Ornament Making

Christina and I set aside a day this week to make ornaments. Ambitious idea, I know, but we at least wanted to try.

I pulled out all the possibilities and set the kids up with some painting. By the time we got the baby settled, and the kids settled, we were well into our day and the kids were finishing painting their ornaments almost before we sat down to start the adult ornaments!

Baby John alternated between sleeping, eating, and watching:

My first attempt was a pomander ball I saw over at Betz White's. It looked very easy, but it took me a good 1 1/2 hours! I was pleased with the results, but decided it wasn't an ornament to make in quantity!

James really got into making ornaments :)

Rachel got Auntie C to help her:

After I finished the pomander, I joined Christina and Rachel in making little wreaths.

Here are Rachel's. You take a pile of felt squares and run a thread through the middle, alternating four bells throughout. It's actually very, very simple, and pretty cute! Again, Betz White has an even better demonstration photo.

I was very impressed with how many ornaments James made! He really gets into the sewing!

My favorite ornament of the day was the felted bird. After sewing one I realized this was something I could make in quantity and all the lovely felted patterned sweaters would be just perfect for this.

Here is a not so good picture of the finished pomander:

My red and white wreath:

An attempt at a poinsettia ornament:

And a few more birds -- they are so cute!!! And I have so many color options!

Oh, and several weeks ago a friend was over with a sweater that was not feltable. Instead we made it into a pillow. It was easy to make and came together very quickly. We chose white material for front and back and then carefully pinned the sweater to the cut lining to cut the sweater to the right shape. I sewed around the edge of the sweater and front lining to "tack" it in place before sewing front and back together.

And that's all for now!