Crowned Crane progress, part 3: Feathers

With the basic body structure completed, it's time to add feathers. These are a lot of work. Continuing reading to see how they're made.

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If you've followed my earlier posts, you know that I've been building a trio of East African Grey Crowned Cranes. If you haven't kept up, you can start here.
With the basic body structures completed, it's time to add feathers.
At this point, I decided to work on one bird at a time. That way, I could theoretically learn from my mistakes before proceeding with the other two birds.
​I chose to begin with the smallest of the three bird bodies.

I used my embroidery machine to make the feathers, using this process:
1. I downloaded feather embroidery designs from ​Urban Threads.
2. I used Embird embroidery software to resize and simplify the designs.
3. I then hooped two layers of cotton print fabric with a sheet of Sulky Ultra Solvy stabilizer sandwiched between them.
3. I loaded the hoop into my embroidery machine, and stitched out dozens of feathers.
4. Then I cut out the feather shapes, leaving the edges raw.
5. I soaked the feathers in warm water to dissolve the stabilizer.
6. I let the feathers dry.
7. I brushed the back of each feather with Aleene's Stiffen Quik. (It comes in a spray bottle, but the sprayer is hard on my hands, so I find it easier to pour the liquid into a plastic cup and apply it to the feathers with a paintbrush.)
8. I let the feathers dry again.
9. I pressed the feathers with a steam iron. I left the gray feathers flat, but I curled the ends of the long red tail feathers with my fingers while they were still hot from the iron. After cooling, they retained their curled shape.

I then pinned the feathers onto the body, moving them around and repinning until I was satisfied with the placement. Then I hand-sewed the feathers to the body using strong upholstery thread and a long doll needle.

Here's the crane with all its feathers stitched into place.
​Up next, the neck and shoulders.

​More on making the crowned crane
​Crowned crane, getting started
​Crowned crane, Part 1: Making legs
Crowned crane, Part 2: Building the body
Crowned crane, Part 3: Feathers
Crowned crane, Part 4: Neck and shoulders
Crowned crane, Part 5: The dreaded crown
Crowned crane, Part 6: Finishing touches

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