Monday, January 7, 2013

DIY: Put a Bird on It

I am interrupting this post with a link to my latest felted sweater...my version of an Anthro sweater with the bonus of a DIY tulle skirt! Check it here. Hello, my name is Cassie and I put birds on things. I know, I'm so cliche that there's even a Portlandia skit dedicated to birds-on-things-itis. Which I apparently have a bad case of.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
Audre Lorde

Oh, were truer words ever spoken? However, I'd like to just change it up a little bit, if I might, to fit my purposes: There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them with felt.
 Yeah, that's better.
So, as you might recall from this post, I have recently caught the felting bug. Like, big time. Which is a really good thing because I have a mountain of thrifted, slightly boring-ish sweaters I'm just dying to felt-ify. Yet another reason to justify my hoarding ways.

I began felting this sweater one evening without any sort of plan but with an urge to put a bird on it. Before I could talk myself out of it, I felted a white paisley shape for the body, overlapping that with the red, blue and a couple specks of black. The tree branch and the leaves took no time at all.
For the back of the sweater, I found some images of birds on pinterest (if you'd like to see them, you can check out my "felting" board) and just started felting away. Originally, I had planned to felt a large tree growing up the middle back of the sweater with birds all over it. But hubs seemed to think that was too cliche and suggested I have the branches growing from the side of the sweater. Huh. Why didn't I think of that?
The birds look out of focus, don't they? That's the fuzzy nature of felting. Which drives a nit-picky detail-oriented artist like me kinda nuts. Also, check out that needle tool on the bottom left. A couple of you mentioned in my felting post to beware of stabbing myself. I'd done it a couple of times, but when I literally had to pull three bloody needles out of my index finger, I thought "ah! this is what I was warned about!" That quote being the g-rated version. Ahem.
After felting eleven or so birds on the back of the sweater, I added the tree branches and leaves. I know, I'm making it sound really easy. I'm not gonna lie, some of those flying birds were a bit tricky. I found the key is to work small because you can always make the bird bigger. Meaning, if it looks like a shrunken head birdie, add more felt. However, if you give it a big ole head to start then the next thing you know, you got some sort of crazy giant-headed bird monster that will frighten small children. Which, just gave me an idea...
Want some outfit details? Belt, dress and shoes: Anthro; For the Birds Enid Collins box purse: best ebay purchase ever; felty hair flower: gift from my moms-in-law. AND check out my new hair stylin's. I've been steam roller rollin' my hair almost daily and it's time consuming. This 'do took less than 7 minutes and I love it. I combed some hair forward for a faux bang and put a bumpit at the crown of my head. I braided the bottom of my hair, twisted it into a bun and pinned it with 27 bobby pins (give or take).
Next up on my Hair 'Do To Do: This Hairy Nesterpiece. BTW, ya'll need to check out one of my fave blogs The Hair Hall of Fame. So much awesomeness on heads.
And that is all. At least for now. I've got another sweater in the works after I promised myself I'd take a break. But when I recently experienced a DIY fail, I felt the need to felt again. And punch my frustrations out. While watching out for my fingers, of course.
But I promise, I'm not putting any more birds on things! For at least another 10 minutes. Now watch this funny clip. You'll like it. 

Chat with you soon!




12 comments:

  1. That is adorable! I would love to do that to one of my cardigans (: And i love the portlandia sketch - everyone loves birds on things but not actual birds. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Waw, that looks amazing! Sure looks like you put a lot of time and effort in it. And I love it that you paired it with that adorable purse :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brilliant birds!

    Please send me the purse. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ACK THIS IS SO FREAKIN AWESOME I CAN'T EVEN. Love love love loooove!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I LOVE this! And omg goes with purse so well! Love, love, love!

    ReplyDelete
  6. landgirl1/08/2013

    I love it, how can anything this charming be thought cliche? Not only is the design great, the background colour adds lots of sophistication to the primary colours, it's just beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I die everytime I see that skit. I'm actuall "that girl".... sad but true. I have birds things all over my house. I love your outfit and blog! Love it all.

    http://www.nothingbutapigeon.blogspot.com/

    xo

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous1/08/2013

    Oooh, so very, very pretty!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. very nice! Never considered one could felt like that. And your outfit is smashing by the way :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow! The cardigan is great, and you look fantastic :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great idea, does the sweater have to be made of wool also? The blue one looks like it might be cotton.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I LOVE this. I have tried making the birds three times but mine end up looking like something (not sure what, but definitely not a bird). I would really be so happy if you did just ONE more bird and showed us how you did the tiny birds. I really want to make this, but not having any luck. I have done felting before, but making the birds actually look like birds, seems very hard for me. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comments. I appreciate each and every one :)

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.