Friday, November 11, 2011

Ornament Kits

My postings stopped for a bit because of massive computer problems. My computer is back to normal (hopefully it will stay that way), and now it's posting time! I have several posts to do, ranging from an easy art project to items for Christmas. First up are two ornament sets I designed.

I designed my pop bot ornament set using traditional ornament shapes and filling the shapes with prints from my pop bot collection (click the link to see the prints). Here is the complete set:


pop bot ornament set


The set includes 8 ornaments on a fat quarter of quilting cotton, and 10 ornaments on wider fabrics. It's also designed to print one ornament on a swatch sized piece of fabric. That ornament was entered in the Swatch Ornament Fabric of the Week Contest at Spoonflower, where it placed 60th out of 124 entries.



I decided to make this ornament 3-D, and filled it with polyfill. I hand stitched the ornament, and made sure to trim the seam allowance at the bottom point and at the top corners before turning it right side out and filling it with polyfill.



I think this ornament (and the others in the set) is a fun alternative to the normal holiday ornaments, and could even be used as non-holiday decor, too, for bunting or even sachets. Here it is finished on one side:


And here is the other side of the ornament:


I also made a holiday penguin ornament set featuring mini versions of my penguin stocking decked out in holiday accessories. I designed the layout for this set just like the pop bot ornament set. There is one ornament on a swatch of fabric, 8 ornaments on a fat quarter of quilting weight cotton, and 10 ornaments on wider fabrics such as linen-cotton canvas and upholstery weight twill.


holiday penguin ornaments


Here is the printed swatch (on quilting weight cotton):



For the penguin ornament, I decided to go the 2-D route, and used a double sided interfacing for it. You can find it at most fabric stores under the name Innerfuse. (It's available in medium and heavy weight; I used the medium weight for this project). Here is the ornament after ironing it to the Innerfuse:

Front
Back
I then sewed a satin stitch around the edges of the ornament with my sewing machine, but you could probably do a blanket stitch by hand instead. (I would trim just inside the dotted line to make sure it doesn't show when you do your stitching). I punched the ornament at the top of the hat with an awl to make a hole for the ribbon. Here is the finished penguin ornament:



You can also make a flat ornament by using batting instead of Innerfuse. I used it since I had some already,  and wanted to do an easy method with little sewing. Here is a bonus shot of both ornaments:


You can find the ornament sets by clicking on some of the links above, or by going here for the pop bot ornament set or here for the holiday penguin set. Both ornament sets have full instructions on them (for making 3-D ornaments). You may have to alter the instructions for flat ornaments, but can use the above penguin ornament as a guide. I plan on making the full sets of each soon. You can always click on the Fabric Shop tab at the top to go straight to my Spoonflower shop.

I am currently working on an entry for the advent calendar contest at Spoonflower. I will also be writing some more posts, and putting them up soon.

Past Contest Result
Root Vegetables: Sliced Dots : Earth : 60/181.