Thanksgiving’s less than a week away, but I’m already thinking about Christmas decorations, which I usually put up on Black Friday.  I change things up a little bit every year, but I usually go for a mix of easy-to-do decor and some handmade items.  Although, as the years go by, my assortment of handmade items gets larger and becomes part of the “easy-to-do” decor since it’s already made.  😉

Several years ago, after my dad suddenly passed away in September, I coped by crafting like crazy.  Since Christmas was a few months away, I made it my goal to make all of the ornaments for my Christmas tree by hand.  Being busy helped me not to feel so sad, and I ended up with dozens of homemade ornaments that I still use to decorate my tree.

It started with a vision in my head of a plaid Christmas tree ornament made out of fabric with a button sewn on the top instead of a star.

I turned that vision into reality and added to it a star…

…one that I like to think of as a star/cross…

…one that was supposed to look like a present but is just festive because of the fabric…

…and a cardinal.

I grew up in Ohio, and I have memories of cardinals eating at the bird feeder in our backyard while the ground was covered in snow.  I wanted to bring that memory to my Christmas tree.  I know the cardinal shape isn’t perfect.  I redrew it about half a dozen times trying to get it to look more like a bird, but in the end, I was happy with my homemade, quirky cardinals.

It’s really easy to make the ornaments.

For this project, you’ll need:
printer paper
fabric
buttons
polyester stuffing (such as fiber-fil)
ribbon
straight pins
a sewing machine
thread that coordinates with your fabric
a needle for sewing by hand
scissors

To get the pattern for the Christmas Tree and Star, I did a Google Images search for “Christmas tree pattern” and “star pattern,”  found ones that I liked, adjusted the size of the shape on my computer and printed them out.  Before cutting out the pattern, keep in mind that you need to add a seam allowance of at least half an inch all the way around or your ornaments will end up being much smaller than you intended.  You probably want the finished ornament to be no smaller than 6 inches long at the longest point, otherwise, it’ll be more difficult to stuff.

The fun part is picking out your fabric.  You can use whatever fabric you already have on hand or make a trip to the fabric store.  If you want the homemade ornaments to look a little less country, you can choose metallic color fabric, or white is always classic.  You could go with an all red theme.  That would really pop on your green Christmas tree.  If you plan on hanging the ornaments on a tree, I’d probably stay away from all green fabric, unless you go with more of a neon green or pastel green.  You don’t want to do all this work and have them blend into the tree!

You can see from my pictures that I used star-shaped buttons on some of the trees.  You can use whatever buttons you want.  Stars are always appropriate for Christmas.  Hearts or Angels would be cute.  I’d recommend getting one of those big bags of buttons where the buttons come in multiple sizes, colors and shapes.  It’s nice to have a little variety.

So, you’ve printed out your pattern, cut it generously, allowing half an inch all the way around for your seam.  Now, use that pattern to cut the fabric.  You’ll need two pieces of fabric cut out for each ornament, a front and a back.  Unless your pattern is identical on the right side and left side, I would suggest cutting the front on the right side of the fabric and the back on the wrong side of the fabric.  That way you know that when you put the two pieces together, they’ll match.  Take a pen and draw around the pattern onto the fabric, then cut on the line.  (I’ve found that this is easier than just pinning the pattern to the fabric and cutting around it.)  You can find pens with ink that disappears after several hours at craft stores, or you can use a normal pen.  You won’t see the line when you’re finished.  Just make sure that your ink doesn’t bleed onto other fabric that you plan on using!

If you’re making multiple ornaments of the same shape out of the same fabric, I’ve found that folding the fabric in half multiple times and pinning it together helps speed up the process.  That way you can cut out all the fabric at once.  Just keep in mind that you’re going to need sharp scissors to cut through a bunch of layers!

Now that your fabric is cut out, put the front and back pieces together with both right sides of the fabric facing each other (you’re looking at the wrong side of the fabric on both sides).  Pin the fabric together, tread your sewing machine, and sew all the way around most of the ornament.  You’ll want to leave an opening so that you can stuff them.  For the trees, I just leave the bottom of the trunk open.  For the stars, I leave one side open.  You’ll sew this opening closed by hand later.

Cut the thread and turn your fabric inside out so that the seam is on the inside of the ornament.  You should now be looking at the right side of your fabric.  Stuff the ornament with stuffing to desired fullness.  I stuffed mine as full as I could!  Then sew the opening closed.

Cut 6-inch pieces of ribbon for each ornament.  Fold the ribbon in half to form a loop, and sew it to the top of the ornament so that you can hang it from your Christmas tree.

For the star, you’re done!  For the trees, you still need to sew on the button.  Pick whatever button you like and sew it to the top of the tree.  When you’re done, you can cut the thread short enough that it’s hidden under the button, or pull the thread through the back of the ornament, squeeze the ornament together, and cut the thread so that it disappears inside the stuffing in the ornament.

Voila!  Homemade ornaments!

For the cardinal, I used a button for the eye, sewed gold thread onto the beak and in an arch to form a wing.  For the present, I cut the ribbon about a foot long, formed it into a bow, and sewed it in the center of the fabric.  I’m sure you can come up with more patterns and designs that are similar but different for your homemade ornaments.  Perhaps an angel, a snowman or a Santa hat.

Now, that’s some Pretty Creative Stuff!