Finished decoration

Making little tree decorations only takes an hour or so and gives your tree a personal touch.

Choose fabric in keeping with any colour scheme that you have and use all those bits of scrap as stuffing. I made a cute little heart and plan on making a star for the top of the tree.

You will need

• Material
• Pins
• Needle and thread
• Ribbon for the bow and the loop
• Scissors
• Scraps for stuffing

How to make it

1. Take a piece of material and fold it in half.
2. From the fold in the material, cut a half heart shape away from the fold. When you open it out, you will have the full heart shape. I cut my shapes free hand but you may want to draw a template as a guide first.
3. Use this first half as a template for the matching side to make sure they are the same.
4. Pin the two heart shapes together with the wrong side on the outside. You will be turning the heart inside out once stitched.
5. Stitch around the shape of the heart carefully. You will need to stitch about 5mm from the edge, as the material will have frayed when you cut it. Make sure there are no gaps. I did this by hand but of course you could use a machine.
6. Leave a 3cm gap in the stitching and then pull the heart inside out. Check the shape by pushing your fingers along the seam.
7. Make a loop to hang the decoration and stitch it to the heart.
8. Gather all your scrap material and stuff it inside the heart making sure you push it right into the seam. Fill it up to your own taste checking the shape as you go.
9. Once you are happy with the shape, stitch up the 3cm hole that was left. I turned the edges in on themselves first. Try keep it as neat as possible.
10. If you would like, make an extra bow for the decoration and stitch this on top of the loop.

Hang it on your tree!

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