Flighted Fancy pattern

I’ve been wanting to do another paper pieced bird for a while, and this spring I finally sat down to work out a paper pieced bluebird. I figured everyone likes bluebirds—they’re bright and cheerful, and they have a reputation for being “family-oriented,” with early clutches sometimes staying around to help raise babies from later in the season.

But after I finished the bluebird, I started thinking about the fact that, of course, this is mostly a bird found in the eastern United States, and those of you who live elsewhere might have a very different favorite backyard songbird! So, I set out to turn this pattern into one that you could use to make lots of different birds—real or imagined.

Since there are many different patterns and colorations on songbirds, I decided to make this a modular pattern, with multiple options and extra piecing lines. The final pattern includes two head options, three beak options, and two different tail lengths.

The well-loved European Blue Tit, for example, uses the second head template, a different beak, and the shorter tail. This little bird is well-loved in European and British gardens for its cute antics:

For you Australians, I also sewed up a Gouldian Finch, which uses the Finch Beak and some optional piecing lines that I have included in order to allow you to make chins, neck stripes, et cetera! (This one is also a popular caged bird, and many color variations have been bred!)

Finally, of course, there is no need to limit yourself to real birds! Readers of this blog will know that I love a good rainbow, and this summer I had the opportunity to work with new fabric lines from two fabulous designers. I decided to use their rainbow-y collections to sew up a couple of fantasy birds. First up is the Color Club collection by Heather Valentine of The Sewing Loft for Windham Fabrics:

How perfect is the bird print that she snuck into this collection?! I also love that she included a couple of browns, which worked out so nicely for the beak and feet of this bird. (In both this one and the next, I should note that the collection includes nice low volume fabrics that would have made a great background—I just didn’t have quite enough, as the background does require more than a fat quarter, so I had to use something else.)

My other fantasy bird used the Summer Lovin’ collection by Shayla Wolf of Sassafras Lane, also for Windham. In this case, the line includes several great scallop prints—I’m pretty sure she meant for them to be rainbows, but turn them upside down and they actually make a feather texture. Again, perfect for this pattern!

You’ll notice that this bird is facing the other way. I had some room in the pattern, and so I included a bunch of extra tidbits, including some instructions on how to flip the pattern backwards to make a bird facing the other way. (Unfortunately, including templates for the other direction also would have made the pattern far too big—it’s a pretty chunky pattern as it is!)

Besides the assembly instructions and a thorough guide on how to use the special features of this pattern, I also included five different coloring suggestions, some tips on fabric selection, and a quick primer on bird anatomy to help you get your bird as realistic as possible (if that’s what you’re going for!)

Below are images from my testers—among the “real” birds they made are a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak and a Scarlet Tanager.