A year of Christmas stitching!
Welcome to 'A year of Christmas stitching' - whether you're a super organized stitcher who plans their Christmas stitching well in advance or if you're more like me, and are stitching furiously right up to Christmas Eve (sound familiar?), here at TangledThreadsAndThings we've got a plan to help spread out the Christmas stitching into more manageable chunks.
Each month we will have a free Christmas chart on the website along with some ideas of what you can make with the free design, such as ornaments, cards etc. Our email newsletter will contain other free charts and/or ideas of what to make with the design, exclusive to our email subscribers (you can subscribe at the bottom of this page to add your name so you're not missing out).
Our first design for 'A year of Christmas stitching' is a simple and elegant Scandinavian style design stitched using only one colour of thread (chart can be found at the end of this post). Since many of us are in some form of lockdown due to the pandemic, it seemed best to make this first free design something that could be made using whatever materials you may have in your stash. This design will work using any colour of thread so no need to head off to the craft store.
Once you have stitched the design, here's what you'll need to make this ornament (but feel free to use the design in whatever way you want to). And remember to share your make with us on our Crafters' Corner!
This finish is a very simple ornament, so if you've never made anything with your stitching before, this is a great way to start and I'll walk you through each step so you can learn how to finish like a pro!
You will need:
Stitched piece (washed and ironed - find washing instructions here)
Matt board or extra thick cardboard (an old amazon box would do!) approx 7.5cm x 7.5cm
(If your Matt board or card is not white I would recommend covering the front of it with white paper or card stock so that the colour of the board does not show through your stitching)
Glue or sewing thread (I use Aleene's Tacky glue)
6 stranded embroidery thread for tassel (Easy tassel tutorial here)
Co-ordinating cording
Backing card
Backing fabric
Method
1. Lay your stitching over the Matt board and adjust the design till it's centered.
2. Trim the corners of the fabric so that when you fold the edges over there's not so many layers of fabric making your ornament look bulky, then either lace the design or glue the edges on the back (Yikes....did I just say glue? Yup, I did! Do whatever works for you and forget what anyone says....just make sure there's no glue on the front of your stitching :) )
3. Leave to dry
4. Attach cording all round ornament edges... again you can use small stitches to attach the cording or you can use glue. Start at the bottom of the ornament with the cording being attached to the underside, work round the sides till you get to the top part. Make a small loop for hanging then continue sewing or glueing the cording all round. Don't snip the cording at the bottom part, instead tuck it at the back where you started. This leaves a nice neat finish on the front.
5. Make a tassel using the same colour of thread that you used to stitch the design. You can find a handy tassel tutorial here.
6. Attach tassel using glue. I like to glue quite a long length of the thread to make sure the tassel is secure.
7. Trim backing fabric to size.....you can use Aida to back the ornament or felt....or whatever fabric you have on had. Test the fabric you have to make sure that the board, fabric and tassel doesn't show through your backing fabric like this...
You can see the brown cardboard shining through, which spoils the finish! And there's an easy way to fix this. :)
Just cut a square of white card and glue your backing fabric to the card, then attach to the back of your ornament!
And now the back looks like this...
Or if you have used felt...
Of course, you can finish the design any way you like.....the choices are endless :)
Don't forget to pop back next month for February's free chart!
FREE CHART:
AYOXS January
.pdf
Download PDF • 432KB