Reindeer Cross Stitch Christmas Decoration

December 5, 2020 · 1 Comment

Reindeer Cross Stitch Christmas Decoration

The pattern for this reindeer cross stitch Christmas decoration can be downloaded by filling in the form at the bottom of the post.

Although I love making things, I have to confess that I don’t do an awful lot of Christmas crafting.

One reason for this is that it’s hard to find the time! In the past I’ve wanted to make lots of things and felt annoyed and frustrated because I didn’t have time what with everything else going on at this time of year.

Another reason is that it’s hard to think of different things to make every year.

And the third reason is that because I like my decorations to mean something, I keep everything! I’ve kept every last little thing my boys have made. There’s even a couple of things from the first time I had my own Christmas tree, twenty years ago! It all goes on the tree, and there is a limit to how much stuff we can hang off it!

I do like to make some things though. I usually make a Christmas cake and a wreath for the door, and I’ll probably make one or two other things as well when inspiration strikes!

Inspiration did strike the other day when the School of Mummy boys were doing some cross stitch. I had the idea to make a cross stitch Christmas decoration in a little embroidery hoop.

I made the design on squared paper first, then cross stitched it onto 8 count aida.

If you’d like to make a reindeer cross stitch Christmas decoration, the instructions are below and you can download the design by filling in the form at the bottom of the post.

You might also like to know that I have a limited number of kits for this in my Etsy shop. You can find out more here.

Instructions

You Will Need

8 count aida in red
White embroidery thread
An 8 cm (3 inch) embroidery hoop
Felt for backing
Ribbon

Embroidering the Reindeer

If you’ve done cross stitch before, you’ll know what to do!

If you haven’t or if it’s been a while, here’s a reminder.

Start by finding the centre of the aida. You might want to mark this with a stitch. The centre of the design is marked on the pattern.

Decide where you want to start. It’s usual with cross stitch to work from top to bottom and left to right, but I started at the bottom and in the middle of the row! The reindeer’s chin seemed to me to be the easiest place to start.

In the past I always sewn over the ends rather than tied a knot, but while I was watching Mr X Stitch videos with my boys, I discovered that he has an ingenious way of catching the ends when you start. There’s a video here.

Form the crosses by sewing from one corner to the one diagonally opposite, then from one of the 2 remaining corners to the one diagonally opposite.

To tie off the ends, thread them through the back of some of the stitches.

Putting it in the Hoop

Take the inside part of the hoop and draw round it onto a piece of felt. Cut it out.

Pop the reindeer over the inside part of the hoop. Check that it is centred, then put the outside bit over it. You’ll probably need to loosen it a bit first.

Trim away some of the extra. Don’t cut it right back to the hoop! Leave a couple of cm. You’ll probably just need to cut off the corners.

Sew around the extra and gather it.

You could leave it there if you wanted to, but I like to sew some felt to the back so that it’s neater.

Tying the Ribbon

Cut 2 lengths of ribbon about 15 cm long.

Take one of them, fold it in half and knot the ends together. Thread the knotted ends through the metal bit on the hoop, then pull it through the loop of ribbon.

Tie the other piece of ribbon in a bow around the bottom of the metal bit.

Your reindeer cross stitch Christmas decoration is ready to hang on the tree!

If you liked this post, you might also like these:

This is another Christmas embroidery hoop with a reindeer. The reindeer and the trees are appliqued onto a bit of old net curtain.

Another Christmas embroidery hoop! These have the words love, joy and peace embroidered in a wreath.

Here’s the form for the pattern! Please note that you will be added to the Tea and a Sewing Machine email list. More information about why I do this can be found here. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Using Dried Fruit For Christmas Decorations

December 17, 2015 · 1 Comment

Here are some ideas for using dried fruit for Christmas decorations.

You might have dried some citrus fruit out in the oven and be wondering what to do with it.

Or you made some with a plan in mind and you’ve got some left over.

Some of the ideas on the list will need more dried fruit than others. Some will need less. With some of them, you can use other things as well.

1. Make tree decorations. String whole oranges and slices of fruit onto raffia or ribbon. You could add pine cones or cinnamon sticks too. You can find a tutorial for making them here.

Or as an easy alternative, thread individual slices onto a piece of ribbon, tie the ribbon into a loop and hang them on the tree.

