Hand-Sewn Donut Ornaments
These hand-sewn donut ornaments are so adorable and easy to make, too!
Okay friends, I mentioned before here that we decorated our Christmas tree with donut ornaments, and today I'm excited to share the cute ornaments that I made! I know I usually stick to food here on the blog, but I'm actually pretty into crafting and sewing, so I figured a food-related craft would be perfect to share. These donut ornaments are so cute, and surprisingly easy to make! I got the idea for these cuties from my niece Suzie, who taught my kids to hand-sew last year (and made me realize how remiss I have been in their sewing education). She gave us the cutest handmade donut ornament for our tree last year, and I knew that this year I wanted to replicate it and make a whole tree full of donuts!
These ornaments are completely hand sewn, which makes them the perfect project to do while you're watching a movie or listening to a great podcast. Each ornament takes about an hour to make, but they go a lot faster if you assembly-line them. They are so adorable and add a perfect touch of handmade charm to the tree!
Hand-Sewn Donut Ornaments
To make these ornaments, you'll need the following:
- felt sheets (I just used the cheap ones from Michael's)
- embroidery floss in a variety of colors
- scissors
- embroidery needles
- stuffing (I used Poly-fil but you could easily just pull apart some cotton balls)
- donut pattern pieces (click the print button in the right upper corner, and print on card stock)
To start with, cut the pattern pieces out of the felt. We stuck with tan and brown donuts, and white, pink, and dark brown frosting, but you can go as crazy as you like with fun color combinations. They're donuts, after all!
Next, you'll start sewing the sprinkles to the frosting piece. I used three strands of embroidery floss, and just did straight stitches at random.
When you've finished your first color, tie it off, and start again with a new color. We did pink, dark pink, yellow, blue, and brown sprinkles, but again, you can use whatever colors you like.
The back will be a hot mess, but it will be totally hidden in the finished product. No worries!
Next, stack your two donut pieces together and line up the frosting piece on top. Blanket stitch around all three layers of the inside of the donut using three strands of embroidery floss. If you're not familiar with blanket stitching, no worries! It's super easy (both my ten year old and my six year old can do it) and here is an excellent video tutorial.
Once you've stitched all the way around the middle, tie off your thread. The next step is to attach the outside edge of your frosting to the top donut piece. You'll use the blanket stitch again, but this time as an applique. It's very similar to what you did in the middle of the donut, but here's another great video tutorial to help you if you get stuck. Make sure that you are only stitching through the top layer of the donut, so there's room to stuff the donut later.
Next, you'll blanket stitch around the outside of the donut, again using three strands of embroidery floss. By this point, you are probably a blanket stitch expert! :)
Stop when you're about an inch and a half away from where you started, so you have room to stuff it.
You can use ribbon to hang your ornament if you want things to be a little bit easier, or you can make a braided ornament hanger loop like I did. I just used three full pieces of embroidery floss, tied a knot at the end, and braided them together. My finished braid was about seven inches long. Tie a knot at the other end when you're finished, and you're all set!
Sew the ornament hanger into place with a few quick stitches to keep it secure.
Next, stuff your ornament! It's better not to overstuff it, or it will be weird and bulgy. You can use a knitting needle or chopstick to shove the stuffing into the far side of the donut.
When it's all stuffed, finish blanket stitching the opening closed, and you're all set!
Seriously, how cute are these ornaments? They're so fun to make, too!
I'm definitely not winning any awards for my tree decorating (and my kids are obviously not great at evenly spacing the ornaments), but these donuts look so cute on the actual tree!
These donut ornaments are the perfect fun way to brighten up your tree this year!
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