Christmas ornament tutorial

I promised back in November that I would do a tutorial for the Christmas ornaments I made but then my camera went on the blink and I had to send it away to get fixed - for some reason the memory card refused to upload photos when I put it in my hubby's camera, but now that I have my own camera back, I have been able to upload the tutorial photos!

I know it's a little close to Christmas now, but maybe someone would still like to make some!

1) The first thing you do is to cut 5 squares of fabric all the same size. I think mine were around 4 inches square, but any size is fine. (You can even make them really big, say 12 inches square, and turn the ornaments into hotpads!) Also cut a piece of batting the same size, and a piece of ribbon or cord for the hanger. Iron 4 of the squares in half. You can iron them into triangles or rectangles - whichever you like. I made half of my ornaments with triangles, and half with rectangles.

2) Place the one remaining square of fabric on top of the square of batting, right side up, and sew the ribbon/cord onto a corner. It's best to use tiny stitches for this, especially if you use cord. Ask me how I know :)

3) Now comes the hardest part but it's not really hard at all! You are going to place the 4 folded squares on top of the background/batting piece. Make sure the folded edge faces the middle. You do this one at a time, and overlap them. It's very hard to explain, but each one needs to be "under" another. If you don't have this done right, you will know when you turn it through and will have to unpick and redo it.

This is with the first 2 pieces placed on top...

The third piece....

And the fourth - you will need to lift up the corner of the first one you laid down and tuck the fourth one under it. If it just doesn't look or feel right, keep trying until you see four half triangles (or squares if you used rectangles). Once you get it, it will be easy!

4) Sew around the whole thing, making sure you keep that ribbon/cord tucked away safe from the stitches!

5) Trim around the corners - there's a lot of bulk in there and you want it to turn easily and look nice!

5) Turn it out using the middle of where the 4 pieces intersect.

6) There you have it - aren't you clever??!!

Here is what it looks like if you ironed your squares into rectangles instead of triangles...

I suggest enlisting the help of any children you have milling around...my 7 year old daughter loved ironing the squares in half, and choosing which fabrics would go together.
Have fun!