2. Make a garland. This one is made in a similar way to the decorations. Each section is made separately by threading fruit onto rafia and tying a loop at each end. The sections are then tied together with ribbon. You can read the tutorial for this here.

This garland is made in the same way but with a pine cone in between each section. The tutorial for this one can be found here.

Or for a very quick, easy garland, you could tie slices of orange together with bakers’ twine or ribbon.

3. Make a wreath. You do need quite a lot of dried fruit for this!. Thread whole fruit and slices onto a wire coat hanger or thick garden wire, twist the ends together then hide the join with a bow.

4. Add some dried fruit to a wreath. If you don’t have enough fruit to make a whole wreath, you could add some to a wreath you have already either bought or made. Just thread some slices or whole fruit onto florists’ wire, twist the ends, then tuck them into the wreath form.

5. Pop dried slices and whole fruit into a glass bowl or vase with pine cones, twigs and cinnamon sticks.

6. Add pine cones and dried fruit to a bowl or jar and put a candle in the middle and you’ve got an easy last minute centre piece!

What did you do with your dried fruit?

10 Christmas Craft Tutorials

December 12, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Christmas is a great time for making stuff. Now we’re only 2 weeks away and I keep finding more stuff I want to make and there just isn’t time!

Here is a round up of 10 Christmas craft tutorials. Some of them are my ideas, most of them are not. Some of them I have made, some of them I am planning to make but I haven’t got round to it yet!

All the things in the tutorials can be made using stuff you will probably either have already or can obtain easily. All of them could be made within a couple of hours or an evening.

1. Snowflake Suncatcher Garland

This is genius. It’s such a simple idea and they look amazing. The snowflakes are made from salt dough using a cutter. The centres are filled with plastic beads which then melt when the decorations are baked in the oven. Full instructions how to make them can be found here on Homegrown Friends.

2. Dried Fruit Decorations

I have made these for the last two years. It’s very easy to dry the fruit yourself. Instructions for how I did this are here, How to Dry Citrus Fruit.

All you do is thread the fruit onto twine, cord or raffia and decorate with bows. You might also like to add pine cones or cinnamon sticks.

Putting the holes in before you dry the fruit makes the whole thing a lot easier! Full instructions can be found here, How to Make Dried Fruit Decorations.

If you have a bit more time (and a bit more fruit!), you could make a garland in a similar way. Instructions for a garland using just dried fruit, raffia and ribbon can be found here, Fruit Garland and Decorations.There are instructions for making a garland using dried fruit and pine cones here, How to Make a Pine Cone Garland.

3. Paper Snowflakes

Making paper snowflakes is not just for the kids! These snowflakes on Vintage Junky are so gorgeous. Templates are available to download and print out so you can recreate them yourself!

4. Cinnamon Stick Candles

While I was pregnant, strong synthetic scents made me throw up, with fake coconut and laundry detergent featuring top of the list.

I still associate these scents with feeling ill, so generally I steer clear of scented candles and anything that smells strongly of fake stuff.

However, natural scents are fine!

These cinnamon stick candles on Home Stories A toZ are easy to make and look lovely. When the candle warms up, so do the cinnamon sticks and the scent is released without being overpowering.

5. Crocheted Stars

Crocheting Christmas decorations is great for using up odds and ends of yarn and, being small, they don’t take to long to make.

The pattern for these stars is here on One Dog Woof. If you like crochet, there are lots of other crochet projects too, including some very cute little elves!

6. A Christmas Wreath

Maybe it seems a bit late to suggest making a wreath now that Christmas now is only two weeks away. However, historically, people used to bring greenery into their homes on Midwinter’s Day which is on 21st December. So there’s still time!

Christmas wreaths can be expensive to buy, but they are not expensive to make and it’s easy and fun to do.

To make this one, I used a flower foam wreath and greenery from the garden, berries and pine cones just from around outside, fruit that I dried myself (instructions here!) and some ribbon.

Once I’d collected everything together, it took me about an hour and a half and it cost less than £10 to make.

Full instructions are here, How to Make a Christmas Wreath.

7. Box Ornaments

This tutorial involves covering a little star shaped box, the kind that can be bought from craft shops, and decorating it to make a 3D scene. I suspect if I start making these, I won’t be able to stop! I can imagine all kinds of cute scenes in tiny little boxes!

The instructions for this can be found here at American Crafts Studio.

