Easy Fabric Ornaments

 Hello Readers. It is Christmas time and that might mean decorating a tree with ornaments. I had an idea to make ornaments using fabric and small embroidery hoops. I thought this would be a great way to save a piece of fabric or scrap from a sentimental sewing project. 

These ornaments were quick and easy to put together. They also gave me a way to use these little embroidery pieces.

 

 I got my embroidery pieces from a failed sewing project but you could use almost anything. Scraps from a wedding or christening gown. A piece of a favorite baby blanket. The character from a t-shirt your child loved but outgrew. Anything you like.

 

When you place the piece of fabric between the 2 pieces of the embroidery hoop and tighten the screw on top the fabric will be very secure and will not come out unless you loosen the screw. There will be a lot of excess fabric sticking out in the back though.
 

You can use scissors to trim that excess off. Cut as close the the embroidery hoop as you can to remove as much excess as possible. 

The back of my ornament looked OK but if you want to hide the back of your fabric you can glue on a piece of felt. Felt doesn't fray so it will be great as a backing.

Trace around the embroidery hoop so you can cut out a circle that is exactly the right size for your hoop. .

Grab some fabric or craft glue to attach your felt circle.

Put glue on the back, all the way around the hoop. 

Press the felt in place so it really gets adhered to the hoop. I let my ornaments dry over night.

The felt gives the ornament a very clean look in the back but you can skip this step if you don't think it is necessary for your ornament. 

When I bought my little wooden hoops I saw this brightly colored plastic hoop. 

I thought this would be a fun kid project. I let my son put an ornament together using basically the same method. He liked this Santa fabric scrap. He was able to put the fabric in and cut off the excess. I made sure the screw was tightened and would keep the fabric in place for him before he started cutting.

This ornament turned out cute and he was very happy with it. 

I hope you can make an ornament using this idea and I wish you very Happy Holidays.

*Year End Note From Chickie- These are still on the tree and I will pack them away after the holiday season is over.

Christmas Belt

 Hello Readers. Red and green are so strongly associated with Christmas that a little can go a long way. 

 

Before and after.

 

 

This jacket was a lot of red and green plaid. I liked the idea of using the fabric in another way. 

 

 

I decided to make a wide fabric belt. I cut the sleeves off the jacket. 

 

 

I marked them because I wanted to make them more narrow. 

 I cut off the excess fabric and connected the two sleeves at the cut edges and that was my belt. 

 The buttons at the wrist were going to be part of my belt but how would I connect the front of the belt. This is also how I would take the belt on and off.

 

I was going to use these hair bands to make the connecting piece. 

 

 

I tied them together and they added some stretch to my belt. 

 

 

It was a fun touch to the dress. Merry Christmas to all of you who are celebrating tomorrow.

Dressember 2018; Dress 6

Hello Readers. It's almost Christmas and I am still making dresses in honor of Dressember. Dressember works to fight human trafficking, forced labor and modern day slavery. Since it is almost Christmas I made a Christmas dress.

 This dress started as a robe of some kind. Or was it a nightgown? Did that count as a dress? I said yes. This robe was peach and and miles too long and I just wasn't loving it. It seemed like a nylon fire hazard to sleep in it. But I thought it had potential.

The first thing I did was use dye made for synthetic fabric. This kind of dye needed very hot water and at least half an hour.

Here is what I ended up with. The hem didn't seem even so I put it on my dress form and used a yard stick to measure as I cut it to knee length.

  

To make "fur trim I used batting. I didn't want to buy fur. The whole point of this blog is to try and NOT spend money. Or at least spend as very little as possible. 

 I cut the batting into strips and made little curved cuts in it. I thought that would look more like fur. Really straight lines didn't seem like fur to me. I didn't make it perfectly even in width either.

   

 I added some white lace on top of the batting just to jazz it up. I used narrow lace everywhere and wide lace at the collar and cuffs. All it needed was a wide black belt to look like Mrs. Claus. This would be perfect for Christmas day or anytime I want to look like Santa's wife.

Thanks for reading along, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas.