The crochet feather tutorial.

A few weeks ago I showed this little box of memories on Face Book. Several people asked me about how to make the feather. I said I would do a tutorial and here it is.

The feather is made in a crochet technique that I found in and old book. I do not think this is a realistic feather but it would look pretty cool on a hat to look like a sort of marabou feather.
Actually the technique I used was sometimes used to make feathers for real ladies hats using a ruler, a big crochet hook an thick thread. But I am going for the 12 th scale version here.

This is what the feather looks like  when the crochet is finished.

What you will need to make a crochet feather :

Thin yarn :  something like mohair or an other type of fluffy yarn will work fine.

A knitting needle. The thicker your needle , the bigger the loops on your feather will be . I used a European size 5.  That is a US H/8 or a UK size 6.

Crochet hook : a 1 mm crochet will work perfectly.

Fine  wire :  Now for the photo I used green wire like the kind you use for flower arranging. I used it because it was easier to see in the photo.  For your first feather it will probably be easier to use this wire too, But for a proper feather a thin wire like  you use for beading would be  much neater. But it is a bit harder to work with.

Tacky glue

A steaming kettle.

Make the slip stitch as you always do for crochet and start working double crochet (dc) around the knitting needle. This means wrap the yarn around the needle and then work 1 dc in the usual way.

You will have to make a strip of dc which will be twice the length of your finished feather, because the crochet will be folded in half when you are making up the feather.

At the end of your strip of dc , work 1 single crochet (sc) and turn so you can work on top of the crochet stitches.  But now comes the fiddling :  you have to put a piece of wire on top of the strip of dc and you will crochet another strip of dc on top of the first strip but this time  the yarn is wrapped around the wire not the knitting needle. 

When you give this picture a good look you will see the  beading wire I used for the real feather as well as the row of dc op top of the first row.

Now you can finish off and cut the thread but leave a tail !

Carefully slip the loops off the knitting needle. The wire has to stay in place inside the  crochet !!!

Try not to stretch the crochet too much or your feather will start to  look less neat. 

Fold in half ad twist the wires around each other to keep the feather in place. Use the tail of thread to wrap around the wires  a few times to  add a nice finish. Cut thread and wire and add a little tacky blue to bind off neatly.

To make your feather extra fluffy you can hold it over a steaming kettle . That will really be a great finishing touch.

If you feel like buying some ready made feathers please contact me about a commission.