With all the decorating going on I thought I would put together a fun and easy tutorial for a homemade Christmas ornament/gift tag. I made a dozen ornaments for a quilters exchange that I participated in this year and I had all of them done in 2 days, so this is a good last minute handmade project. This is also a good project for using up scraps of craft items you may already have on hand.
You will need the following materials (amounts will depend on how many ornaments you wish to make):
Holiday/Christmas or any fabric of your choice for the front of the tag/ornament
bleached or unbleached muslin for the backing
Peltex, felt or fusible felt (I used Peltex a very stiff interfacing also used for fabric postcards)
Fusible web such as wonder under
Sewing Machine (optional)
contrasting/coordinating thread or thread to match fabrics
cording, ribbon or twine
fine tip permanent ink marker ( I used a sharpie fine tip marker)
hole punch
First start with deciding the shape of your tag/ornament. For this project I decided to use a rectangular shape but I have also made these using a circle. I selected a border print fabric with a variety of Holiday items to choose from.
1. You can create a template, cut free-hand or use a clear acrylic ruler to cut out the shape, just make sure you cut out fabrics and peltex slightly larger than you want the finished tag to be.(1/4 of an inch is plenty) I cut my shapes out freehand.
2. Following directions on fusible, iron the fusible web/wonder under onto the back side of each of your fabrics (holiday fabric and muslin). Do this step before you cut out your shape or design. Do not remove paper backing from the fabric yet.
3. On the paper side of the fusible web that has been fused to the fabrics use your template to trace the ornament shape on both the front fabric and the muslin or cut out your shape freehand.
4. Cut out a piece of peltex slightly larger than the front fabric shape.
5. Following manufacturers directions iron the fabric ornament shape onto the peltex shape.
5. Place ornament on the paper side of the muslin background fabric (step2) and trace around ornament. Cut out muslin background just inside of tracing line.
6. Score and remove paper backing from muslin and fuse to the back of ornament shape.
7. Trim off excess peltex and backing fabric from the ornament.
8. Using your sewing machine you can finish off the ornament with a straight stitch around the border or do a satin stitch(zigzag) around the edge using contrasting thread or thread that matches your fabric.
9. Punch a hole to pass your string, ribbon or twine through.
10. Using your sharpie marker write a holiday greeting or the name of the person receiving the gift.
11. Knot the tie and hang on the tree or add to a gift.
These are great tags that can be made with any fabric design for any occassion so you can use fabrics that represent the person that is to receive them. I hope you enjoy making these cute little ornament/tags to add to your holiday gifts and decor.
