Melted March - Making a Textiles Nest Bowl for March

Originally I started thinking of daffodils when I thought of March, but because I was developing all these projects for each month, at the same time, I knew that I wanted to focus on leaves and shoots and flowery bits for my April project.

That's the trouble when considering months that all fall under the same season and don't have a specific festive occassion - as we know even Easter swaps around between March and April.

Although, to be honest I didn't consider Easter exactly, either for March or April - even though I did go with eggs for March.

Yellow Daffodils On Black by DocPixel
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I love daffodils and all that yellow that suddenly crops up around early spring.

Check out the image below. This is a textiles piece I made and covered with appliqued-on daffodil patches.

Next I started thinking about nests.

I think a lot of art and crafts people love nest imagery in their work. I know I do - so any excuse to make something with nests and eggs - even if it is considered twee and cutesy to some, is good for me!

Cardinal's Nest Postcard by naturegirl7
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I find that Robin's egg blue colour particularly appealing when it's combined with browns.

Bitty Bird Nest by UncommonAnnie
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There's something really cosy about eggs in a nest.

Check out the textiles detail below. This is a detail from a textiles piece featuring a baby in a nest. I was going through my Anne Geddes phase at the time!

When I originally started thinking about making a nest for this March project, I began to think about hats and how I could make a hat with a bird's nest on it. Sounds a little crazy but that's the way I think.

I already had a hat I wanted to "redesign" (as you'll see further down this page).

I also started to think about fascinators and smaller hairclips that I could decorate with tiny textiles nests.

Bird's Nest 2 by HeatherReMix
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I adore the moss in the nest below. I love the idea of someone making moss out of textiley bits.

Perhaps it would be fun to make some "moss" by embroidering dissolvable fabric to create a green cobwebby mess.

Bird's Nest Card by hop4joy
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I originally made the doodle below when I bought a sad-looking old hat from a charity shop.

The hat was in such a sad condition - I was surprised it had even put out for sale. I imagine some sweet little old lady had worn it out in a rain storm on her way to church one morning because it was really warped and battered-looking!

Originally I was planning to use this hat to make something fabulous for an e-book I was making about recycling for textiles but I didn't get around to recycling it before I wanted to start work on this project.

I was thinking about covering the hat in all sort of net and frothy bits of fabric, a nest and maybe even some birds.

The next thing to think about was if I made this nest then what would I make it out of?

Pipe cleaners would be great for making the twigs of a nest or even machine stitched cords - I didn't end up making my nest that way but that could be a fun project for kids.

I always collect much more fabric than I need for a project so that I have a good selection to choose from.

I chose a combination of very thick, tweedy fabrics and very feathery delicate fabrics.

This project comes in two parts.

First there is the nest bowl to make and then the felted eggs.

I used a combination of needle felting and wet felting to create the egg shapes.

Vital Statistics of the Finished Nest Bowl

The nest bowl can be as big or as small as you want. My finished bowl was approximately 6" across and about 3" deep.

Project Stats

Difficulty Level: Slightly fiddly

Time: Finished in a few hours

Skills:
Hand sewing
Beading
Coiling fabric
Optional Skills:
Needle felting
Wet feting