Lol! No worries, most the terminology is my attempt at describing it, nothing else! And if you figured all that out on your own then you’re doing it right in my opinion. Things like shaping the face is really just trial and error stitching. The rest is adapting from one kind to another as needed for what you intend. Mine aren’t perfect either, you can tell from green’s wing stitching going all over the place (he was my first try with a machine!). And my “embroidery” there is just overlapping stitches, nothing else. Errors happen, just hide them good, lol! So that’s a damn good bird you made for pure handstitch!
You made one cool terror bird already. Is it the start of a family of evolving talent? Should we expect more? That’d be cool!
PS, if you want to consider using a machine, I recommend getting advice on a good old one from a sewing group. Cheap, easy to care for, and can sew through anything (whereas new ones are finicky little brats if you have 3 pieces of cloth), and last forever (or like my inherited beast, probably would survive WWIII unharmed). Plus the vintage groups have manuals online for most brands. But they’d know whats a good and simple workhorse to get and advice on how to learn to use it.
Glad you like these 2 old guys tho! They were fun to wear around on Halloween, lol! If you want, Pips, I’ll hunt out the old patterns and see if there’s anything left in my bins. I doubt they’re being sold online anymore but I might be able to share mine with you. It might be after the holidays tho.