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Christmas Patchwork Bird Ornament Tutorial | JacquelynneSteves.com

Today, I am sharing a project which is a great way to use up all of your fabric scraps. If you are in a hurry, you can also skip the patchwork step and use a single piece of fabric. I used “modern Christmas brights” for this- dark pink-ish red, lime-y green, and turquoise. Obviously, it would be equally adorable with a traditional palette, or muddy primitives, or how about some old-fashioned Civil War reproduction fabrics?! Or mix in some metallics? Fabulous!

Makes a cute ornament or gift adornment. Or, fill it with lavender for a sachet. What other uses can you think of?

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the directions and patterns.

Patchwork Bird Ornament Tutorial

Supplies:

  • Scraps of fabric
  • Polyester filling/stuffing
  • 1/8″ ribbon
  • Embroidery floss
  • For the eye: a tiny button, seed bead, or thread (such as embroidery thread or wool thread) to make a French knot

Print out and cut out pattern pieces.

To make the patchwork version, piece together scraps of fabric until you get a piece about 5 x 9” big.

Christmas Patchwork Bird Ornament | JacquelynneSteves.com

 

For the bird’s body: For the patchwork version, place you patchwork piece right sides together with a plain piece of fabric. For the plain bird, place 2 pieces of fabric right sides together, pin pattern to fabric. Cut out around pattern. Remove pattern piece. Pin fabric pieces together.

Sew the pieces together (still right sides together) with a 1/4″ seam allowance, leaving an opening as indicated on pattern piece. Backstitch at beginning and ending of stitching.

Hint for sewing around curves- shorten your stitch length, and as you go around the curves, go slowly and stop every few stitches to lift the foot just slightly and pivot the fabric slightly.

Christmas Patchwork Bird Ornament | JacquelynneSteves.com

 

Clip seam allowance at points of tail and beak. Make a few small notches at the curves. This will eliminate some “bulk” of the fabric and make your seams flatter when you turn it right side out.

Christmas Patchwork Bird Ornament | JacquelynneSteves.com

 

Turn bird right side out. You can use tweezers to help pull tight areas right side out. Use a wooden skewer to gently push out the points of tail and beak. Press (press the raw edges of the opening in.)

Christmas Patchwork Bird Ornament | JacquelynneSteves.com

 

Loosely stuff bird with polyester filling. Use a wooden skewer to push filling into head and tail. Hint: stuff bird with many small pieces of filling, instead of a few large pieces. Hand stitch opening closed with matching thread. Christmas Patchwork Bird Ornament | JacquelynneSteves.com

For wing, place 2 pieces of fabric right sides together, pin pattern to fabric and cut out. Remove pattern piece. Sew together (do not leave an opening.) Trim seam allowances.

Christmas Patchwork Bird Ornament | JacquelynneSteves.com

 

Carefully cut a slit about 1 1/4″ long into 1 side of the wing.

Turn right side out; press. Stitch opening closed and/or put a few drops of Fray Check on the raw edges.

Christmas Patchwork Bird Ornament | JacquelynneSteves.com

 

Use embroidery floss to stitch around edges of wing- you can do a blanket stitch, whip stitch, or make an X stitch. To make the X stitch, bring up needle through A, bring it around to the back, then bring it up through B (to the right of A). Continue making X’s.

Christmas Patchwork Bird Ornament | JacquelynneSteves.com

 

Use matching thread to stitch wing to bird (you don’t have to stitch down the whole wing, just the top.)

Christmas Patchwork Bird Ornament | JacquelynneSteves.com

 

For the eye, sew on a tiny button, seed bead, or make a French knot.

Tie a bow around the neck with 1/8″ wide ribbon.

Use a sewing needle to attach a 12″ piece of embroidery thread to top of bird; knot to form a loop for hanging.

Bird Ornament to Sew | JacquelynneSteves.com