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Easy Christmas Decorations To Sew in Under an Hour

November 19, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Easy Christmas Decorations To Sew in Under an Hour

Easy Christmas Decorations To Sew in Under an Hour

Welcome to the Easy Christmas Decorations To Sew in Under an Hour blog hop!

It’s a lovely idea to make things for Christmas, but it can be difficult to find the time when everything’s so busy.

I used to have this perfect idea of how I wanted Christmas to be at my house with lots of things I’d made, and then feel annoyed with myself that I’d not managed to do even half the things I’d wanted to!

One solution to this is to start early. I even did this one year (it was the year of the dinosaur hats when I still only had 3 boys!), but I don’t like making Christmas things when Christmas is still some way off. Also I like autumn and I want to enjoy it as a season in its own right.

So the other option is to choose things that are quick to make and not too complicated.

If this is you too, you’ve come to the right place!

Here are 8 ideas for things you can make for Christmas that are both quick and easy. I’ve included the links below and I encourage you to pop over to these talented ladies’ blogs to have a look.

All the links will open in a new tab, so you don’t have to worry about getting lost in the internet jungle!

Embroidery Hoop Christmas Decoration

easy christmas decorations blog hop

This one’s mine :).

It’s made from tulle and scraps of cotton fabric, and a 30 cm embroidery hoop. I wanted to make something that I could put up straight away and leave up for the rest of winter.

There are downloadable templates (in exchange for an email address) and you can find the instructions here.

Embroidered Snowflake Felt Ornaments

quick and easy christmas decorations to sew in under an hour

These lovely felt ornaments by Lisa from Cucicucicoo are made from scraps of felted jumpers and embroidered with white thread. There’s a link in the post to the embroidery pattern.

If you don’t have any jumpers that have suffered a mishap in the wash, or any that you have felted on purpose, you could always use ordinary felt instead.

The tutorial for the embroidered snowflake ornaments is here.

Fabric Christmas Tree Ornament

quick and easy christmas decorations to sew in under an hour

This tutorial from Domenica from Easy Sewing For Beginners shows how to make Christmas tree decorations from scraps of Christmas fabric.

She uses ricrac to decorate them, and there’s one with a star button at the top! Obviously you could something else if you don’t have ricrac. As you won’t need very much, it’s a good way to use up little bits of ribbon.

The post is here.

Christmas Pudding Decoration

quick and easy christmas decorations to sew in under an hour

If you’re not British and you don’t know what a Christmas pudding is, you’re missing out! It’s a delicious, very rich fruit pudding that usually needs to be steamed for several hours if you make it yourself in the traditional way, or warmed up in the microwave if you buy one from Marks and Spencer.

These decorations are made using scraps of fabric and a little embroidery hoop. Vicky suggests putting them on a card as a little extra thing for somebody to hang on their own tree.

There are templates for the applique, and the post can be found here.

DIY Christmas Coasters

quick and easy christmas decorations to sew in under an hour

These coasters by Damjana from Apple Green Cottage are made in an ingenious way.

You know how annoying it is trying to get all the edges neat when you’ve had to leave one open so that you could turn it the right way out?

These coasters are made in such a way that you don’t have to do this!

Damjana’s coasters are made from fabric that are Christmas colours but are not specifically Christmas prints, so they can be used at other times too.

You can find the tutorial here.

Fabric Ribbon Candy Ornaments

quick and easy christmas decorations to sew in under an hour

Staci from Crafty Staci has made these fabric ribbon ornaments. I’ve seen something similar before made from ribbon, but these are made in a different way using 2 strips of fabric in contrasting prints.

Staci has used lovely fabric in candy cane colours, but you could use whatever you have or what you would like to use to fit in with your Christmas colour scheme.

The tutorial is here.

Mini Gift Bag

quick and easy christmas decorations to sew in under an hour

It’s an uncomfortable truth about Christmas that it generates an awful lot of waste.

One way to cut down on stuff that ends up in landfill is to make beautiful handmade decorations like the ones in this blog hop! They’ll last and you won’t want to throw them away just because you’re bored of them.

Another way to reduce waste at Christmas is to wrap presents in something that can be reused.

