Put a Bird on it!


I've finished with my second bird! 


 It was interesting figuring out the placing on this one, it wasn't quite what one might think.  After sketching the design out I pinned the design to the sleeve as it hung on on my dress form in the same position as this photo.  This led me to conclude that it was actually higher up on the sleeve than I'd originally thought, you can see what I mean in the photo below.


I put transfer paper under my design and traced my design onto the sleeve,  then I started beading and embroidering.

As with the first design I sewed the feathers to the back of my bird embroidery (which had been done separately on silk organza then cut out and fray-checked) before I appliqued it to the sleeve.

The feathers are goose biots and gold and green ringneck pheasant feathers.  I stripped the fluffy downy barbs of the pheasant feathers off the shaft, leaving just the colored barbs at the end.  (This chart of parts of a feather may be helpful.)

When I'd traced the design onto the fabric I also traced the bird shape around so I could leave a space for it and add it at the end.

Next up is the right lower sleeve design.  Then I'll do the center back and finally the right chest/shoulder design.  This has to come last because it has to be added after the bodice has been constructed since it overlaps seam lines.

I've got to be a little more careful with making sure the plastic lid is on my box of feathers because someone made off with this one and took several BITES out of it!  I wonder who could have done that...


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