12 Days of Ornaments - Day 1

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

It's 12 days until Christmas, so I thought it would be really fun to share 12 days of handmade ornaments! Every day for the next 12 days, I'll share a tutorial for how to make a fabric ornament!

I'm so excited to share the first ornament with you today! 

No-sew fabric Easter or Christmas ornaments from two fat quarters

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No-sew fabric Easter or Christmas ornaments from two fat quarters

Today's ornament started with this fantastic new collection called Easter Parade designed by Lindsay Wilkes for Riley Blake Designs. I've had my eye on it as soon as it was announced. The collection is inspired by vintage greeting cards and have tiny birds, bunnies, and chicks! It reminds me so much of my grandmother who still sends vintage greeting cards instead of new ones from the store!

Easter Parade fabric by Riley Blake

When brainstorming ideas of what to make with this collection, I thought about other vintage ephemera, and remembered those 3-D tissue paper decorations! They fold flat, but then you bring the two sides together to make a 3-D basket or egg. Remember those?! I knew that would be so fun to create in fabric form!

Easter Parade fabric by Riley Blake Designs

I chose sets of two fabrics from the Easter Parade collection. I'm using 1/4 yards, but you could use fat quarters for this too! And I'm using Easter fabric, but of course you could use Christmas fabric!

To make one ornament, you'll need:

(2) fat quarters or quarter yards of fabric
(1) package of Heat-n-Bond Lite
20" grosgrain ribbon (I used 3/8")
(1) wood bead, about 1/2" diameter
Iron (I used my Oliso mini!)

Making double sided fabric

The first step is to make double-sided fabric. To do this, I pressed Heat-N-Bond Lite to the wrong side of one of the fabrics.

Making double sided fabric

Then after peeling off the paper, I pressed a second fabric on top. (I used my Oliso mini iron!)

Making double sided fabric

Once cooled, I moved to the cutting mat to cut 4" circles with my Olfa circle rotary cutter.

Using an Olfa circle rotary cutter to cut fabric circles

If you don't have one of these tools, I highly recommend it! It's like a compass from school, except it has a small rotary blade on the end. It cuts perfect circles so much faster than scissors!

Cutting fabric circles

You can cut any size from 1 1/2" to 8 3/4". I chose 4" so I could get 20 from a 1/4 yard (or fat quarter) of fabric.

Fabric circles

Twenty double-sided fabric circles!

Fabric circles

Next, I pressed each circle in half.

Pressing fabric circles in half

Here's where I get to tell you about a failure. I attempted making this ornament with hand sewing, but after failing (twice!), I called my mom for help. She suggested fabric glue, and it was definitely the best choice! Why didn't I call her sooner?!

Fabri-Tac fabric glue

The next step is to glue the whole stack of folded circles together, leaving them stacked on top of each other. This is done by gluing in just two spots along the edge - about an inch from the fold on both sides. I'm using Fabri-Tac glue.

Gluing fabric circles to make an ornament

This photo shows the spots where I'm putting glue. Just one little dot in each spot. Once the glue is on and the fabric put together, I pressed it quickly to help set the glue faster.

Gluing fabric circles to make an ornament

Here's the whole stack, all circles glued together with just those two dots of glue for each one.

Gluing fabric circles to make an ornament

The next step sounds strange, but now glue each folded circle closed with one dot in the center. Just one dot on the edge, press the two halves together, a quick press, then do the next one. 

Gluing fabric circles to make an ornament

Once you've gone through the whole stack of twenty circles, you'll get to see the magic! Place the top circle and bottom circle together, allowing all the others to fan out to create the ornament. Glue these last two circles together, placing a sewing clip to hold them while they dry. (I couldn't get my iron into this spot easily.) Remember to glue at both of the 1" spots just like you did before.

Gluing fabric circles to make an ornament

While the final side is drying, add a dot of glue in-between all twenty of the circles on the ends. After putting the glue on all twenty circles, I held it in place to let it dry for a bit. Sewing clips might work to do it too! Be sure to do the other end too!

Gluing fabric circles to make an ornament

Once all the glue has dried, cut a piece of ribbon about 20" long. Fold it in half, then use a pencil to push the folded end through the center of the ornament.

Adding ribbon to make a fabric ornament

Feed a wood bead onto the ends of the ribbon. Knot the ribbon and trim the ends.

Adding ribbon to make a fabric ornament

Then repeat to make more - and hang to enjoy!

No-sew fabric Easter or Christmas ornaments from two fat quarters

No-sew fabric Easter or Christmas ornaments from two fat quarters

I LOVE how these turned out!! They look just like the tissue paper decorations I remember, but these will last much longer!

No-sew fabric Easter or Christmas ornaments from two fat quarters

Each one took me about an hour to make. I'm definitely putting these out for Christmas, but I'll get them back out for Easter too! I really thought about making them egg-shaped and still love that idea! I have several fabrics left from the collection, so you just might see that happen in April!

Check out all of the 12 Days of Ornaments tutorials here!

17 comments:

  1. What a fun ornament, I want to go make some but first I need something to cut all those circles!

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  2. Laura, I can't wait to try these ornaments! I've had that circle cutter for years and never used it, actually I have 2 because I bought it once, forgot and bought it again!

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  3. Thanks for showing this method of cutting circles, not everyone has an Accuquilt!

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  4. So cool, Laura!!! I love your fabric ornaments!!!

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  5. Thank you so much for this excellent tutorial, Laura!

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  6. Thank you! Those are amazing and would make great second gifts as package decorations to be used on the tree year after year.

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  9. What a great idea, thank you! I'll use my Accuquilt to cut the circles.

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  10. I think I'd use velcro or a snap on the last pair so the ornament could be folded flat for storage between years...

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  11. Fabri-Tac is the Bee's Knees! And so is this ornament!

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  12. Is there a video on this?

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    1. I have a brief video of me making it on my Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/reel/CXepSfXpC64/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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  13. Thank You so much for these idea's they are so cute all of them. Thanks for sharing.
    Merry Christmas Barb😊♥️

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