Julie from Sum of Their Stories has written this tutorial for making little gift bags from Christmas fabric. She even suggests mixing Christmas prints with plain fabric to make them go further.

The instructions for making the bags are here.

Felt Christmas Tree Ornament

quick and easy christmas decorations to sew in under an hour

This Christmas tree decoration from Lulu and Celeste is a nice little project if you want something that can be sewn by hand.

Sometimes it’s nice to have a project that you can pick up and work on when you have a few minutes, then put it down and come back to it later. This is that kind of project!

There’s a downloadable template for the tree. The post is here.

I hope you feel inspired to make some easy Christmas decorations. Happy making!

quick and easy christmas decorations to sew in under an hour

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Filed In: Blog, Christmas / Tagged: easy, quick

Embroidery Hoop Christmas Decoration

November 13, 2019 · 17 Comments

embroidery hoop christmas decoration

Embroidery Hoop Christmas Decoration

It’s fun to make things for Christmas, but it can be difficult to find the time, especially when it’s such a busy time of year anyway.

I actually gave up trying to make a lot of things for Christmas a few years ago. I never managed to live up to my Pinterest fuelled expectations of having a perfectly decorated, tidy house full of calm, happy people, including myself!

Christmas is nice but not if you’re stressed. So now I focus on what is necessary, and do some other bits and pieces if I have time.

One obvious option when you’re busy is to make things that are straightforward and quick to make.

Another less obvious thing to do is to make things that aren’t too Christmassy. That way, you won’t feel too weird making it in October, hanging it up straight away and leaving it up until spring!

It also has the added bonus that it will help to reduce the horrible empty feeling in your house when you’ve put everything away.

This embroidery hoop Christmas decoration is one of these that you can get out when the weather turns cold and leave up until the clocks change back to summer time.

Tartan is cheerful at Christmas, but also in the autumn and the rest of the winter. And deer live in the woods all year round!

It’s easy to make and you might already have the fabric you need already.

To save time, the templates can be downloaded at the end of the post.

The deer was fiddly to cut out, but you could always use a precut deer instead, or cut your own if you have a die cutting machine.

embroidery hoop christmas decoration

How to Make an Embroidery Hoop Christmas Decoration

You Will Need

A 30 cm embroidery hoop (Amazon have them here. This is an affiliate link)
Net or tulle in white or pale grey
Scraps of fabric. I used tartan for the deer and grey for everything else.
Ribbon

Instructions

Use the templates to cut out the pieces. You’ll need 1 hill and 1 deer. Mine has 7 trees, but you can use as many or as few as you like. The templates can be downloaded at the end of the post.

Cut a piece of your background fabric that’s larger than your hoop. The hoop I used was 30 cm in diameter and I cut a square about 45 cm x 45 cm.

Using the hoop as a guide, position the hill on the background and pin. Turn it upside down so that the tulle is on the top and use a zigzag stitch to sew the hill in place.

embroidery hoop christmas decoration

Now position the trees. It’s up to you where you put them, but bear in mind that it will look most effective if there’s some space between the trees for the light to come through.

embroidery hoop christmas decoration

Once you are happy with the arrangement and you’ve pinned them on, sew the trees onto the tulle with the trees underneath and the tulle upwards.

Sewing it this way means that you won’t catch all of the long edges of the trunks if you have some overlapping. So turn your work over and sew those long edges.

The next step is to pin the deer on and sew him in place. I used a straight stitch and I appliqued him on the right side up. The antlers are fiddly, so I sewed straight up past his ears and made a line of stitches up into each antler.

embroidery hoop christmas decoration
embroidery hoop christmas decoration

It might seem at this point a little bit bumpy and uneven. But how many times have you been in a wood and everything’s been perfect? As Bob Ross says, a wonky tree has a story and at least it won’t be cut down and made into a telegraph pole! Any imperfections here are what will give your embroidery hoop Christmas decoration rustic charm :).

Put your design into the embroidery hoop. Check that the metal screw is at the top. Gently pull at the edges so that the fabric is taut.

embroidery hoop christmas decoration

Trim the excess off so that you’re left with about 2 cm all the way round. With a needle and thread, sew a running stitch around the excess tulle, keeping close to the hoop. Pull it tight to gather it and tie off the ends.

