Every year I bake lots of Christmas cookies to give as gifts to my colleagues and neighbors. I like decorating those bags with simple handmade ornaments. Kind of Scandinavian minimalist style. They add a lovely touch to any small gift - a bag of cookies, book or box of chocolate. If you are looking for a minimalist holiday door decor you can simply attach few of them to a twig. The shape of ornaments was inspired by Christmas cookie cutters I have. It is a quick project using small pieces of upcycled denim or fabric scraps.
You will need:
- a variety of Christmas cookie cutters
- a piece of freezer paper
- pieces of denim or/and fabric
- Steam-A-Seam double sided fusible web by The Warm Company
- tiny jingle bells or wooden beads
- twine
I would recommend to work on a batch of ornaments at once.
1. Draw the shapes or trace your cookie cutters onto a piece of freezer paper, cut them out with scissors. To cut out symmetrical shapes like a Christmas tree or a heart, simply fold the paper along the center line and cut (as on the Christmas tree template in the upper row).
2. Cut a piece of Steam-A-Seam and 2 pieces of denim approx the same size (or a piece of denim + a piece of fabric, or 2 pieces of fabric), making sure that your template fits well.
3. Peel the paper from one side of the Fusible web and stick it to the wrong side (WS) of one fabric piece, then peel the remaining paper and stick the web to the WS of another fabric. Fuse the 3 layers together according to the instructions on the package. Then iron the freezer paper template on top of your fabric sandwich.
4. You can either trace the shape first or simply cut them with scissors. Personally, I like the feel of an ornament made from two pieces of denim the best. It feels nicely sturdy but not too thick, while I find the ones made from 2 pieces of fabric too thin.
5. Top stitch around the tag at 1/8" from the edge with contrast thread (decrease your stitch length to 2.0). I used red on dark colored denim. Tie and bury the thread. Iron the ornaments.
6. Now to decorate them! Fold piece of twine in half (approx. 12" long), add a tiny jingle bell or wooden bead (or even a little fur tree branch) and you are done!
These ornaments are quick and easy but they do look great! I couldn´t stop and made another batch from light colored denim!
I would like to see what shapes of Christmas ornaments you will come up with, so please, tag me @nordiccrafter on Instagram.
Happy Sewing!