...so don't be intimidated by the word "sketch".  No one's going to look at it except you (or in my case, you and me, but we'll just keep it between ourselves); and the point of it is, to be a guide - so that you know the direction you're going in.  You know, so that you'll be able to work with intention (hah! I bet you thought I forgot about my word of the year, didn't you?) :)


And then, the fun part - pulling fabrics from your stash! I actually pulled about four bags of white, but I figured there's only so much interest you could possibly have in bags of white scraps.


One of the bags contained all these delicate white fabrics that had already been cut into little squares for a super secret commission I'd done last year, and some of them were perfect for little Tom.  So, I fused some of those and some of the other whites, and then...


Commenced to cut out feathers.

That coin is a subway token (slightly smaller than a dime) so you'll get an idea of the size of all those tiny little feathers.  I blithely assumed the amount I had here would be enough to cover the bird, and I was wrong, wrong, wrong!


It wasn't even enough to cover the first layer!


Here's a detail shot so you can see how naked poor Tom was after two layers.  All in, I ended up using about 800 of those little tiny white feathers, which were painstakingly fused down about ten at a time.

(Keep in mind, however, that I chose to use very translucent fabrics and netting to get the look I was going for. If someone doing this technique chose to use opaque fabrics,  I'm sure they could get the look with 300, or even 200 feathers. )



And because you've seen me needle felt tree branches about a thousand times now (if you've been with me since the beginning), I won't bother with that again.

But come back on Friday for the big reveal!


P.S. - Hooking up with The Needle and Thread Network and Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday. Go and see what everyone else is up to!