Mother’s Day is fast approaching (18th March to be exact) and I thought I would share with you a little sewing project that I’ve done, and hope it might inspire you to make something for your own mum too!
This chicken tea-cosy was made from brown print fabric, gingham and a pillowcase for the. lining. I got my husband (the artist!) to draw me the shape of a chicken on paper and I used this as a pattern for cutting out the fabric. I cut 2 shapes in pillowcase lining (a couple of cm smaller than the pattern so that it would fit inside the chicken once constructed) and 2 in the brown-print fabric.
I put both pairs of chickens with right sides together and stitched around the edges. I turned both pieces right-side out and put the lining inside the chicken. Then I used wadding to stuff between the layers and stitched along the bottom edge. I then folded a strip of gingham fabric over the bottom edge to neaten it and stitched all around the base.
Optional extras: I cut extra gingham fabric into the shape of the chicken’s crest, stitched around the edges, turned right-side out and stuffed with more wadding before attaching to the chicken’s head. Add a button each side of the head for the chicken’s eyes.
I also decided to hand-stitch around the pattern on the back of the chicken using wool to outline the feathers. I also cut two wings out of matching fabric (4 pieces), put two pieces right-sides together, stitched around the edge, turned right-side out and stuffed with wadding before machine-stitching around the edges of the pattern to create a quilted wing. I repeated this to make the second wing & attached them to the body of the chicken.
So there you have it – a cute chicken tea-cosy! Perfect for my bantam-keeping mother! PS my mum stuffed a small cushion inside it and uses it as a chicken-cushion on her sofa when not being used as a tea-cosy!