You might need to trim it down a bit more, but like I’ve already said, the aim here is rustic and charming, not perfect!

Tie some twine to the metal part of the hoop and attach a bow. I had a bow already that I used from this wreath that I found in my cupboard of Christmas decorations!

embroidery hoop christmas decoration

Hang your embroidery hoop Christmas decoration up in a window and enjoy it until well into February!

embroidery hoop christmas decoration

If You Have More Time…

You could sew more trees over the deer so that he’s in the forest, not just standing in front of it.

You could embroider branches either by hand or with the sewing machine.

Using the sewing machine or by hand, you could add more stitches to the tree trunks to give them some texture.

If you have some white or gold embroidery thread, you could embroider some stars.


If You Have Less Time…

Cutting out the deer was fiddly and took some time, so another option would be to use a precut deer (a felt one would be fine), or if you have a die cutting machine, you might be able to make your own more quickly.

You could glue the farbic into the hoop instead of gathering it.

If you make one, I’d love to see it! You could email me a picture at teaandasewingmachine@gmail.com, or post it onto the Tea and a Sewing Machine Facebook page, or post it on Instagram and tag me (@annaatteaandasewingmachine) so that I’ll see it.

To Download the Templates

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Filed In: Blog, Christmas, Sewing Projects / Tagged: Christmas, how to

DIY Embroidered Christmas Star

December 19, 2018 · 2 Comments

diy embroidered christmas star

DIY Embroidered Christmas Star

When I was younger, I did a lot of Christmas crafting. I used to make cards and decorations and bake stuff.

Then I had kids and everything changed! I’d plan to make lots of things, then feel frustrated and annoyed that I hadn’t managed to get them done.

One year I tried to get round the fact that I had several tiny children by starting early. I was making stuff from August onwards. But because I’d been thinking about Christmas for so long, by the time it eventually came round I was sick of it!

So a couple of years ago, I made the decision to not worry too much. I’d do a bit if I had time and if I felt like it, and not attempt anything too ambitious. There is a limit to how many decorations I can hang off the tree anyway and I don’t send that many Christmas cards.

This year has been different again. Home educating my younger three means that I have boys at home in the day again. As they were showing signs of needing a break from the academic stuff, we spent most of last week doing Christmas crafts while listening to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. It was lovely! 

One “grown up” thing that I’ve been working on recently is an diy embroidered Christmas star.

diy embroidered christmas star

It’s made from felt with a snowflake design embroidered in the centre. The stars are sewn together using blanket stitch. 

It’s a perfect project for a busy person who’s left things a bit late! It doesn’t take long to make. You can do a bit when you have a minute. You can make one, or a few and string them together. And to make things easier, you can download a template with the snowflake design at the bottom of the post.

How To Make a DIY Embroidered Star

You Will Need

Felt
Embroidery thread
Ribbon for hanging
Star shape
Snowflake design

diy embroidered christmas star

Making the Star

1.Cut 2 stars from felt.

2. Embroider the snowflake design onto one of the stars.

diy embroidered christmas star
diy embroidered christmas star

3. Sew the 2 stars together. I used blanket stitch, but you could use back stitch or running stitch if you prefer.

diy embroidered christmas star
diy embroidered christmas star
diy embroidered christmas star

4. Attach some ribbon or twine for hanging.

diy embroidered christmas star
diy embroidered christmas star

If you would like the template I used, please enter your email address in the form below. Please note that by doing this, you will be added to the Tea and a Sewing Machine email list. I never send spam, only a weekly email containing updates, links, and other things that you might like. You can unsubscribe from these emails at any time. For more information about why I do this, please click here.

chimpy_form(’41’)

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Filed In: Blog, Christmas, Sewing Projects / Tagged: beginner, Christmas, craft fair, easy, embroidery, felt, how to

Christmas Embroidery Project With a Free Pattern!

September 28, 2018 · 7 Comments

Christmas Embroidery Project

christmas embroidery project

Although I love Christmas and making things for Christmas, over the last few years I’ve given up on the idea of making masses of stuff specifically for Christmas.

