I had a lovely afternoon this week teaching my WI’s Craft Club how to make chicken pattern weights. It seemed a fairly apt project just after Easter.
On the last series of Great British Sewing Bee I noticed quite a few of the contestants were using pattern weights rather than pins for holding the pattern still whilst cutting out, particularly for fabrics which damage or move easily.
I’ve seen a few chicken pin cushions over the last few months and they were on my list of to do one day, but when I saw a tutorial on Loganberry Handmade for these dinky ones, I thought they would be perfect and fun as weights.
I thought I’d better make one up before the Crafty Afternoon, so a couple of hours before they arrived I was busy making a chicken! It’s made from two 2.5″ squares and some scraps of felt for the beak, comb and tail. The instructions are really easy to follow luckily.
As the 2.5″ squares did make a pretty dinky chick, we made them slightly bigger using a 3″ square. The little blue one was the original one, all the others are 3″.
To make them into weights I bought some pigeon grit from the pet shop. We keep chickens so we always have a supply of chicken grit in, which looks like it is made from chopped up cockle shells, it was a bit coarse for what I wanted which is why I got the finer pigeon grit. It’s very cheap too (no pun intended!) The fiddliest bit was filling the chickens with the grit, particularly as the only funnel I could find was huge. I put a tiny bit of stuffing in at the end, mainly to stop the grit from leaking out when I tried to stitch it closed.
The chickens were pretty quick to make, every one managed to make two. I fancy making myself another half dozen so I can try using them for cutting out.
thecraftycreek 
Love them! They are so cute! Like you, I noticed the use of the weights to hold pattern pieces in that series too…always something new we can learn about.
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Cute and practical, what’s not to love about these!
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These are pretty darn cute, whether they are pin cushions or pattern weights!
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Adorable!
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These would definitely make me smile when doing the ‘boring’ bit of dressmaking – i.e. cutting out.
I made a couple of these, yonks ago, in a larger size, filled with cherry stones and they make great heatpads for aches and pains after a couple of minutes in the microwave.
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They look lovely and maybe even a numpty like me could make one. Scaled up maybe for a childs toy?
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How cute! I can think of lots of uses for these, in different sizes!
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Very sweet and a whole lot prettier as pattern weights than the ones I use from my kitchen scales!
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They’re so cute!
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well done to all ladies! I’ve got one that Avis made me when she organised her “Chicken Run” lol.
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I noticed the pattern weights on GBSB too – I wondered if they held the pattern down on the fabric properly. A good sewing friend assured me they do and she loves them! I guess it’s a lot quicker than pinning.
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