Christmas Chooks

Evening All! I forgot to show you yesterday that my Christmas cards from my ATC group arrived. I love getting cards so four in one envelope was pretty exciting. Click here to see the cards that I sent off and then below to see what I got back!

 (From Carol)

(From Pat)

 (From Sally)

 (From Hazel)

I have had a very creative day today as I was asked a few weeks ago whether I would be able to help make some scented chickens. They had to be the ones that looked like little pyramids and be easy to make lots of. 

I found a fantastic tutorial on how to make 'Juggling Chooks' on a blog called Red Ted Art. She had made hers quite little so they would be easy to juggle with, but with a little measurement juggling of our own, we were soon making lots of smelly chickens of varying sizes, colours and personality!

My first one was the big checked chicken who is called Herman. The blue spotty one was my second attempt and is full of Christmas smells- cloves, star anise, cinnamon, allspice etc. (If you have decided to have a go at your own chickens, using the same method as RTA- Herman measures 30cm by 16cm, and the blue spotty chicken is 22cm by 12cm- my preferred size.)

I only made three in the end, but Vicky went all out and experimented with different sizes, filling methods and colour combos. Most of hers are scented with Lavender so I asked if I could use some of her Lavender to create the smells for my third chicken- the pink patchwork one.

They are filled with combinations of polyester toy stuffing, rice and smelly herbs/spices. For any that will be used in the microwave (as a hand warmer or headache soother) we just used rice and smellies, but any that are more decorative had rice bottoms and stuffed heads. (The rice is used to weigh it down so that the chicken sits nicely- if you just want a soft toy then you don't need to put in the rice.)

(A wreath of chickens!)

I did sew up most of the bottoms on all of the chickens, and had a go at two different methods. Because Herman was so big I could stitch up most of his bottom on the sewing machine and then finish him off with some hand stitching right at the end after a bit more stuffing, but I found it much easier to work a ladder stitch across the bottom as it looked so much neater.
There is lots of fun to be had making chickens and they are so easy! Perfect for a rainy day and a great project for all ages.