Prosperity Hens

 I had never heard of prosperity hens until recently. Prosperity hens come from a tradition in India. Owning a flock of chickens there meant you were prosperous or, at the very least, doing well. So poorer people began to hang strings of cloth chickens on doorways in their homes in an effort to invite prosperity to their own household. At least that's the short and dirty of the tradition.

It caught on as a crafty decoration and more people began to hang them in their homes. Now it is kind of considered a 'vintage' decoration, particularly if you find one that was made decades before. 

A friend of mine absolutely loves vintage things and antiques. She also happens to have been a leader in 4-H for many years. And is totally into gardening and raising farm animals. Her children raised and showed many animals in fairs and such.

Prosperity hens just struck me as something she might like. She may not but it seems right up her alley. So, I thought I might make that my next project just for kicks.

And, bonus, they take such small scraps of fabric that it can clean out my scrap bin some too. So, I got to work.

They are super duper simple. Just 4-inch squares folded into a triangle. Add a scruff of fabric for a beak and one for a tail. Then sew closed, leaving a space for turning.

Trim off corners and then turn. This became my tv time work again. Because I pulled those hemostats out and stuffed them after turning.

Stuffing the head and tail particularly well causes that little bow in the back. Very nice! It seemed like I would have needed to cut that curve in there but nope. It does it on its own.

After some tv time, I had a nice full box 'o chickens.

Next, I just had to string them with some beads. I wanted natural colored beads (rather than the red, white, and blue I had just gotten). Fortunately, I had a jar with some I had cannibalized off of something I bought for a wreath I was making. They were extra pieces that I had just kept thinking I might use them. How often does it work out that you actually do? Hey, hey!

Pushing that needle through was probably the hardest part of the whole thing. I was tempted to get some pliers to pull it through but I just worked it until it popped on out.

I didn't have enough of the brown beads to do the whole thing despite only making 9 chickens rather than the 16 from the tutorial I used. But the other beads were very natural looking red, green, yellow, and a darker brown. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until after I had started stringing them on  the jute. So, I ended up taking it apart and restringing it in a pattern I liked. The holes I had made initially made it easier to string the chickens back on.

The beads and stringing also help it have that curve to its backside as well so they really look like little hens.

Then I had to wait. The redo kept me from delivering it that night as I had planned so I figured I would order some 'cowbell' looking bells rather than just using a large jingle bell.

When they finally arrived, I tied one on the end. And just for more kicks, printed out the backstory for her.

Fun, fun! And cute! I think she's gonna love it and I can't wait to give it to her.

If you want to make some, the tutorial is here. Let me see yours if you try it.