Stitch 50 Birds - Easy sewing patterns for felt feathered friends

50 full-size patterns included to trace straight from the page.
Easy sewing patterns for beautiful bird designs, made using simple hand-sewing techniques. Featuring the most popular species, each pattern comes with step-by-step instructions and full-size templates. The finished little birdies would make cute brooches, bag charms and home accessories that will make your friends into avid twitchers!

Feather your nest with this avian collection of easy sewing patterns for beautiful bird designs, all made using simple hand-sewing techniques.Featuring the most popular and distinctive species ; including garden birds, exotic birds, birds of prey, water birds, flightless birds and more ; each pattern wings its way to you with step-by-step instructions and full-size templates, making them perfect for all abilities.The finished little birdies would make cute brooches, bag charms and home accessories, or can even be scaled up to make bigger plushes, all of which will make your friends into avid twitchers!Author Alison J Reid has spent months brooding away in her studio, researching all different kinds of birds, both common and rare. She has checked out their shapes, plumage and markings, and spent so much time trying to perfect their colourful, beautiful wings. It became an obsession! It was only by researching the various details that make each breed so distinctive, that Alison has been able to capture each of their unique qualities and differences.Pattern, colour and shape are key, so capturing these details in felt was important. Luckily, there are so many different colours of felt available! Felt's non-fraying, double sided, robust qualities make it easy to create all the little details that make each bird design so unique and instantly recognisable.Each bird pattern can be traced straight from the page (or enlarged if you want to sew a larger plush), and simple instructions mean that even beginners can get started. And because all the birds are sewn by hand, you don't need a sewing machine and can sit out in the garden with the birds while you sew.Whether you choose to sew just your own favourites, or make gifts for the other bird-lovers in your life, this book will provide hours of fun and inspiration.

Leseprobe:

When I was in primary school, a teacher told my class that "If all the birds in the world died, man would not exist within a year." The thinking behind this was to do with the fact that birds wouldn't be around to eat the insects, which would mean that the insects would eat all of our crops. He went on to say that "this made birds incredibly important in the preservation of the balance of nature." Now that's a pretty powerful statement to make to a class of ten-year-olds and probably the reason why it has stuck in my mind ever since. At the time, I remember my teacher reading this information from a little tiny book that had a lovely drawing of a bird on the cover. A few years ago, I started to research this statement; it took me a little while, but eventually, I discovered the book my teacher had used, and I was lucky to be able to purchase a 1979 edition. The book was called Spotting Birds by Jaroslav Spirhazl Duris and Edmund Burke illustrated by Jan Solovjev. So naturally, I w as really excited to put this book together. Initially, I gave lots of thought to the birds I chose and how I would replicate their feathers and beautiful markings. I have used a bright, colourful felt palette and have incorporated many mark-making stitches using embroidery thread. It has been a real pleasure to research each of the chosen birds, sketch them, create the individual patterns, select the colours and bring them to life using a few basic materials and some hand-sewing stitches. I hope you have as much fun making these birds as I did.