Will You Be My Tweetheart?

My husband and I are college sweethearts. We did grow up together, going to the same school and even the same church. Even though we are 6 months apart in age we were one grade year apart in school. He was a grade older than me. During my freshman year of college we had Sunday School Christmas party. It was at this Sunday School Christmas party, while watching It's A Wonderful Life, that he sat next to me on the couch and ate five hotdogs and three hamburgers." Oh, his poor parents!", was all I could think about. Coming from a family with three girls and one skinny brother, I had never in my life seen someone eat so much at one sitting. He did pique my curiosity and later on in the evening he asked me out on a date and two years later the same Sunday School class had an ornament party for our upcoming wedding. We married in December, the month we met.

 

So, in honor of our first Valentine's together (many, many years ago) I made two tweetheart birds. They will be tweethearts 4ever!

Legs

To make the legs, twist two 6 1/4" pipe cleaners together. Using Love Bug's (trinket box) leg and foot instructions make tweetheart's. Sew the red felt feet onto the pipe cleaner feet using a buttonhole stitch. You might have to adjust the pipe cleaner feet a little, cutting the pipe cleaner if needed.

 

Wings

I added a small length of pipe cleaner to the wings after lightly stuffing them. This will help them to hold their shape when you bend them. Glue the wings onto the their bodies.

 

Face

To make an eye socket, so that the love bird doesn't look bug eyed, indent first with thread. Going from the back with knotted thread, come to the front, make a tiny stitch, then go to the back making another tiny stitch, push needle over to where other eye should be (hiding thread in the head not on the outside), doing the same as with first eye. Tie off in the neck area. You can use the neck area for the black thread for the eyes, this way the black thread will not show, and the black thread is not necessary for the eye sockets. On the back of the head you should only see a few tiny stitches. These are hardly noticeable, but if it bothers you just cover them up with feathers. It didn't bother me, so I just left them exposed. *If you need help with this step, just let me know and I will gladly add some photos to better explain.

 

Beak

After you cut the beak pieces out, spread a tiny, tiny bit of glue along the straight side of one beak piece. Now, fold  (if you want you can cut this one a tiny bit smaller, it is the lower beak) pointed end to pointed end and let the glue dry. Do not pin it, the pin marks will show (of course I found out the hard way). For the top part of the beak, do the same with the glue along the straight edge, now tuck the lower beak inside the upper beak, fold. Let glue dry. Glue in place on tweetheart's face.

 

Cheeks

Use blush or chalk (wonderful tip that a reader sent to me-I need to get me some tinting chalk) for cheeks.

Just poke a tiny feather into the top of the head.

 

Apron

This apron was a real pain to make. Very tiny! I did not include the instructions on how to make it because I thought it might cause too much frustration and this is suppose to be a fun project!

You can use a wide ribbon for the apron and just run a gathering stitch around the top and then tie it on to girl tweetheart. Easy Peasy!!

 

Bow tie

Tiny piece of ribbon, knotted and glued in place.

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Tweetheart Trinket Box

"will you be my tweetheart?"

I turned their feet inward. I think that it gives them an innocent, shy quality. Kind of like Suzy Zoo.

 

She was the inspiration for these two tweethearts!

 

Girl bunny now added to the felties.

Had this skirt since I was a child. I am not sure what/who it belonged too, but it looks perfect on my little bunny.

 

Have a wonderful day and we might get a little snow tonight,

Holly