8. Candles in a Jar With Greenery

This comes from a French site, Le Cottage De Gwladys. There are lots of ideas on here for using candles and greenery to decorate your home for Christmas. The photographs are beautiful and Google Translate is very useful if you don’t speak French.

9. Cookie Cutter Felt Decorations

These decorations are great for using up scraps of felt and cookie cutters make perfect templates. A little bit of polyester filling in the middle gives them a slightly padded look. They are easy enough for older children to make too!

Full instructions can be found here, Cookie Cutter Felt Decorations.

10. 3D Paper Ball Decorations

These decorations are made from 12 paper flowers that slot together. The tutorial and printable templates for different sized decorations can be found at How About Orange.

For more Christmas themed stuff including crafts and crafts for children, please visit my Christmas Pinterest Board!

Happy Christmas Crafting! xx

How to Make Scented Christmas Decorations

December 9, 2014 · Leave a Comment

According to something I was reading on the internet, cinnamon is officially the smell of Christmas. I associate lots of smells with Christmas. Not only cinnamon, but cloves, ginger and nutmeg. These were all ingredients in the Christmas cake and the Christmas puddings. Also pine, the smell of the Christmas tree (we always had a real one, the smell of plastic doesn’t quite do it!) and tangerines, when fruit and vegetables were seasonal and you couldn’t get tangerines before November.

These scented Christmas decorations contain cinnamon, cloves and star anise for a perfect Christmas smell.

How to Make Scented Christmas Decorations

You Will Need: fabric, elastic bands, ribbon, pinking shears (optional), cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise, needle and thread.

1. Cut a square of fabric 15 cm x 15 cm. Finish the edges with pinking shears.

2. For the spices you will need a few cloves, 3 or 4 little leaves of star anise and half a cinnamon stock, broken up. Crushing them a bit will help to release their scent.

3. Place the square of fabric wrong side up and put the spices in the middle.

4. Gather up the corners and wrap an elastic band round the top of the bundle to hold it.

5. Cut a piece of ribbon 25 cm long. Tie in a bow around the elastic band.

6. Sew a loop into the back of the ribbon.

If you like a stronger Christmas smell, you could put the spices into a muslin bag or a tea infuser and pop it in a pan of warm water.

Wishing you all a pleasantly scented Christmas xx

Ribbon Christmas Decorations

December 3, 2014 · 5 Comments

It must be nearly Christmas. How do I know? Apart from the date, obviously. I know because Boy 3 is bouncing off the ceiling. When he came out of school yesterday I thought his teachers must have given him coffee!

The Advent Calender is up, the pockets are stuffed and the sweeties are being eaten. The decorations and the tags with the Christmas story on are slowly making their way onto the boys’ tree. Instructions how to make one of these can be found here!

The tree for downstairs is still in the cupboard, so the decorations I have been making are in a box, which is filling up nicely.

Here are some ribbon Christmas decorations I’ll be putting in it.

How to Make Ribbon Christmas Decorations

These are very easy and quick to make. Christmas ribbon could be used but any ribbon will look Christmassy once it’s up on the tree.

You Will Need: 60 cm ribbon and 1 button for each decoration, needle and thread.

1. Cut the ribbon into 4 15 cm pieces.

2. Take one of the ribbon pieces and fold in half to find the middle. Fold the ends into the middle so that they are overlapping. Hold with a few stitches.

3. Repeat for the other three pieces of ribbon.

4. Layer the pieces on top of each other so that they make a star. Sew together with a few stitches.

5. Sew a button onto the centre.

6. Sew a loop into the back of the decoration at the top.

Here it is, finished!

I made some others too with different ribbon.

Have you taken a look at my other Christmas decoration tutorials?

There’s a nice easy one here using felt and cookie cutters: Cookie Cutter Decorations . Or one that’s a bit more challenging: Patchwork Star Christmas Decoration.Happy Christmas Crafting! xx

Reindeer Cross Stitch Christmas Decoration

Instructions

You Will Need

Embroidering the Reindeer

Putting it in the Hoop

Tying the Ribbon

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1. Snowflake Suncatcher Garland

3. Paper Snowflakes

4. Cinnamon Stick Candles

5. Crocheted Stars

7. Box Ornaments

8. Candles in a Jar With Greenery

10. 3D Paper Ball Decorations

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How to Make Scented Christmas Decorations

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