Simple vintage glass insulator suet feeder

I think this will be the fastest and the simplest post in the history of blogging… I debated if I should even share this easy DIY project at all. I hope you like it and it will brighten up your bird feeding area in your own fall garden.

We live in the country and we have lots of different types of wild life, mostly though we have a ton of birds… in the fall we start putting out the suet for our feathered friends, we refill the suet cages usually every 4 days when it’s very cold. Our large bow window is like a big TV, if you’re into bird watching that is. For us it’s a never ending form of relaxation and entertainment. Maybe we should get out more… hahah. 😉

For those of you who follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know that I have a slight obsession with anything vintage. My collection of vintage glass insulators is pretty modest really, considering how much I love them. I decided to actually use the insulators as suet holders one day and I love the way it turned out and bonus, I get to see my pretty insulators being used… not collecting dust. Not that my house has dust, HA! Feeding the plethora of birds that visit our yard is very satisfying and I love that they like my DIY feeder.

This is how I made my simple vintage glass insulator suet feeder.

Things you will need.

A glass insulator, in this case size does not matter. You can hang a bunch of different sizes, colours, get creative and hang a variety of them, this is for your entertainment… go for it I say.

Twine, string, or any cord that appeals to you. Last year I just used jute and I didn’t do anything fancy. This year I wanted to try my hand at macrame and decided to use the jute to do that. I like the way it turned out, it’s not fancy… I liked it just as much last year too with just plain jute.

If you’d like to macrame your jute holder, any tutorial on YouTube will help you with that… that is where I got my VERY simple pattern from this year. But…

If you’d just rather go the simple route, this is what I did, last year.  I used 3 separate pieces of jute, the lengths were measured by extending my arms to full span once for each piece. Here is a visual of what my process was.

Once the insulator is secured in the hanger I filled the feeder.

I filled the very bottom of the insulator (where the insulator is threaded) with black oil sunflower seeds, I find this little trick makes clean up much faster.

Then, I stuffed the top portion of the insulator with suet. We buy, already made suet, I know you can easily make your own, but that’s where we get lazy.

Then, I simply sprinkle the top and outer edge with black oil sunflower seeds.

I made this one today, within minutes there were birds… I hung it and came back in to take some photos from our kitchen window, by the time I was at the camera they started to show up. Hungry little guys, trying to fatten up for winter.

When the weather gets really cold, this feeder along with our other feeders will be very busy. It’s important to remember, once you start feeding the birds to continue, because they start to depend on that feed.

I hope you like how I use some of my vintage glass insulators…  and have enjoyed one of the ways we prepare for colder fall weather around here.  I’ve joined in with other fantastic bloggy friends and Hometalk, we are all sharing different DIY home and garden fall projects for your inspiration.  What are some of the ways you prepare for the coming winter, do you feed the birds?

Thanks so much for stopping by, have a wonderful Autumn! xo

Please go and check out all of the awesome fall projects… you won’t be disappointed.  You can follow along with the hashtag #homeforfall, I can’t wait to see what everyone has done.