Small Projects - Summer Tweets

Lisa Tilse of the The Red Thread put together an enchanting hanging bird mobile for our latest issue of Small. You can find the article here but she had many more photos than we could fit in the magazine so we wanted to include all of them here so your hoops can be as beautiful as hers!

You will need:
Newspaper
Scissors
Sicky tape and PVA glue
Fabric scraps, Rattan cane hoops (from craft shops)
Small styrofoam balls - optional
Embroidery thread and a long needle

Swings:
Cut brightly coloured and patterned fabric into strips measuring about 1 inch wide and roughly 12 inches long. Wind a strip around a hoop, leaving roughly 3 inches loose at each end. Take a second fabric strip and tie it to the end of the first strip with a double knot. Leave the ends sticking out. Wind the new strip around your hoop, and continue tieing and winding fabric strips until you cover the whole hoop. Tie the end of the last strip to the beginning of the first strip. Cover a second hoop the same way.
Insert one hoop into the other so they form an X. Join them together at the top by wrapping some embroidery thread around at the point where the hoops cross.

Birds:
For each bird you will need to make the following pieces: a beak, head, body and tail. As well as 2 long flat folded strips. The head and body are spheres and the tail is formed by shaping a ball into a cone shape with flat ends. You can see the shapes in the photo. 

Follow the instructions for cheat’s papier mache to make the bird here.

 

Attach the head to the body and then the tail to the body with sticky tape. Then roll a small strip of newspaper up to form a cone for the beak and attach it to the head. Next take two squares of newspaper (that you’ve previously scrunched and flattened) and fold them into long strips. Wrap one strip around your bird where the head joins the body and one where the tail joins. This will hide the joins and enhance the body shape. Use lots of sticky tape to make the joins smooth.

Cut fabric scraps into small squares 2 -3 cm in size and follow the cheat’s papier mache instructions to cover your bird. Set your bird aside to dry.

When your bird is dry take a piece of embroidery thread and tie it around the bird. Adjust the position of the thread until the bird hangs correctly. Stick it in place with tape and then cover it with additional pieces of fabric so the thread is hidden.

Cut 2 wings from fabric. If you can, find a shape on your fabric that mimics the shape of a wing. Place your bird on a piece of cling wrap. Fold up 2 pieces of paper towel and place them under the cling wrap on either side of the bird. Coat both sides of the entire wings with PVA and attach the top of the wings to the bird’s body. Adjust the paper towel so the bottom of the wings sit out and away from the body. The PVA will make the wings dry hard. 

When your bird is dry tie the thread to the covered hoop swing so your bird hangs in the center of the swing.

Garlands:

If you’d like your Summer Tweets to hang from a garland cover your styrofoam balls with fabric scraps and PVA in the same way you covered your bird. I used styrofoam balls of 4cm and 5cm diameter.

When dry, thread your covered styrofoam balls onto a long piece embroidery thread using a long needle. This will form the garland that your Summer Tweet hangs from. Position the balls with uneven spacing on the thread. Then join the garland to the top of the hoop swing by wrapping it around and tieing a knot to secure it.

 Now you’re ready to hang your Summer Tweet. You can make all sorts of variations on the birds and the swings and add craft feathers to make a showy tail or wings.

The Red Thread

Comments

[valerie]

i think these mobiles are so beautiful! i'm really happy to see a craft project included in this issue. (if you've had them in the past, maybe i missed them; this one really stands out!)

the summer issue is really fun! i also adore those recycled play stoves you featured. too adorable!

[nosheen iqbal]

how adorable!!

[Little Lovables]

adorable!!!

[Nancy Ward]

Hi!

Today I posted an entry on my blog with a link to this tutorial.

Would you let me know if that's OK

Thanks,

Nancy Ward
http://paprfriendly.blogspot.com

[marlis]

I love the birds, I think my birdhouse needs an occupant !

[Allison White]

I've been thinking about baby mobiles lately and this would be adorable! My sewing machine is out of commission so I haven't made many fabric scraps ... but one day!