Saturday, December 12, 2009

Plump Partridge Ornament Tutorial

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You're going to love these. They're fast and simple to make and so dang cute! Our church had a Christmas dinner for the ladies, and I made an assortment of ornaments so each lady could take one home with them that night. I mostly did wool felt heart ornaments and only did a dozen of these birds, but they were by far the quickest to be swiped up. Who knew? So here you go!

Materials:

Scraps of cotton fabric
Polyfil stuffing
Ribbon, jute or lace

Instructions:

Step One: Use the pdf template below to cut your pieces (2 bird sides and 1 underbelly piece). You'll want your two bird sides to be opposites, so layer that fabric right sides together and cut it out at the same time so they mirror each other. Use fun coordinating fabrics.



Step Two:
Cut an 8 to 10 inch piece of ribbon, jute or lace and fold in half. (I used jute and tied my ends together, but I don't recommend knotting jute... it was a pain to sew over.) This will be the hanger for your ornament. Just ignore that knot... I'm too lazy to retake the picture.



Step Three:
Put the 2 bird sides right side together and place the hanger as pictured in between the layers. Pin it in place if you must.



Step Four: Using a 1/4 inch stitch, sew along the entire top of the bird sides from beak to tail. Always sew beak to tail.



Step Five:
Open up and match the underbelly piece right sides together. Pin if you must. Sew down each side being careful not to catch your ribbon hanger. You'll always want to sew from beak to tail in case the pieces don't match up perfectly... don't worry about it, you'll be trimming down the tail later.


This is how it looks after it's sewn (wrong sides out).



Step Six: Snip along the bird's neck and back so the seam will lay nice when it's turned right side out.



Step Seven:
Turn right side out from the tail and stuff well with polyfil. Be sure to stuff the head really good first so it gives the head and beak a nice shape. These take a surprising amount of stuffing, but they definitely look best when well stuffed.



Step Eight:
Use ribbon or lace to tie off tail. Make a cute little bow.



Step Nine:
Use pinking shears to trim tail even. Or if you don't have pinking shears, just tuck end and sew closed.



Enjoy


Plump Partridge Template



26 comments:

Philip, Melissa, & Summer said...

Thank you, thank you. I have to make these for my mom who loves birds. I hope I can figure it out. You are one of a kind Jodi.

Tempest Ahoy said...

Thanks :) I have made one little fella and he looks great! Planning on making a few more too!

avisiontoremember said...

why oh why do you only have 20 followers!?! Your blog is amazing! I put a link to your quiet book on my blog because I want to do one similar to it for my baby
www.iamonly1woman.blogspot.com

KathiNiels said...

Another wonderfully creative idea. You never cease to amaze me.

Jaedyn said...

Thank you for this tutorial, I just made myself a birdie ornament and put it on the tree and it is so cute! SO sweet of you to share!

CraftyDeb said...

I made this to go along with a Dirty/Silly Santa gift for my quilt guild. I added eyes and wings and it was a big hit. I'll be making more :)

Kate said...

I love the partridge and the fabrics that you used. Thanks for the excellent tute and the pattern.

Lori said...

Thank you, these are adorable. Every year when my husbands side gets together for christmas one lady makes ornaments for everyone.(we are now up to 24 people) This is perfect.

Anya Kase said...

SO CUTE!!!!! I'm going to put one on every package this year! Thanks for the great tutorial!

sew.darn.quilt said...

I've bookmarked this and will be pulling out my scraps for some much needed Christmas sprucing up!
Thank you for this fun and easy projects!!

Elsa said...

Sweet ornament and so very generous of you to share!

Anonymous said...

And still a great tutorial and ornament after several years! Thank you.

CurlyGirlMom said...

I LOVE these... They're the perfect little craft to sew a little something for a gift to give the many friends I ALWAYS want to give something to over the holidays. Thanks so much for sharing the pattern and instructions! :)

SewWhatsNew said...

I love birds and chickens and always make bird ornaments. Thanks for sharing them. I will make them for this year tree.

Jeneta said...

I have been making these with my children this Christmas (they are getting very good at stuffing them!) and so far have gifted 21 of them! We still have quite a few to make (with only 4 days to go before Christmas!) and might not want to make any more for quite some time after this! They have been loved by every recipient. Thanks so much for sharing! I only just realised that we are members of the same church (where quite a few of our partridges were gifted!). Must blog about your partridges sometime soon!

Lyn said...

I received my partridge as a gift from my friend Jeneta.I love it. My school has a biannual fete in 2013. I think this will be a great craft to make and will put the suggestion forward when school resumes in February. LDS too. Lyn.

Ashley said...

Thank you so much for your aweome tutorial! I was looking *everywhere* for a nice bird ornament pdf to make/send to a friend going through chemo. Thanks again for sharing! :) I appreciate it!

Cheryl Loves Quilts and Dogs said...

Just wondering how to print out the pieces full size. Love the bird...help!

Jodell said...

@Cheryl - If you click on the link right above the image (Plump Partridge Template), it should direct you to a full sized pdf file that you can print :)

PamelaJ said...

Very cute thanks for the tutorial did you stitch these by hand ? or could you do them on the machine ..

Jodell said...

@PamelaJ - Hi, I sew these on the machine using a 1/4" seam allowance. I sew starting a the beak for both sides to maintain uniformity. Good luck!

Tammy said...

This little pattern and tutorial are fantastic! I have made 4 today and see many more in my future! I would love to decorate an entire tree with them made from scraps of my daughters dresses over the years. Thank you!

Unknown said...

Thank you for this tute :) I posted pictures of my partridges in the Facebook sewing group called The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly...Sewing For Everyday Life. The girls went crazy for them. If you have seen a major increase in the blog post viewings, that is why! Great tutorial :) I made about 15 the first time I tried it! I just kept finding scraps that looked so great together. Come by and check out or FB group. We would love to hear from the Blogger!

Anonymous said...

these are too cute!! I tried to download the pdf via your template link and it said the file was not found! I would love to be able to make these :)

Carolee said...

How do i get the pattern for plump partridge to print larger?

Jodell said...

@Carolee - If the "Plump Partridge Template" pdf link (found right above the image is not working for you, I would be happy to email the file to you directly. My email can be found by clicking on the bird on the left hand column of this page.