Christmas Candle Embroidery Pattern

November's free project for my monthly pattern newsletter subscribers is an embroidery pattern for sewing a winter candle!
 

You can use the candle and holly design to add some festive cheer to any sewing project, frame it in a 5 inch embroidery hoop, or embroider it on felt to make a fun ornament for your Christmas tree.

I stitched mine on cream coloured felt...

... and added a red ribbon loop to match the red candle.

I think this design would also look fab stitched all in white on a solid colour background (maybe red or royal blue - like these baubles or this snow globe ornament). You could also personalise it by stitching a name or year on the base of the candle holder.

 
November's pattern newsletter will also include a link to October's project: a tutorial for sewing a felt tree stump brooch.

 
Click here for more information about my newsletters and to subscribe!

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots more free patterns... including LOTS of Christmas projects.

Christmas Ornaments in Progress

I thought you guys might like to see how I'm getting on with the final four felt ornaments I'm making from Alicia Paulson's lovely patterns...

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I've had some of Alicia's Christmas ornament kits for years and am finally making an effort to get them all stitched and ready for Christmas.

I finished the first seven this summer...

... then finished another four a few weeks ago:

They're large, double-sided ornaments, with lots of pieces and details to stitch but I'm getting there slowly!

I've almost finished the Gingerbread Girl; I just need to embroider her face, add the ric rac hanging loop and stitch the front and back together.

I'm waiting for a day when I'm feeling particularly focused, as I don't want to mess up the little details of her face!

I also need to add the face to the Notevena Mouse...

... and give him some feet, of course!

I've been deliberately leaving the fiddliest bits of these ornaments until last, skipping ahead of Alicia's instructions to do so (tsk tsk). For example, I should have stitched the little candle in the Lighted Window already, but there's been no harm done by leaving it until later.

If you're ever going to skip ahead with a tutorial, you should - of course! - read the instructions all the way through to make sure you're not going to cause yourself any problems later on. Sometimes the order things get stitched in is just a matter of personal preference, but sometimes there's an important reason why you need to stitch X before Y and if you stitch Y before X you'll end up in a pickle.

Really, you ought to read the instructions all the way through before you start stitching at all and definitely before you start cutting anything out. I foolishly didn't do this when I first began work on these patterns. I just went ahead and cut out all the pieces based on the colours and quantities marked on the template sheet.... and now I am, as you might expect, in a bit of a pickle.

I shouldn't have cut out the Whistling Tea Kettle shapes before embroidering the design, so my tea kettle is now going to end up with some extra layers of felt or fabric in the middle as I'll need to tack the shapes to some material so I can place them in embroidery hoops and stitch the flowers.

Not ideal, but hopefully it'll work out okay and I'll have a lovely finished tea kettle ornament to show you guys soon!

Click here to find all these lovely patterns on Alicia's website.

Click here to find lots more Christmas crafting ideas in my tutorial archive.

Happy Fir Trees: Felt Christmas Ornament Tutorial

Make some happy little felt fir trees to hang on your Christmas tree this year!

 
These cute felt tree ornaments are a variation on the Halloween candy corn ornament tutorial I shared a few years ago...

... just in fir tree colours, and with brown trunks added to complete the tree shape.

These ornaments are really fun and easy to sew, and would make a great addition to your decor this Christmas. For less cute ornaments, you could leave off the smiley faces and just make plain trees. You could also add seed beads or embroidery to make your fir trees into decorated Christmas trees.

You will need:

- Felt in three shades of green
- Brown felt
- Black seed beads
- Sewing thread to match all the felt colours
- Black sewing thread
- Narrow ribbon
- Toy stuffing
- A needle and pins
- Sewing scissors
- A ruler and pencil
- The template sheet from the candy corn ornament tutorial

To make a fir tree ornament:

A. Follow steps 1-5 of the candy corn instructions, using three shades of green felt (darkest at the bottom, lightest at the top) instead of yellow, orange and white felt.

B. Cut two rectangles of brown felt (each measuring 1.5 cm x 2 cm) for the tree's trunk. Place these on top of each other and sew them together along three sides with whip stitch or blanket stitch and matching brown sewing thread, leaving one of the short sides unstitched.

C. Stuff the trunk with a tiny piece of toy stuffing, then sew it to the bottom of one of the tree pieces. Use whip stitch and green sewing thread, sewing into but not through the green felt. Also add a ribbon loop to the tree, as in step 6 of the candy corn ornament tutorial.

