It’s time for the Merry Christmas Sew-Along ~ Ornament #5! As I mentioned before, I’ve partnered with my friend Monique of Farm House Quilts to bring y’all 10 ornament patterns we designed over the next 5 months – all for FREE! We know what the “theme” is each month, but we haven’t seen each others designs. That means we get to be surprised too when it’s not our turn to post! Okay, lets get to the merry ornament making!
Make sure you read all the way to the bottom because there’s a special giveaway this month! Yay! : D
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Ornament #5 ~> Mr. Ginger
This months theme is “gingerbread man”. I wanted to do something a little different than the standard gingerbread man, but there is only so far you can go when designing a gingerbread man!
The first thing I did was give him a little more personality with his smile. Then I decided to give you two options for dressing him up. One has Mr. Ginger all bundled up & ready for a snowball fight. The other is a little “tongue in cheek” take on Mr. Ginger being a baker! I found two buttons that you will see below that lead me to this character. ; )
I hope y’all like my take on the gingerbread man & I can’t wait to see everyone’s!
Readers Makes
I wanted to share some pictures of the awesome makes from some of our readers! All with their permission of course. : )
As you can see – patterns can be interpreted in so many different ways! Keep up the good work everyone! : )
Mr. Ginger
- placement guide – 2017-10-08-O3-Mr Ginger-MCSAL-teadoddles
- pattern pieces – 2017-10-08-O3-pattern-pieces-MCSAL-teadoddles
- pattern pieces REVERSED – 2017-10-08-O3-REVERSE-pattern-pieces-MCSAL-teadoddles
As with the first ornament, I’ve given you a pdf for a placement guide, the pattern pieces, & the pattern pieces in reverse. I did this so you could use the method you prefer to cut out the pieces without having to worry about reversing things.
Special Notes:
- These pieces are not numbered or lettered since they fit on the gingerbread man like clothes. It should be really easy to put them in the right place!
[bctt tweet=”Join the Merry Christmas Sew-Along for some merry ornament making! #merrychristmassal2017″ username=”@teadoddles”]
Cut-Out Ornament Instructions
I used the same technique I used for the first ornament, so I won’t repeat the steps here. You can see the instructions in the first post. Most of the pieces will use smaller scraps, but you will need a 5 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ piece for Mr. Ginger’s body. I’d also like to note that I used Aleene’s Tacky Glue for some of the smaller pieces & the beads & buttons. I found this easier to handle. : )
I also cut off the back of the tiny gingerbread button to make it lay flatter. Heavy duty scissors work best for this even though the button is tiny.
I outlined everything in black thread to give it a more cartoon-y effect. His nose was drawn on with a fine point Sharpie & the smudges were made with a brown color pencil.
This could be taken as a little weird since it’s a gingerbread man making gingerbread man cookies! It could just be how baby gingers are made! ; D
Stuffed Mr. Ginger
I’m going to go ahead and say this did not turn out how I envisioned! I thought it would be fun to make a stuffed version of the ornament, but I did some things out of order & it caused me some issues. Now you get to learn from my mistakes! ; )
I started with the basic shapes & then decided to insert safety eyes – which was my biggest mistake! Those eyes made it so difficult to attach everything else.
I had to attach a piece to the back of the hat to sort of sandwich the head between it all.
I put the whole front on a rectangular piece of fabric slightly bigger than the ornament. Then I stitched it down around the edges leaving an opening for stuffing. Finally I cut away the backing fabric with pinking shears. So many things wrong with this!
I glued on some things to cover up my boo-boos & he looks marginally better now…
These are my suggestions to get a better result ~>
- Don’t use safety eyes! He’s just too small & they really get in the way.
- Lay everything on top of batting first, like the cut-out ornament. Then everything has a solid base to attach to & you can stitch around everything more easily.
- Cut away the batting & then sew it onto the backing fabric, still leaving an opening for stuffing. Trim with the pinking shears & you should have a much better result than me! ; )
Even though this went horribly wrong, at least I learned what not to do & can share it with all of y’all. Yay!
Merry Christmas SAL Giveaway!
This month is the halfway point of the Merry Christmas SAL & I will also celebrate my 40th birthday. To celebrate, Monique & I decided to have a giveaway! Monique found two fun Christmas fat quarter bundles to giveaway & I’m paying for the shipping. Doesn’t that sound awesome? Here’s how to enter the giveaway & all the details ~>
- All entrants must be signed up for the Farm House Quilts newsletter & the Teadoddles newsletter. My sign up form is in my side bar & Monique’s is in the side bar on her blog.
- All entrants must make both ornaments for October. That means if you’re just joining in the fun, start with this month’s ornaments so you can be entered to win. Share a photo of you work in one of these places:
- The Merry Christmas SAL Facebook Group
- Instagram ~ Use the hashtag #merrychristmassal2017 and tag @farmhousequilts & @teadoddles in your ornament photos. Your profile must be public for us to see the photos.
- Email us the pictures ~ Not on social media? That’s okay! Email your photos to:
- mammajamma77@teadoddles.com {Kristie}
- OR
- FarmhousequiltsinLancaster@
gmail.com {Monique}
- This giveaway is open worldwide, so no one gets left out! Yay!
- There will be two winners & each will receive one fat quarter Christmas bundle that contains 5 fat quarters. Monique will choose one winner & I will choose the other.
- You have until October 31st 2017, 11:59 EST to submit pictures of the ornaments you made. Monique’s ornament for this month will be released on October 23rd, which still gives you over a week to complete the ornament & submit pictures.
Here’s a picture of the bundles ~>
Aren’t they awesome? : D Monique took this picture & I think it turned out wonderfully! Good luck to everyone participating & I can’t wait to see everyone’s ornaments!
You’ll be able to find all the links to the ornament posts & other social things on the page for the SAL.
Pin it for later!
