Homemade Christmas Decorations: Garlands, Fabric Baubles, and Pyramids
Following on from our make your own Christmas tree, and keeping in a spirit of sustainable Christmas, we offer simple, quick, and affordable ideas to make your own decorations. Unique garlands, small pyramids to hang on the tree, or even fabric Christmas baubles. These easy-to-make ideas will allow you to decorate your home with handmade and personalised pieces while respecting a small budget.
Christmas Garlands
What you will need
- A 50 x 70 cm fabric swatch,
- double sided permanent fusible bonding sheet, 35 x 43 cm,
- a spool of polyester sewing thread in a solid colour, and a spool of metallic thread,
- ideally, a Sajou thread card to give the garland some weight.
Check out our packs to create different garland designs
The concept is to sew shapes reinforced with permanent double sided bonding fabric, two by two and one after the other. This is a simple method to create a three-dimensional garland.
In our video, we used the same fabric for both sides of the shapes, but you can also have fun using two different prints.
Making a Garland
Download the patterns for the garland shapes: stars, stockings, rocking horse, Christmas trees, hearts.
A balanced garland will include: three large shapes, three medium shapes, and three small shapes. But feel free to arrange them differently.
- Cut the fabric swatch in half lengthwise.
- Iron and fuse the bonding sheet to the back of one of the fabric pieces; it’s the shiny and rough side that sticks. The iron should be set to cotton, and you need to press for several seconds.
- Remove the bonding sheet and fuse the other piece of fabric. Press for about 10 seconds with the iron.
- Using a FriXion pen, trace the shapes onto the fabric and cut them out.
- Give the cut pieces a quick press with the iron to remove the FriXion pen marks, and pair them up by size.
- Pull about 30 cm of thread from your sewing machine and sew the shapes together one after the other, leaving about 7 cm between each. To do this, simply sew “in the air.”
- At the end, leave another 30 cm of thread before cutting.
- At the top, make a loop to hang the garland, and at the bottom, tie on a Sajou thread card.
Fabric Christmas Baubles
Simple fabric Christmas baubles to make in just a few minutes.
We have packs available containing pre-cut cardboard circles to make sets of 10 baubles, as cutting the circles can be tricky…
The small models, with a diameter of 3.9cm, are perfect for decorating the small embroidered Christmas tree.
The large ones, with a diameter of 7cm, are suitable for decorating the large embroidered tree.
See the packs to create sets of 10 fabric Christmas baubles.
To hang the Christmas baubles on your tree, we recommend our small buttons covered in Indian fabric.
What you will need
- Two fabric circles per bauble, 6cm in diametre for small models and 9cm in diametre for the large model;
- Two cardboard circles, 3.9cm for the small models and 7cm in diametre for the large models;
- Wadding;
- Rochefort braided jewelry thread for making the loops;
- White glue.
Making the Fabric Baubles
- Depending on the size of the bauble you want, cut the fabric circles to the dimensions above.
- Cut circles of wadding and glue them onto the cardboard discs.
- Cut two pieces of Rochefort thread, one 15 cm and the other 30 cm.
- Place the wadding-covered side of the cardboard disc against the wrong side of the fabric and notch the fabric every centimetre, stopping about 2 mm from the cardboard.
- Apply glue to the cardboard disc and fold the fabric over, as shown in the video. Do the same for the second cardboard disc.
- Apply some glue to the back of one of the discs and place the small folded piece of Rochefort in one corner. Then place the end of the longer piece of Rochefort next to it.
- Generously apply glue to the second cardboard disc and stick the two discs together. Place a weight on the assembly and let it dry for a few hours.
- Finally, glue the long piece of Rochefort thread around the bauble: use a pin, as shown in the video. Cut the excess thread near the loop and tuck the end between the two discs.
Making the Pyramid Ornaments
- On the back of one of the fabric squares, trace markings 5mm from the edges.
- Cut 10 cm of Rochefort cord, fold it in half, and overlap the two ends.
- Place the second fabric square right side up, the Rochefort loop in one corner, and the square with markings wrong side up. Pin together.
- Sew along three sides, including the one with the Rochefort loop.
- Slip your hand inside the opening and align the fourth side edge to edge, with the seam in the middle, to form the pyramid. Press the seams open with your fingers and sew halfway.
- Sew, turn inside out, and push out the corners.
- Stuff the pyramid and close with invisible stitches.
See all the packs to make our Christmas decorations and embroidered tree.
To hang the Pyramid ornaments on your tree, we recommend our small buttons covered in Indian fabric.