D. Join the front and back of the tree ornament together then stuff it lightly with toy stuffing, as in steps 7 and 8 of the candy corn ornament tutorial. Start your sewing at the side of the tree ornament, not the bottom, so you can sew past / through the trunk before you begin stuffing the ornament. Turn the ornament back and forth as you sew past the trunk to help keep your stitching neat on both sides.

Your finished ornament(s) will look something like this:

These trees would also make cute brooches: just add a brooch clasp instead of a ribbon loop!

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This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many felt ornaments as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

New in My Shop: Felt Robins Tutorial (& Robin Embroidery Pattern)

I've been busy working behind the scenes on my felt bird sewing patterns, and the first one is now in my shops! Hurrah!

My robins pattern includes templates and step by step instructions for sewing felt robin brooches and felt robin Christmas ornaments.

 

Once you've bought the pattern, you can use it to make items for yourself and as gifts for friends and family or to sell at craft fairs, etc (as long as you credit me as the designer).

I've also included a robin and holly embroidery pattern, which you can stitch onto anything you fancy or frame in a 5 inch embroidery hoop.

I really enjoyed stitching this and I hope you will, too!

You can buy the printable PDF pattern from my Etsy shop - it'll be available to download immediately after purchase!

P.S. I've got lots more patterns in the works - follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my newsletter for all the latest updates from me and my shop.

More Felt Christmas Ornaments Finished!

I'm on a mission to finish my crafty UFOs (UnFinished Objects) this year, and my current spare time project is finishing a set of Christmas ornaments I bought as a kit several years ago.

I finished the first batch of ornaments this summer (click here to see them!), and have just finished another four:

Aren't they cute? The patterns are by Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy, and I just adore them. They're large ornaments with lots of detail to sew on each one, but I'm working my way through them all slowly...

The Nestled Child ornament is so sweet - I particularly love the sleeping kitty! It's a bit tricky to photograph as that string of beads only hangs properly when the ornament is hung up, but I'm sure you get the idea of how it'll look.

Most of Alicia's ornaments are double-sided, with the back being a mirror image of the front. It can be a bit tricky making sure the front and back sections line up perfectly, so if you make some of these do take care when assembling the pieces!

I had particular trouble getting the Western Bluebird pieces lined up to match (I think I stitched one piece slightly wrong and it threw the whole shape off) but the finished ornament turned out great.

I'd never heard of this bird before making this ornament, but it's rather lovely! (You guys know how much I love birds of any kind).

The Hot Cocoa Cup was really fun to sew, with that pretty embroidery pattern to stitch (embroidery is always so relaxing!) then a nice simple shape to assemble.

I didn't used to be a hot chocolate person, but I started drinking it in cafes on my winter walks this year and I think that's a habit that's gonna continue - it's just so warm and comforting! It would be even nicer in a pretty cup like this.

Then my final ornament from this batch is the Ice Skate, which is one of my all time faves from Alicia's Christmas designs.

The embroidered design on the sock! The laces! That perfect red pompom! So good.

I've got just four more ornaments to finish then the whole set will be complete. I'm a bit wary of typing this in case it jinxes it, but... I feel like I might actually get these all finished in time for Christmas! Fingers crossed.

Want to stitch these ornaments yourself? Click here for Alicia's lovely ornament patterns.

My Current Project: Sewing Felt Christmas Ornaments

I've spent my spare crafty time this summer sewing Christmas ornaments!

These charming designs are by Alicia Paulson - I've long been a fan of her blog, Posie Gets Cozy, and bought a whole bunch of her felt ornament kits back in 2012 & 2013. I've resolved to "finally make these in time for Christmas" several times since then, but with very little to show for it... until now!

I'm on a mission this year to finish up lots of my UFOs (UnFinished Objects), those personal crafty projects that have been hanging around in the back of cupboards and under beds for far too long.

I finished the Christmas quilt I was sewing for my sister (which I started in 2014) and the patchwork blanket I've been slowly making with leftover yarn (started in 2011), and my scrappy cross stitch project (started in 2014) is nearly finished, too. I've even finally started quilting the patchwork quilt I began way back when I was a teen almost two decades ago.

During our unexpectedly hot summer (it's been ridiculously hot) I definitely didn't want to spend my time curled up under a cosy quilt... but I also didn't want to lose my Finishing All The Things momentum. It was the perfect time to dig out these long-neglected Christmas ornament kits!

I adore these ornaments but they've ended up being put on the back-burner because my personal projects usually get squeezed into evenings when I'm too tired to focus on this kind of detailed work or to follow instructions (this is why I tend to do a lot of simple crafts in my spare time, like knitting basic blanket squares - I don't have the brainpower to manage anything else!).

