Wool Boutique: Tutorial: Felt Gingerbread Ornaments

Has the cat eaten your baubles? Got a bare spot where you've taken the crackers and candy canes away on Christmas Day? These gingerbread shapes are so quick and easy to make and can be hung from your tree or strung together to make a garland. All you need is:

A piece of thin card
A pen
Sharp scissors
Felt in a tan/fawn/biscuit colour
White/cream & Black embroidery thread
Embroidery needles
Soft toy filling

Fold the piece of card in half and draw half a gingerbread man shape. The will make sure your man is nice and symetrical. Cut him out and unfold him. (I'll happily provide a downloadable PDF of shapes should anyone want one)

Draw around your men on the felt, fit them as closely together as possible to make the most of the material. Cut out the shapes. The sensible person will now embroider one half with the design of their choosing. Give the man eyes, a nose and mouth and buttons (if you wish). I gave my man eyes and a nose and a belly button using a french knot.

Place two man shapes on top of one-another and start stitching together using a simple blanket stitch. Start at one shoulder and work all the way around to the other shoulder leaving the head un-worked.

Now for the fun.

Grab a small hunk of filling and tease it apart in your fingers to fluff it up. Start to fill your man. I found that using the end of a crochet hook helped to fill the extremities.

Sew up the head, secure the belly button on the back of your man with another french knot and slip the needle up and out of the top of your man's head.

Make a loop and secure.

Thread the loop with ribbon and hang your man in the tree.

Make other shapes too, hearts, Christmas trees, stockings and stars will all work well. Use them as little samplers for trying out different embroidery stitches. The stitch below is rosette stitch which looks like gorgeous icing dribbled all over a cookie.