind of "cross" for the birds to hang off of instead of a circle.  I'd also make it bigger so the birds were more spread-out; and maybe hang them at different heights.  I don't know though- the possibilities are endless! :)

Here I am modeling the burp cloths. I took two pieces of felt and traced around a pattern I drew on some paper outlining the size of a burp cloth with indents at the shoulders. I sewed the pieces together right sides together, leaving a small opening so I could turn them right-side out at the end. Then I ironed it flat and blanket stitched around the edges using varigated embroidery floss to match the colors in the fabric.  I didn't know how to do a blanket-stitch before so I was pretty impressed with myself when I was able to learn off of a youtube video tutorial.

Now that I'm a mom I realize these small "figure-8" burp cloths are NOT the most practical, and really only work when your baby is very small... but they sure are pretty! And I had a lot of fun making them.  It's always nice to have a couple of "pretty" spit up cloths to take to church and whatnot so I would consider making burp cloths again- but I'd probably stick with more of a larger rounded rectangle shape.

Happy Sewing!