Old Knit Gloves to Nesting Material

Inetia
by Inetia
2 Materials
$5
3 Hours
Medium

Got old gloves with holes? Time to upcycle.

Cut off the cuffs.

Cut half inch strips from the hands. When you get to the thumb cut it off, then continue to cut half inch strips until you reach the fingers.

Firmly stretch each band. (Cutting the thumbs off will leave a couple of strips that are not bands.) Stretch them too.

Wrap each band tightly around a ruler.

Cut the bands while keeping them together so you can cut them again.

Cutting them again assures no bird will get her feet tangled in them.

Now back to the fingers; cut the tips off and cut them in quarter inch lengths.

Stretch the finger bands and wrap each one around the tip of your scissors as many times as you can (3 or 4 times), then cut it.

I decided to transform a coffee creamer bottle to present my offerings to my birds.

After removing the label I cut a rather large hole in the smooth side of the bottle. I drilled two holes the size of soda straws, one in the front of the bottle below the large hole and one in the back directly across from the first one. The perch is two soda straws, one slit lengthways so I could slide it inside the the other straw to reinforce it. Then I inserted it into the two holes.

I drew and colored flowers and foliage on the bottle with fine point colored markers. I touched up the flower petals with acrylic paint. There are indented horizontal stripes around the bottle which I painted black, I drilled holes in each side of the bottle cap just large enough to place a cord through and painted it black too. I sprayed it all with two coats of indoor/outdoor clear coat sealer, allowing it to dry between coats.

It rains a lot where I live so I cut a hole in the bottom of a microwave noodles bowl to make an over hanging roof. It was already black.

I put black cord through the holes in the cap and tied knots in the ends. A short cord will make it more stable in the wind.

With the bowl in place I screwed the cap back onto the bottle and put the shreddded gloves into the bottle.

Suggested materials:
  • Pair of knit gloves, scissors, colored markers, acrylic paints, cord,   (Already had them)
  • Indoor/outdoor clear coat spray paint   (Fred Meyer)
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 4 comments
  • Wendy Wendy on Feb 14, 2019

    This is really sweet!

  • William William on Feb 14, 2019

    Great and genius idea. I save lint from my dryer for bids. I just make a small sphere fro chicken wire. THIS IS BETTER! Great way to present it for the birds, keeps it dry, and not messy.

    • Inetia Inetia on Feb 14, 2019

      Thanks. I used to put nesting materials in a suet feeder but with all the rain I wanted to find a dryer way. I had just made a bird house out of a creamer bottle so it seemed logical to give it a try. I don’t know that a bird won’t just move in and nest in it.

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