DIY Gorgeous Scrap Fabric Birdcage - For Spring Decor
Transform an old wire coat hanger and fabric scraps into a charming spring fabric birdcage decoration with our easy-to-follow tutorial. Perfect for adding a whimsical touch to your spring decor.
Maybe it's because I'm the daughter of an ornithologist; spring makes me think of birds. This gave me the idea of making a scrap fabric birdcage decoration for the home.
These upcycled fabric birdcages would make a lovely gift, and as with the fabric birdhouses I made, they can be personalized by using a favourite old shirt or blouse.
Any old fabric scraps will do for these gorgeous birdcage decorations. I've been eyeing up an old pink-striped shirt of my husband's, which I think I'll wear next.
DIY Fabric Birdcage Decoration For Spring
The fabric birdcage takes about 1 hour to make and costs almost nothing as you use stuff around the home.

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What you need to make a fabric Birdcage
- Two wire coat hangers (like the ones you get from the dry cleaners)
- Small round metal flan case or any round object about 7-8cm in diameter. If you don't have anything like that, you can use a round bit of stiff cardboard
- Scraps of cotton fabric or an old cotton shirt.
- Pliers, wire cutters, glue brush, duct tape & glue
- Small twig and twine and feather bird

As I used a hanger for this craft, it has featured under H in the A to Z of upcycling resource ideas.
How to make a fabric birdcage
Making The Wire Frame
Step 1: Firstly, you need to make the birdcage frame. Cut the wire coat hangers with wire cutters in the two places shown in the picture below.
Step 2: Shape your hanger into the shape below using duct tape in the corner to hold it in place. Do this to both hangers, but cut the top hook off the second hanger.
Step 3: Slot your two hangers together to form a cross shape and secure in place with duct tape. Don't worry about how much duct tape you use; you will cover it all in fabric.

Now your frame is ready to cover in fabric.
Covering The Frame In Fabric
Step 4: Tear the fabric into strips about 3cm wide. Tearing gives a better effect than cutting. With a brush, paste the wrong side of the fabric with glue and then wrap it around the wire frame, overlapping as you go. Continue until the whole fabric birdhouse frame is covered.


Step 5: Cover whatever you use for the base in fabric and stick this to the bottom of your cage. This is relatively easy to do as you are sticking fabric to fabric.



Step 6: Finally, the fabric birdcage is almost finished. You only need to hang a twig from the frame with some twine to make a perch and add your bird.
I bought by bird months ago on a trip to Brighton, but they are easy enough to find on Amazon. You could even make a fabric one yourself; there are loads of patterns on Pinterest.


You'll find lots more spring craft ideas here.
With mothers day around the corner, I think that one of these fabric birdcages would make for a lovely Mothers Day gift. You could make the gift even more special using an old favourite blouse or shirt.
You should check out these upcycled crafts for more Mother's Day gift ideas.





Claire,
These truly are "gorgeous"! I'd like to include these in a roundup post on my blog, if that's okay. I might also use another project of yours as well. If for some reason you are not comfortable with this, please let me know. The post will be up on the 6th but I will gladly remove links if I hear otherwise. 🙂
Angela
Thank you. Angela you are welcome to use a project in a round up. You can use one photo for each project as long as there is a clear link back to Pillarboxblue.
Claire,
You are so clever and talented. I adore every one of your projects! This is fabulous and thanks for sharing!
Janine your going to give me a big head, thank you so much for your kind words.
What a cool and original idea Claire. I also love to use fabric to wrap around anything that looks ugly to me or to add some zip. This was insanely creative of you. Visiting as a fellow contributor to the blog hop.
Thank you very much. I'm a bit of a fabric hoarder, the hardest bit I find is choosing a fabric.
Just popping back in to say thanks so much for sharing your awesome bird cages at Vintage Charm
Thank you !
I have a thing for bird cages, and these are beautiful! I absolutely love what you've done here! Pinning!!!!!
Navy Wifey Peters @ The Submarine Sunday Link Party
Thank you ! They are very simple to make.
Hangers! I would have never seen that coming. These are precious! They remind me of my visit to Maui... such a neat vibe!
Thank you so much ! I loved reading about your visit to Maui, I want to go.
Your birdcages are so adorable Claire. Love the colourful fabrics!
Thank you! I do love a bit of colour.
Cute! And a really good instruction.
Cheers and thank you !
Awwwww, how sweet! Great tutorial on how to make these. We have a generous stash of wire hangers from the dry cleaners...perfect project for those!
Thanks ! Who'd thought you could make something pretty out of those ugly hangers.