Progress on Hardanger Christmas Ornaments

My "ornament cloth" is getting busier and busier by the minute and it is looking great, if I may say so myself.

Some of the ornaments are ready for beading, some of them are waiting for the courier to bring some more Kreinik braid, and until he arrives I am stitching the first kloster blocks of the last heart.

Let me say a  big Thank You again for all your kind emails about the patterns, and tutorials! I am so glad that you liked them and found them helpful, and receiving photos of your finished ornaments makes me happy beyond words. I will be sharing some of those photos with all of you during the weekend.

Until then, have fun, Everyone!

Black Friday Sale

Until Sunday, 25th November, midnight (CET),  20% off every item in my Etsy shop. Use coupon code:

BlackFriday2012

Wishing Everyone a happy weekend,

All Together - Ornaments in Progress

In an attempt to save my hardanger fabric, I am working on the entire set of Christmas ornaments at the same time, finding a place for all of them and then some, on a strip of fabric that was left from another project.

The snowflake, stocking, no.4 and a smaller heart are already in place, while the heart, bell and maybe even a little angel, are still to be added. Just stopped to work on the Algerian eyelets, to break the monotony a little bit.

It does take longer to finish them this way, but when they are finished...

they are all finished at the same time :)

Wishing Everyone a happy day,

Christmas Ball Ornament

This lovely Christmas ball ornament was made by Victoria  from Ukraine. For the embroidered section of her ornament, she used the center of my Snowflake Ornament in her own interpretation:

Thank you, Victoria for sharing the photos of your work! Receiving your messages and seeing this pretty ornament have made me really happy.

On another note, Victoria also drew my attention to the fact that I forgot to flip the patterns for the back sides of my Stocking Ornament. I edited that post, replacing the photos with the proper ones, so if you have downloaded the photos, you might want to go back and download again or simply flip horizontally the image of the pattern you have chosen for the back of your stocking... Sorry about that...

Again, if you have requested the patterns in PDF files in an email from me, I will be sending to you the corrected version on Monday. 

Wishing you all a great week!

Finishing The Hardanger Ornaments - Part 2

In my previous post I have shown you how I cut out my hardanger ornaments, let's now continue with the lining and sewing the ornament together:

I love using satin to line hardanger pillows and ornaments for the way it shines through and emphasizes the woven parts. And red satin for Christmas tree ornaments is just perfect, don't you think? I also pull the stitches of my Algerian eyelets so tight for the red to shine through those, too.

The two sides of the ornament have been embroidered and cut out. If needed, even washed and ironed, face down, between two white towels.

For the lining I cut two pieces of red satin, two pieces of Vliesofix fusible paperback web and one piece of batting. Well, not exactly batting as you know it: I am using a piece of a white floor cleaning cloth, no laughing, please, it perfectly serves the purpose and it is new, of course.

To make the lining sandwich, I iron the Vliesofix pieces to the backs of the satin pieces, remove the paper backs and then iron the satin pieces to both sides of the "batting".

Then, I make a pattern to cut my lining sandwich into the shape of the hardanger pieces. I put one of them on a piece of paper and with a pencil I make markings through every Algerian eyelet and also trace lightly around the shape. I usually do this with a mechanical pencil to keep the embroidery clean.

 Then, guided by the traced outline and the hole marks, I trace my pattern about 2-3 mm away from the hole marks. For each ornament I leave one set of holes free, with no lining under it, because that will be the hole where the ribbon will go.

I cut out my pattern and place it over the hardanger piece, to make sure that it covers all the Algerian eyelets (except the one left for the ribbon) but it isn't going over the bottom half of the buttonhole stitches, either. If necessary, I adjust the pattern.

Then, using the pattern I cut the lining sandwich into shape,

and check the size again. I place the lining on the back of one of the hardanger pieces, 

and than place the other hardanger piece on top, face up, of course. I make sure that all three layers are in place, hold them together

and whip stitch the hardanger pieces together by going through the corresponding loops of every buttonhole stitch with DMC perlé no.12.

Mission accomplished:

To finish, I pull some red ribbon through the holes I have left without lining, tie a bow and my ornament is ready for Christmas, or any other occasion :)

I really hope that you have enjoyed the Hardanger Christmas Ornaments series and that you have found this tutorial helpful.

Finishing The Hardanger Ornaments - Part 1

Cutting Around The Buttonhole Stitched Shapes

Whenever I get asked how I cut around the buttonhole stitched hardanger pieces, the very first thing I say is: VERY CAREFULLY. Cutting into the buttonhole stitches of a finished piece and ruining so many hours worth of stitching can be really frustrating. I know, I have been there and it is not a happy place.
Being extremely careful while cutting, using a pair of sharp scissors and sometimes even a magnifier still didn't feel like safe or precise enough, so before actually cutting my pieces out, there is one more step I make: I cut and remove the first fabric thread outside the buttonhole stitches, all around the piece. I have never had a cutting mishap ever since I have been doing this, and besides being able to make a safer cut, the cut out pieces do have a much neater look, too.
Here I have two hearts (the ornaments being double sided) ready to be cut out:

To start I turn my embroidery face down

and cut the first fabric thread outside the buttonhole stitched line, next to both ends of the line, 

then pull it out:

In the corners, the fabric thread that I cut first is the one that is on top of the other in the weaving. 

I keep going like this, VERY CAREFULLY NOT TO CATcH ANY OF THE BUTTONHOLE STITCHES with my scissors, and remove the first fabric threads all around my embroidered piece.

As you can see in the close up photo above, the nice space left by the removed fabric thread makes it so much easier to see where and what I am cutting.

When the fabric threads have been removed from all around the buttonhole stitches, with my embroidery facing up I start cutting around the piece, just behind the loops of the buttonhole stitches. VERY CAREFULLY...

And here is the result, the heart cut out, safe and sound :)

Well, at least this is how I do it and it has always worked for me... Hope it does for you, too.

Part 2 of the Tutorial on finishing the hardanger ornaments is coming up in a couple of hours, so stay tuned.

Happy cutting, Everyone!

Christmas Stocking Ornament Pattern - Edited

Concluding the series of my hardanger Christmas ornament designs, for this year at least, today I am bringing to you the patterns for a Christmas stocking ornament.
I am also working on a tutorial for finishing these two sided ornaments, hopefully to be posted in a day or two, so stay tuned.

Enjoy! And remember, it would make me really happy to receive photos of your work.

Should you like to receive the patterns in a PDF format please let me know, I will be happy to email them to you and answer any questions you might have, just make sure that your comment links back to a working email address. 

Have a great week, Everyone!

Heart Ornament

I wouldn't be surprised if this little heart started singing "Adeste Fideles" all of a sudden, so many times I hummed the song while working on it.

Just like the bell ornament, the heart is lined with red satin and has different designs on both sides. 

Now on to working on the snowflake. Lining that one will be a little bit trickier, can't wait to see how that goes. 

Wishing you all the best,

Hardanger Ornament Pattern no.4

While I am about to sew together my heart ornament and looking forward to start working on the snowflake ornament, I am presenting to you the fourth pattern in the series of my hardanger Christmas tree ornaments.

Enjoy! And remember, it would make me really happy to receive photos of your work.

Should you like to receive the patterns in a PDF format please let me know, I will be happy to email them to you and answer any questions you might have, just make sure that your comment links back to a working email address. 

Have a lovely weekend, Everyone!