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Make your pattern pieces or decide to measure directly as you cut
You can make your chicken from any size square, but I found I liked the 4 inch square size the most. Because I was going to be making several of them, I cut some pattern pieces out of my roll of manila pattern paper. This is about the thickness of your basic manila file folder, so very sturdy, but not hard to cut with good paper scissors. I have used this manila paper for many patterns that I use over and over. It doesn’t fold up for storage like the tissue or pellon stuff, but smaller pieces slide nicely into one of the old ziplocks that I recycle for saving patterns. I have stashed larger patterns between shelves and such. The exact item that I purchased from Amazon is no longer available, but this manila pattern paper has all the same specs. You will find a printable pdf of my chicken pattern pieces below.
If you set your printer to 100% scale, then you should end up with the one inch line actually measuring to one inch. However, if it is not exact, that is your call, because, as I said, the exact size is a matter of personal preference. I will warn you that smaller chickens are going to be more tedious to work with.
Choose your fabrics
A chicken pincushion is commonly made out of leftover quilt squares, but I haven’t made a quilt in many years. Fortunately, I have tons of cute medium weight woven fabrics to choose from instead. The chicken pincushion will be easiest to make with medium-light to medium weight woven fabrics for the body and tail. Thinner fabrics won’t hold the shapes as well and tend to rip more easily from pins going in and out, but can work for the beak and comb. Knits don’t make great pincushion either.
You will notice in the various photos at the end that I chose mostly orange or yellow for the beak, though a couple of times I coordinated with a pink or purple.
For the comb, I often went with red, no matter the other colors in the main fabric. I was surprised to find I didn’t have a lot of red woven fabric. However, I had a Christmas print that worked. I also got creative finding spots of red or purple or pink to fussy cut out of various fabrics to get colors I wanted. For instance, at least one chicken has a comb that is part of a slice of watermelon. And a beak that is from an orange. Be sure to test what will show after folding and seam allowances to get the look you want.
I found I was happiest with the tail when the contrasting fabric was on top, that is, from the smaller tail square.
I saw examples of chicken pincushions with felt beaks and combs, but I have way more fabric that I have felt, so that’s what I went with. However, I did show on the pattern how you would cut the beak in one triangle, plus I gave an example of the shape a comb might be cut out of felt. I have chickens, so I see a lot of combs every day, and that is how squiggly they look!
Cut out your chicken
You will want two of the largest square for the chicken body. All the other pieces are single. The photo below shows all the pieces, but the (2) tail pieces, the beak, and the comb pieces are already folded.
Press your tail and beak triangles into shape
For the first fold, match two opposite corners. Press the folded edge.
For the second fold, take the points on either end of the folded edge to meet. Press the new fold.
Do the this with both tail squares and with the beak square. You will end up with three different sized triangles. For each of these folded triangles, all of your raw edges should end up along one side, which will be in the seam allowance when sewing things together.
Sew the beak and comb in place
Position the beak about ¾ of an inch from one corner of a body square. I like to have the open part of the triangle facing down, which means away from that near corner. The corner just above the beak will end up being the head of the chicken. Place the raw edges of the beak triangle along the edge of the square and pin in place
Fold the comb rectangle in half lengthwise. It doesn’t really matter if the folded side or the raw edge side are aligned with the square edge if you are going to trim it with pinking shears like I did. If you get fancier with the comb, you’ll have to make your own decisions about this. Pin the comb about the same distance from that same corner, but on the adjacent side.
Sew both the beak and comb in place, stitching about a 3/16 inch from the raw edge of the square. This way the stitching will be inside the ¼ inch seam allowance later. You can see in the photo that I began my stitching on one side of the beak then just kept stitching around the corner. I also experimented with using a basting stitch, but found the regular length sewing stitch worked best.
The beak and comb will both flip to the outside when you turn your chicken right side out.
Make chicken eyeballs
Placement of the eyes is key. I chose to line up the eyes with the top of the beak. Keep in mind that the top of the beak on the finished chicken is about ¼ to ⅜ of an inch lower that where it is on the edge of the square, due to seam allowance. And you can see from the photo below that the eye is also almost lined up with the end of the comb.
I made chicken eyeballs with a french knot using black embroidery thread. I happened to have inherited a thicker than usual embroidery thread, so you might want to experiment with how many strands or how many French knots to use. The black embroidery thread I used isn’t as obvious on the darker fabrics in the photos, but seemed obvious enough to me in real life.
You could embroider it with a different stitch, like I did on my shark pencil case.
I suppose googly-eyes could be glued on. I think I have some of those somewhere… I’m not sure why… or you could sew on a button or a piece of felt. I would probably wait to attach these kind of eyes after the chicken was sewn and stuffed.
