The Domest Artist--A Homemade Christmas

This post was written by Robin Brookshire of Resolved to Be, last year when she handmade these beautiful ornaments for her daughters, Emily Rose and Breezy. I always loved them and thought it would be great to share them with you in case you were looking for an idea for a beautiful Christmas gift or craft:


My last homemade Christmas post will be about the little embroidered ornaments that I made for our tree this year. I was inspired by Natalie at Cinderberry Stitches to create something a little different than a framed embroidery piece. I think her work is simply adorable.
 


I asked Breezy to write out a few words for me and then to draw some simple little swirls and flowers for me on an index card. I went over the designs with a darker pen and then picked some of the designs and transferred them onto a piece of muslin. I used a light box to transfer the design to the material, but I have used a window before with equal success.  I wrote directly on the muslin with a fine-tip Zig pen.  With it being fine-tip you can stitch right over the top of it and it won’t be seen.

I put a second layer of muslin behind the piece with the design so that there would be a double layer.  This helps hide the threads that might show through from the back. The stitches I used were a straight stitch, daisy stitch, french knot and blanket stitch. You can find a nice stitch directory here.

After I stitched the front pieces, I cut out the square along with muslin for the back. I did a blanket stitch along the outside edge of all the layers, stuffing a small amount of fiber-fill inside before I completely closed it.  A long piece of embroidery floss was used to make the hanging loop. 



One of the funnest things about this homemade gift was that I was able to actually surprise Breezy and Emily Rose with them.  As I worked on them they thought I was just working on the ones for our tree, ha, but I was faster than they thought.
 
I think that we are planning on putting the designs up on Emily Rose’s blog so that if anyone wants to use the patterns they can.  When we do I will put the link there.

Thank you, Robyn for sharing this wonderful craft/gift idea with us,  you can find more ideas from her family from their 'A Homemade Christmas' series..

Now I would love to hear what your great ideas are for homemade crafts, decor or gifts for Christmas--- or even something you have made in the past!

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