Home for the Holidays

I know. It's not even Halloween yet and this is looking very Christmassy. What can I say, Christmas is my favorite holiday, and when we're all coming down from our candy buzzes in a few days, it will be time to kick into all-out holiday crafting mode, so why not get a head start?

Don't you love a cute house ornament? I made a little fabric house last year, but it bugged me that the door and embroidery disappeared into the bottom of the house (Exhibit A), so I changed the design to avoid that problem. These scrappy house ornaments don't take very long to make, and they do include a hanger, I just tucked them under for the photo above. I mentioned before that I was in the mood for a tutorial, well...here it is!

Fabric House Ornament Tutorial

Materials:

Pattern (click here to get pattern)
Quilting cotton scraps for house back, roof, window, and door
Fabric with numbers or fabric selvage for house number
Linen, linen/cotton blend, or cotton quilter’s linen for house front
Wool or wool-blend felt scraps for bird
10” length of ribbon, 3/8” to 1/2" wide (satin, grosgrain, velveteen, picot edge, twill tape, etc.)
Rick rack (1/2" wide), miniature pom pom, or other trim
Wonder Under fusible web (1/8 yard)
Sheer weight or lightweight fusible interfacing (1/8 yard)
All purpose thread
Embroidery thread
Button
Polyfill or other stuffing material

Tools:

Scissors, rotary cutter/quilting ruler/cutting mat (optional), sewing machine, iron/ironing board, pins, seam ripper, hand sewing needle, disappearing fabric ink, chopstick or turning tool

*Seam allowances are 1/4" unless otherwise noted, finished house is 4-1/2" tall, not including chimney.
*Always backstitch/backtack at the beginning and end of each seam.

Instructions:

HOUSE
1. Cut a piece of fusible interfacing slightly larger than the house pattern piece. Fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of the linen with a hot iron according to package instructions. Press with iron on the linen side until the interfacing is completely fused. Use a ruler and rotary cutter to cut around the house pattern.

2. Draw the cutouts at the bottom of the house with disappearing fabric ink (the cutouts are 1/2" x 1/2"). Cut on the lines with scissors. Cut another house from quilting cotton (there is no need for interfacing for the cotton house).

ROOF
1. Place a length of rick rack or pom pom trim on the linen house fabric, indicated on the pattern with a dotted stitch line. Center the trim over the line. I find it helpful to draw a line with a fabric pen 1-3/4" from the top of the house (the solid line on the roof of the house pattern). The top of your medium sized rick rack should meet this line, as well as the roof fabric when you place it over the rick rack (see Step 2). Mini pom pom is a little narrower than rick rack, and so sits a little lower than 1-3/4".

2. Place the roof fabric on top of the trim, right sides together, with the edge of the fabric 1/4” above the stitch line. Sew a 1/4” seam along the stitch line.

3. Fold the roof fabric up. If you use rick rack, go ahead and iron the fabric. If you are using pom pom trim or other synthetic trim DO NOT PRESS WITH IRON!!! Pom pom trim melts very easily. Finger press the fabric only.

4. Turn the house over, and trim the roof fabric to match the outline of the house.

5. Turn the house back over and machine baste the roof fabric in place, very close to the edge of the house.

DOOR, WINDOW, & HOUSE NUMBER
1. Cut a piece of Wonder Under slightly larger than the appliqué piece.

2. Adhere the Wonder Under to the wrong side of the appliqué fabric with an iron (bumpy side of Wonder Under to wrong side of fabric). Let cool. Lift up an edge of the paper backing to loosen it from fabric.

3. Cut out the piece of fabric that is fused to the Wonder Under.

4. Remove the paper backing from the fabric. Place the pattern piece on the sticky side of the fabric and cut around it.

5. Remove the pattern and iron the appliqué in place on the front of the house. Do this for the window, door, and house number, using the pattern as a guide for placement. DO NOT decorate your house below the line marked on the pattern, and remember to keep the iron away from any heat-sensitive trims!

5. Using a straight stitch on your machine, sew around the outside edge of the appliqué, just off the fabric edge. Sew a second line just on the inside of the fabric edge. For the door, I used thread that matched the door on the inside of the fabric, black on the outside. For the window, I used black thread only. I sewed pretty fast, not aiming for a super straight line, I like the hand drawn look of wobbly lines. For the house number, I only sewed one seam, on the inside of the fabric edge.

BIRD
1. Cut a bird from felt and place it on the house. Sew in place by machine with matching thread, just on the inside edge of the felt.

2. Divide the embroidery floss and use three strands for the bird. Hand embroider beak, feet, and wing with backstitches.

3. Make a French knot eye.

BUTTON DOORKNOB
1. Add the button last so you don't have to worry about bumping into it while sewing the birdie or other appliqués.

CHIMNEY & HANGER
1. Fold chimney fabric in half. Sew across the top and down the side with the raw edges.

2. Trim corner and seam allowances.

3. Turn right side out and press.

4. Place chimney upside down where indicated on the pattern, right sides together. Sew in place very close to the edge of the fabric. Fold ribbon hanger in half, place on the top and center of the roof and sew in place very close to the edge.

