My Fairytale Swan is finished

Sometimes something turns out really nicely, and I simply have to share right away!  And this is definitely the case with my Fairytale Swan.  I haven’t tried mixing minky and felt before, and I have never before added feathers to a softie, but it’s definitely something I plan to try again with different birds – the results are far better than I thought they would be ….

And I think the Fairytale Swan will make a great addition to my (or most likely Rosie’s!) Christmas decorations.  She isn’t a beginner’s make though, there’s some simple wiring in her neck and wings, and I backed the minky with lightweight iron-on interfacing to keep it stable as I stitched.  She is completely hand stitched, which makes it much easier to control the shape of her body and in particular to keep her neck nice and slender and stable.  The wire in her neck means her head can be bent into different positions ….

And her crown is some flexible holographic card bent into a circle and secured with my glue gun.  To counterbalance the weight of her head I inserted an nice round beach pebble into her tummy – my last one!  Daisy and Ben will be pleased – we’ll have to make a trip back to the beach to collect some more before too long!

The pattern for my Princess Swan will be in the December issue of the Bustle & Sew Magazine that’s published on Thursday 26 November (so still plenty of time to make her before Christmas).