How To: Cross Stitch Snow Globe Ornament

After stitching my snow globe pattern, I decided that I wanted to turn it into a Christmas decoration. I'd not left enough fabric around the outside to frame it in a small embroidery hoop so I stitched it into a felt bauble instead.

 

The easiest way to make your own cross stitch snow globe ornaments would be to stitch onto plastic instead of fabric canvas then cut out the shape, add a ribbon loop and back it with a piece of white felt... but I thought it was worth writing up instructions for how I made my felt bauble in case you fancied making one too. You can follow these steps to turn any small cross stitch design into an ornament!

 

To make your ornament you will need...

- your cross stitched design (you can find the snow globe chart here)
- felt in your chosen shade, plus matching sewing thread and narrow ribbon
- white sewing thread
- a compass or something you can draw round to create the bauble template
- a ruler, some paper and a pencil for drawing the template
- tracing paper
- polyester or other toy stuffing (optional)
- sewing scissors (embroidery scissors are ideal), a needle, pins

To make the ornament...

1. Place a piece of tracing paper on top of your finished cross stitch design, and trace around the edge of the design, following it as closely as possible. Then draw a second line a few mms around the outside, to create a line that frames the shape of your cross stitching. Cut around this second (outer) line so you've got a tracing paper shape slightly larger than your design.

2. Create a bauble template by drawing a circle the size you want (I used one approx. 4 inches across) and adding 3 straight lines to create the top of the bauble. Use this paper template to cut out two felt bauble shapes.

3. Draw around the bauble template to create a second template. Position your tracing paper shape in the middle of the new template and draw around it. Then carefully cut out this inner shape, creating a template that's a bauble shape with a hole in it. This is the template for the piece of felt that will frame your stitched design. Carefully pin the template to some felt and cut it out.

You will now have three pieces of felt that look something like this:

 

4. Trim away the excess fabric from around your cross stitch design - you should probably leave more fabric than shown in this photo, I got a bit over-enthusiastic!

5. Place the cross stitch design on one of the felt bauble shapes. Place the framing felt shape (the bauble with the hole in the middle of it) on top, and use it to carefully line up the design so it's in just the right position. Set aside the framing shape and pin the cross stitch design to the backing felt.

6. Use white sewing thread and small whip stitches to sew the cross stitch design to the felt, removing the pins as you sew around the edge.

7. Place the framing felt piece in position and pin it in place. Use whip stitches in matching sewing thread to sew around the inner edge of the felt "frame", removing the pins as you sew. I had to tug the felt slightly to get the frame to be super-neat around the snow globe, so the felt was slightly stretched.

I turned the bauble shape over once I'd finished sewing, and trimmed away any of the framing felt which was then sticking out beyond the original (backing) bauble shape. There wasn't much to trim away, but neatening it up at this stage is important as it needs to still be a neat circle and also needs to match the final piece of felt added in the next steps.

8. Cut a length of narrow ribbon (approx 5 or 6 inches long) and fold it over to create a loop. Use matching sewing thread and whip stitches to sew the ribbon ends to the top of the third bauble shape. Sew the ribbon to the front of the shape and take care to sew into the felt not through it. This piece will become the back of the bauble.

9. Place the front and back bauble pieces together, and sew around the edge with blanket stitch (or whip stitch) and matching sewing thread. If you want a flat bauble, sew all the way around it and finish your stitching neatly at the back. If you want a stuffed bauble like mine, sew most of the way round and leave a gap for adding stuffing.

10. Lightly stuff the bauble, then sew up the remaining gap with more blanket stitches (or whip stitches). Finish your stitching neatly at the back.

 

The back of your stuffed bauble should now like this:

And the front will look something like this:

These instructions are intended for non-commercial use - please don't use them to make and sell snow globe baubles, or sell copies of the instructions themselves. You may borrow a few photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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