I'm now determined to devote the time and focused attention to these ornaments that they deserve and finally get them all finished "in time for Christmas". 

I've completed seven of the ornaments so far (after a frankly embarrasing number of years) and have another eight still to go. The remaining ornaments are all in various stages of completion as I've been stitching a bit here and a bit there depending on what I've felt like working on. Here's a peek at some in progress:

It's been a really interesting experience working on these. They're similar to my own work in that they're ornaments made from felt (which is something I've made a lot of over the years) but they're also very different... and I'm really not used to following someone else's patterns, instructions and methods instead of just finding my own way with a project!

Weirdly I think I'm more proud of how they're turning out than I am of my own designs - maybe because I can love them wholeheartedly instead of having all the usual complicated feelings about my own work getting in the way? I'm loving making them, anyway.

Here's a closer look at the Little Deer and Snowy Tree ornaments. If you're thinking I probably started with these because they're the simplest: you'd be right!

The ornaments are double-sided, so you do all the steps twice but mirrored. It's double the work but you get a doubly lovely end result.

Here's the Cozy Cottage, New-Fallen Snowflake, and Polar Bear.

 

The polar bear is a bit different to these others, as his back is the actual back of the bear instead of a mirror of the front. I love his little knitted scarf - it's definitely the smallest thing I've ever knitted!

I keep changing my mind about which ornaments are my favourites, but I particularly love the Red Wool Coat and the Norwegian Selbu Mitten.

The coat with its tiny mittens is just completely adorable, and is making me daydream about buying a red coat of my own this winter (I do need to buy a new coat...). The Norwegian mitten is gorgeously detailed, and was my first introduction to using waste canvas to cross stitch on felt/fabric. It was so easy and fun to work it (and so satisfying pulling out the canvas threads at the end to reveal the finished pattern), I must try and design something of my own using it. 

Like the polar bear, these two ornaments aren't mirrored but have a different design on the back. Aren't they lovely?

I'll hopefully have some more snaps of finished ornaments to share with you guys soon... I wonder how many I'll manage to make by Christmas?

Want to stitch these ornaments yourself? Click here for Alicia's ornament patterns! 

Make Felt Chicken & Egg Ornaments for Easter

Sew some cute felt chicken and egg ornaments for Easter or Spring with my latest tutorial for the Village Haberdashery!

 
These fun felt ornaments are easy to sew and would look lovely hung on an Easter tree, or elsewhere in your home this Spring. You could also use the templates to make fun felt chicken brooches.

 

I stitched my ornaments in classic Easter pastels, using wool blend felt from the Village Haberdashery's range. Switch up the colours to match your decor, or add extra embellishments with embroidery thread, sequins or seed beads. 

 

Click here for the free templates and step by step tutorial.

Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

9 Free Halloween Craft Tutorials

Are you planning some Halloween crafting? Here are nine ideas from my free tutorial archive you might enjoy...

1. Eyeball buttons. These are great for giving an old cardigan a spooky twist! You could also sew them in other places too - eyeballs are the perfect Halloween accessory, you know.

 

2. Sew some cute little felt candy corn ornaments...

 
... or 3. Make a giant plush candy corn!

4. If you prefer your Halloween decor more chic than cute, why not make some candy corn inspired geometric Halloween coasters?

5. Dress up as an owl with this fun felt owl mask.

 

6. Disguise yourself with a felt moustache.

7. Turn any outfit into a Halloween costume with a sparkly dripping wound brooch.

8. Make a fun Halloween card to send to your friends (includes instructions for how to turn your drawing into an e-card!).

 
9. Finally, invite all your pals to your Halloween party with these easy-to-make invitations. You could also use these templates to make a cute Halloween garland.

 
Follow the links to find all the tutorials. Happy crafting!

You'll find eight more of my Halloween craft tutorials in Felt-o-ween: 40 scary-cute projects to celebrate Halloween - including a vampire, graveyard cupcake toppers, skull bows and more! (I am a teeny bit biased but I adore this book: so much felt-y Halloween goodness!). Felt-o-ween is available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, The Book Depository and many other bookshops, you can read more about the book and take a peek at my projects here. (Disclosure: those links to Amazon & The Book Depository are affiliate links).

For more Halloween craft ideas, visit my Halloween Pinterest board!

And for lots more crafty ideas to keep you busy after Halloween, visit my tutorial archive or check out my books: Super-Cute Felt and Super-Cute Felt Animals.

 

P.S. Thinking ahead for Christmas? Check out my free Christmas Ornament Tutorials.