Bird Specimen Pillow

 Once I decided to make one bird present I kind of just ran with it. She had after all pinned some bird items in her nursery board. There was one item, in particular, a bird specimen pillow, which I thought was really cute. I decided to go for it, but do it a little more my style.

 First, I cut our my muslin an inch wider and longer than my pillow form.

I then ironed my seam allowance under so I could arrange my birds without putting them in the seam allowance (I would do that too...).

 Next, I cut out all my little birds. I cut my pattern out of paper, then I pinned all my patterns down and cut and cut and cut. If you have a cricut you with a bird pattern or a silhouette you could use that to cut your fabric too. I also cut wings out too, but after stitching all my birds on to the pillow I decided no wings.

 Lay out your birds and decide what kind of pattern and spacing you would like.

  I then cut little squares of heat n bond out and used them to tack the birds in place.

 Then, get a diet coke, a good movie and get comfy because the next part is gonna take AWHILE. I used embroidery thread and stitched around each bird. After I did the outlines I went back with black embroidery thread and did a french knot for each eye- I had never done one before and there is definitely a learning curve but they aren't too hard. Last of all, I stitched each little beak on.

 Line up your bird side with the other piece of muslin and stitch around the pillow leaving a gap to turn your pillow right side out and to stuff your pillow form or batting in. Once you have done that, close your pillow I used a whip stitch to close mine- I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to get it closed choose which ever you are most comfortable with.

Linking to these fabulous parties!