It’s just too busy! And it has a habit of sneaking up on me. I know the date never changes, but by the time the Season of Birthdays is over (my boys’ birthdays are all in the autumn, in the space of 2 months!), we’re halfway through November. By the time I’ve got my act together, it’s December, there’s Nativity plays, shopping, present wrapping, baking and everybody’s tired!

Having a little Christmas embroidery project is a nice thing. It’s something you can pick up when you have a few minutes. You can work on it in the evenings without people complaining that they can’t hear the telly over the sewing machine! And if it’s a little thing, it’s going to be achievable and you’ll feel pleased when you’ve finished it. With a longer project, if you don’t finish it by Christmas it’s just going to end up in the UFO pile and you’ll feel annoyed with yourself (I do!).

So I’ve got a little Christmas embroidery project for you!christmas embroidery project

You can download the pattern here.

And here are the instructions!

Christmas Embroidery Project Instructions

1. Transfer the design to your fabric. There are a number of ways of doing this. The easiest way is to use dressmakers’ carbon paper (affiliate link). You could also use a light box (you can make one yourself using your phone and a plastic box), or you could try printing directly onto the fabric using your printer. If you do this, it’s best to tape the fabric to a piece of card first.

2. Embroider the letters. Start off by sewing them all in backstitch. To get the calligraphy effect, identify the bits of the letters that would be downstrokes if you’d written them. Add an extra line of backstitch to those bits.christmas embroidery project

3. Now sew the tree. Work each line in backstitch. Then go back and add the leaves.

4. It’s up to you how you’d like to do the star! I sewed around the edge in backstitch then added some French knots to the centre. You might like to try leaf stitch or satin stitch.christmas embroidery project

To finish it off, wash it in warm water and washing up liquid. Rinse it, then let it dry flat. Iron it on the reverse. Then decide what you’d like to do with it. You could put it in a frame or you might prefer to display it in an embroidery hoop.

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Filed In: Blog, Christmas / Tagged: Christmas, craft fair, easy, embroidery, gift, quick

Christmas Embroidery Hoop

September 22, 2018 · 5 Comments

Christmas Embroidery Hoop

christmas embroidery hoop

Last month I was invited to contribute to a series of posts on All Free Sewing for National Sewing Month.

One of the suggestions was sewing for Christmas and, as it had been a long time since I’d made anything Christmassy, I decided to hatch some Christmas themed embroidery.

I’ve recently jumped on the handlettering band wagon. If you haven’t tried it, it’s a lot of fun! It doesn’t matter if you’re not arty or if your handwriting is normally not very nice. Mine’s dreadful and I did not do well in my Art GCSE.

I was given this book as a birthday present, and I’d recommend it if you want to give handlettering a try (this is an affiliate link)! There are step by step instructions and space in the book to try them out. Even if your handwriting normally looks like a spider rolled in ink then ran across the page, with a little bit of practice you’ll be handlettering everything beautifully. The lady who wrote the book also has a blog here, which I discovered before the book.

Anyway, fuelling my love for my new hobby, I had an idea for making a little Christmas embroidery hoop with the word joy embroidered inside a garland.

I was very pleased with the results! Actually I was so happy with how it turned out I made 2 more with the words love and peace.

The Christmas embroidery hoop was easy to do and it came together quite quickly. Most of the embroidery is worked in back stitch The leaves are lazy daisies and the berries are seed beads. If you didn’t have any beads, you could sew French knots instead.christmas embroidery hoop

The back of the hoop is finished with a piece of felt.

You can find the tutorial here. There’s a free pattern for the embroidery if you want it, but the tutorial includes instructions for drawing the designs yourself if you prefer.

They’re small enough to hang on your Christmas tree, but you could hang them wherever you like! I’ve got plans to hang mine in the window of the front room.

If you want to make one but you don’t want to faff about finding the stuff to make it, or if you know somebody who would like one, I have some kits for sale on Etsy.

If you like free embroidery projects, I have another Christmas one here!

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Filed In: Blog, Christmas / Tagged: Christmas, craft fair, easy, embroidery, gift ideas, quick

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I'm Anna and I live in rural Norfolk in the UK. My mum taught me how to use a sewing machine when I was 10 and I haven't looked back! I love making all sorts of things and I hope you find inspiration here.

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