5. Alternate method: you may press under the top and side edges of the chimney fabric 1/4", right sides facing out, and hand sew the chimney closed with a ladder/blind stitch before attaching to house.

FINISH
1. Place the front and back of your house right sides together and pin. Make sure your ribbon will not get sewn into the seams. Sew around the bottom, sides and top of the house, leaving a 1-1/2” turning hole on one side. DO NOT sew the notched cutouts yet.

2. Reach inside the house to pull open the cutout on one side. Flatten it so the seams match up, and the seam allowances go in opposite directions. Sew across this short straight edge with a 1/4” seam allowance. Repeat for other side. Make sure the seam allowance on the bottom of the house is folded the same direction on both sides.

3. Turn the house right side out, stuff, and close the turning hole with a ladder stitch.

4. You're finished! Hang your ornament on a tree, doorknob, wall or stocking hook.

Happy homemaking!
Kim

P.S. The number fabric is Annie's Farm Stand Seed Catalog from Lakehouse. It has lots of different numbers in several fonts and sizes, perfect if you're going to make a bunch of these.

P.P.S. For those of you who don't sew, I will be adding the house ornaments to my shop soon! All the ornaments are on their way to new homes, thanks so much!

P.P.P.S. Don't forget that I am having a sale this week, just enter the code CELEBRATE during checkout at my Etsy shop for 20% off your order. The patterns in my sidebar are already discounted. The sale goes through Wednesday, 10/26. Sale has ended, thanks!

UPDATE: just editing my sale and shop info, so as not to be confusing :)

Easter is in the air

I had one of those moments in Target the other day while walking (well running, actually, as I had a screaming toddler in my cart) by an endcap, and instinctively, reflexively even, bent down and grabbed this fantastic cake platter as we sped past. The first thing that popped into my head to describe it was "Barnyard Chic" -- check out the chicken wire detail on the foot! Completely fantastic --

Driving home, this strange urge to make Easter eggs came over me. Strange in that I don't usually get this kind of inspiration until either, a) after the holiday has passed, or b) it's so close to the holiday that there isn't enough time to complete the project. In any case, not only did I finish the eggs in time, but I've come up with a little tutorial (my first!) far enough in advance for anyone else who wants to make fabric Easter eggs, too. These are just a bit bigger than real eggs and a terrific way to use up those fabric scraps! Please be sure to tell me if you have any trouble printing the pattern (it should be 2-1/8"W by 4-1/4"h) or if any of the instructions are confusing so I can fix them!

Fabric Easter Egg Tutorial

Materials:

10"w x 5"h Quilting cotton, linen or other non-stretchy woven fabric in one or more prints
Thread
Fiberfill, Nature-fill or other similar polyester or natural stuffing
Disappearing Ink Pen
Scissors
Pins
Hand sewing needle
Pattern (I recommend printing it on card stock for easy tracing)

Seam allowances are 1/4"

1. Cut out the pieces. Place pattern piece perpendicular to the fabric selvedge, trace the pattern with disappearing ink (see photo below) and cut four pieces from desired fabric prints. You may cut multiple pieces simultaneously from the same print by folding the fabric over one or more times, cutting up to 4 pieces at once. (Tip: If you're using a scrap and don't know which way the selvedge is, test which direction the fabric is stretchiest. The fabric is stretchier going perpendicular to the selvedge, and less stretchy going parallel with the selvedge; you want the stretch going from top to bottom of the egg, not side to side, so your egg doesn't get too "fat" when you stuff it. Hopefully that makes sense.)

2. Place pieces together for sewing. Always keeping track of which end is "up", place 2 fabric pieces, right sides together, pinning if desired. Do the same with the remaining two pieces. Transfer the two dots from the pattern to the fabric pieces on top. If using two different fabrics, make sure both pairs have one of each print and that the same print is on the top of both sets.

3. Sew a seam along the right side of one set of egg pieces, from top dot to bottom dot, backstitching at the top and bottom. Do the same with the second set of pieces.

4. Put the two halves together. Turn one set of egg pieces right side out, and place inside the other set of egg pieces, so that right sides are together on the inside.

Match the seams at the top and bottom and pin. (Note the purple ink marks on the lower righthand side in the photo below that indicate where I will leave a hole for stuffing)

5. Sew the two halves together. Sew around the outside edge of the egg, leaving a 1" hole on one side for turning and stuffing, backstitching at the beginning and end of the seam.

6. Trim the seam allowances, taking care not to snip into the stitches and leaving the seam allowances wide around the open hole.

7. Turn the egg right side out through the hole and it will look something like this

8. Stuff the egg firmly with poly-fill or other stuffing, and close the hole with small slip stitches/ladder stitches.

9. Voila! You have a completed egg.

10. Now make bunches and bunches of these and post your photos in my new flickr group dedicated to projects made with my patterns!

I hope you have as much fun making these as I did!

Have a fun and happy (and warm, if you're lucky) weekend!
Kim

edited 2/2/11 to add updated link to pattern