birds of a feather...nestled

from sew sweetness blog

Have you seen this pieced feather? Well, it was made by Anna Maria Horner... I love it.

So, when I was trying to decide what to put on the front panel of the wrap I was making for my cousin's first baby (who was born friday night and I have been helping with the past few days... Oh- delightful!) what do you think came to mind? You must know me well ;-) Of course I had to copy Anna Maria! 

Here is tiny baby in her feathered pouch... if you are interested in a step by step of how I made the feather follow right along(I have no doubt that Anna Maria had it refined a bit more- you are getting my first copy cat attempt).

I paper pieced the colorful sides, so here is my paper. (The shape should be narrower at one end- I forgot and fixed that later).

I sewed strips of fabric together on top of the paper at an angle and ironed each strip open as I went along. When paper piecing set the stitch length tight; this will help the paper be very perforated and easy to tear away.

When this step is finished, the back should look about like this.

Then you trim off the excess fabric to get it into the shape of the template/base paper.

Now tear the paper off of the back.

One down, one to go....

When colored pieces are finished, you sew them to a piece of background fabric that looks about this shape.

Match up the edges the way you would pieces of bias stripes.

Next, sew your center strip to both side pieces.

Add little triangles to close in the top...

Then, add background fabric to the sides... Ta Da -- feather complete. Now, what to do with it?

I sewed more background fabric until I had a square that measured about 16"X16". I sewed a free form feather to finish the design. Then, I hemmed the top edge under.

I ironed all my edges under and pinned the two sides and the bottom to the center of my jersey. (to make a moby type wrap you use a ~20" X 5.5 yard piece (give or take depending on size of intended wearer) of jersey fabric. I like a medium weight that is mostly cotton with a little bit of lycra).

Sew the three sides down using a coordinating thread. (The white feather looks splotchy because I had just sprayed it to erase my marker sketch.)

See the handy pocket for keys and dipes? The panel is also nice for marking the center when putting on the wrap.

Peep eye ;-)