Paper Pieced Hummingbird
I gave my mom her mother’s day present early because she was in town visiting and I probably won’t see her again until after mother’s day – good thing I got it made early!
I’ve been wanting to try paper piecing for ages, but it always seemed so intimidating and while I’ve found tons of adorable patterns, they’ve never quite been something I was willing to pay for/put in the effort to learn how to paper-piece. Sew Mama Sew to the rescue! The recently did a whole series on paper piecing, including excellent tutorial videos here on how to make your own pattern. I found the videos very helpful and easy to follow. I would definitely suggest checking them it if you’re interested in trying paper piecing – whether from a pattern or from scratch. I followed the video’s lead and used this free font full of origami animals/shapes which are angular and great for paper piecing. I used a hummingbird because a) my mom loves hummingbirds and b) I think its one of the most complicated neatest looking origami animals included in the font package.
Above is the pattern I made. I’m not at all familiar with paper piecing pattern convention. I’m sure in real patterns those numbers are in a meaningful order, but I just did them in a way that made sense to me. I’m just sharing my pattern layout here in case anyone wants to see how I split up the shapes. And to show you how tiny some of those pieces are – look at numbers 5 and 10! Can you even see them on the finished product?
I’m in love with how the fabrics turned out. They’re both ones I had in my stash – the blue was from a garage sale and the green is leftover from a quilt that is still in progress. I managed to keep most of the background fabric going the same direction (using those arrows you see on the paper pattern above), and turned the green print to face the direction I’d picture feathers going. The seams aren’t perfect and the lines between ‘origami pieces’ aren’t all the same width, but I’m still psyched with how it turned out as my first try at paper piecing.
The sleeve fit an iPad very snuggly at first, so I sewed the zipper on so that the zipper tab is off to the side when the zipper is open. This keeps the zipper from being in the way of the iPad and lets it slip in perfectly.
I lined the whole sleeve with a blue fleece that I thought looked nice with the other fabrics. I lined my penguin iPad case with fleece when I made it last summer, and I love how it feels a little more cushioned and protected while having a soft surface against the easy-to-scratch screen and back of the iPad.
I love this! Such a cute project for any gift…especially mother’s day! Thanks for linking up with Toot Your Horn Tuesday! Just lovely…hope you link up some of your lovely work again!
Erin
Saw your link over at The Shabby Creek Cottage. Super cute!
This is so beautiful!!
Thank you so much for linking up to Mauvin’ Monday on VintageMauve.com
Cheers,
Jessica
This is beautiful! I love the bright green!
Thanks for linking at Beautify It Monday – Come back and see us soon!
-Four Sisters
So gorgeous! It looks so intricate and delicate, but you make it look simple! Well done!
Good for you coming up with a pattern! It looks perfect.
I love it. It came out so pretty. Thanks so much for sharing at Whimsy Wednesdays.
What an awesome cover! Thanks for linking it up!
I found you through Somewhat Simple. I’ve been doing some foundation piecing lately, and this is so cute! Thanks for sharing
This is really elegant. Luck mom! I’ll have to check out those links if it can help me make gorgeous stuff like this. I’m planning to pin this–hope that’s okay.
How lovely!! Thanks for helping make Things I’ve Done Thursday a success!
It is beautiful! My parents love hummingbirds. I will have to make them something with this. I love paper piecing. Thank you for sharing!!
So cool, and looks so hard! This is sewing right, like quilting? Sorry, I don’t know anything about quilting, but I do know your mom must love it!
Thanks
Yep – just like quilting! Each of those lines (which you can see more clearly on the black & white pattern I showed) is a seam.
I love the origami bird design. I have folded many a paper bird but this is just awesome!
Wow that’s beautiful! You are so clever to use the font as a pattern!
I would love to try this!! I’m going to check it out on Sew Mama Sew! Great Job!! Stopping by from The Blackberry Vine linky party.
Here is what I shared: http://craftybrooklynarmywife.blogspot.ca/2012/04/another-coat-for-holly.html
I love it! I have one PP’d once or twice and I always was amazed with how well things came out, but it seems like such slow going.. I love the single 2 color pattern you used. It looks so much simpler than it really is, especially those really thin pieces. I’m impressed. And to make it into an ipad cover is brilliant!
Wow! It looks great! Paper piecing does look pretty complicated. Thank goodness for tutorials!
Pretty! My mother in law loves hummingbird and she just got an iPad! This would be right up her ally! Thanks so much for sharing!
It’s lovely! I like the idea of the origami-looking designs, too. I imagine that there are so many that would look gorgeous this way!