FINISHED! Bird Wings

Finally!  I have finished the bird wings I started a few weeks ago using this tutorial.  For some reason there was quite a bit of unpicking happening and so as the 'lucky' recipient is flapping their wings, no doubt a whole lot of cottons are going to come flying out.

Ben thinks the way it sits on the top part of the back and then ties at the front is a choking hazard and he is probably right, so for the Christmas wings I have lined up to make when I regain some enthusiasm for the project, I change the top to add a collar (with velcro probably - or maybe press studs if I'm really motivated) rather than the ties.

What I thought was a brilliant invention (the buttons at the bottom to thread elastic or ribbon through for the fingers/hand is probably not as great as I thought it was and I will probably add a cuff like attachment.

All in all, they took way more time than I expected but despite being particularly handmade, 

they are pretty cute.

a quick birthday present

We work with this gorgeous girl who is having a birthday next week and one my colleagues said that she thinks she hangs around with really intelligent people (she probably didn't mean her work mates) and that she wishes she sometimes had more  intelligent things to say.  I find this hard to believe - but anyway, it was decided that as part of her present we (meaning me) would make a little cloth book and then we'd collect little facts that she would have readily available to impress even the biggest geek!

So, I remembered I had this cute little japanese pattern book at home with a pattern for a book cover in it and got to work deciphering the pictures and Japanese instructions. 

Her favourite colour is blue, so I tried to use blue where I could and I managed to use up a few Liberty scraps in the process.

The finished product is small - the perfect size for a credit card. It's a bit wonky (obviously), so don't look too closely at the lines, but I think this has great potential.  The instructions were in Japanese so now I've done it once I think I can improve my construction... and if I can work this out, it might just replace the tissue holder as my new go to for the end of year 'teacher Christmas presents'.