If embroidering the chicken eyeballs, now get the other large square of fabric, which is the other side of the chicken body. At this point it doesn’t matter which corner you align the eye with. Use the position of the first eyeball to figure out where to embroider this eye. I used the embroidery needle as a gauge, as you can see below. The photo after that shows what it all looks like on the wrong side of the fabric.
If you don’t want to get mixed up about how to align the body squares later, make a pencil mark or stitch in the seam allowance or something on the second square that marks what you consider the front of the chicken. Then, when you put the squares together, you can make sure that lines up with the beak side of the first square.
Sew two sides of the chicken body together
Lay the two large squares right sides together, making sure that the eyes are both on the same corner. Pin only the two adjacent sides that have the beak and comb between them. Using a ¼ inch seam, sew ONLY those two edges together. I reinforce the corner by sewing around it again, just from one inch from the corner, around the corner, then one inch past. Back stitch to secure threads.
Sew the bottom of the chicken
There are two keys to doing this correctly:
- Make sure that you are working on the side that is opposite the comb side.
- Leave an opening of 1.5 inches.
You can see in the photo below how I measure the distance roughly in the middle of the side. I marked it using a fading pen, but whatever method helps you keep track of the opening is fine.
Again, back stitch every time you start or stop the seam to reinforce. This will especially help when turning the whole chicken right side out later.
I also reinforce the corner you see in the bottom left of the photo above. Then I trim the two corners that have stitching on both sides of them, being careful not to cut through the stitching.
Sew the tail together
You can sew the tail pieces together at any point before this, but they have to be done before the next step.
Stack the two tail pieces with the smaller piece on top, having raw edges even, centering the smaller tail piece on the larger piece. Stitch them together.
Sew the tail into the chicken body
First, find the side of the chicken body that has not been sewn together in any way. Fold it so that the seams meet.
Next, slip the tail into the opening making sure that the top of the tail is facing the side with the comb. Center the tail in the space, though it will come close to taking up all the space. Align the raw edges and pin or clip to hold it in place. It will be pretty thick. Sew the end closed using a ¼ inch seam. (You don’t need to trim these corners)
Turn right side out and stuff
Reach through the opening you left in the bottom and grab the tail. Turn the chicken right side out. Once it is right side out, use a blunt instrument, like a larger crochet hook, to completely poke out the corners.
You can trim the comb now or wait until the chicken is stuffed. I used my pinking shears.
I recommend not filling the chicken unless you are ready to stitch up the bottom right away. It is nearly impossible to set it down afterward without the filling leaking out.
I prefer to fill my chickens with walnut shell cat litter, clean out of the bag, of course. I found it helpful to use a funnel. The end of the funnel is also useful for pushing the broken walnut shells down into the corners. You don’t have to put all the filling in the funnel to begin with. In fact, when you get closer to the full-point, you will be better off putting smaller amounts into the funnel.
Sew up the bottom opening
The key points to doing this are
- Hide the beginning of the thread
- Sew in very small stitches
- Use a stitch that lays flat
- Hide the end of the thread
- Use a length of thread sufficient for the whole distance, but not so long as to get too tangled.
I end up using doubled thread that is about 18- 20 inches from eye of needle to the knotted end. To hide the beginning of the thread, insert the needle inside the very tip of one end of the opening. Tuck the tail of the thread beyond the knot inside the chicken.
When stitching, the idea is to pull the two edges together without folding or puckering. I use what is called the mattress stitch. To work this stitch, you always insert the needle under the fabric edge to come up through the top. Catch enough fabric that it feels strong. Smaller stitch length helps avoid bunching of the seam, but since the stitching is on the bottom, it won’t show. Still, flat stitching will help the chicken to sit more balanced.
Remember, each stitch begins under the fabric, then comes out on top. Then, when you move the needle to the other side, you go under again. Don’t get confused by the photo below which shows the extra stitch at the end to position the thread for the end knot.
For the ending knot, take a small stitch to come out basically over the top of the seam line. Tie the knot, then before cutting the thread, push the needle into the chicken very close to the knot, then up again about an inch away. I like to do this one more time in another direction. Then I cut the thread which is now tucked inside of the chicken. Be careful not to cut into the fabric of the chicken. Even with a little bit of thread sticking out, it will tend to pop back inside of the chicken from the tension.
And your chicken pincushion is done!
I have been making them for gifts for friends and family who sew, but I’ve also been making them for grandchildren of all ages. I get reports back from the moms that the 3-5 year olds will sit and put pins in their chickens while mom sews. The older grandchildren just think they are cute and like the weight of them in their hands. It has been pointed out that they would work for tossing games, due to the weight of the walnut shells.
Here are a few photos of other chicken pincushions I have made.
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