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Felt decorations

Bursting with cheerful colour and homespun charm, these felt decorations couldn’t be simpler, and they are a great way of involving children in pre-Christmas preparations.

You will need

 Felt, which is generally much cheaper when sold by the metre than in smaller squares

 Ribbon (ideally recycled lengths from your stash of ribbons)

 Stewing threads in contrasting colours to felt

 sequins (optinal)

To make a felt decoration

• Using a paper pattern only where really necessary (there are templates for the decorations shown here), cut out the decorations, using two layers of felt for each one. For the heart, you could cut out some of the pieces of felt using pinking shears to add a pretty, zig-zag edging.

• Sew the pieces together by stitching around the edge in tiny running stitches. Use a contrasting colour to add some basic but attractive decoration. Secure a loop of pretty ribbon at the top edge as you are sewing.

Star, heart and stocking decorations

• These three lovely decorations are shown. We used chain stitch to decorate the star, heart and stocking with words.

• For the stocking, use the template. Start by attaching some white felt (the cuff) to each piece of red by working a row of chain stitch across the bottom edge of the white cuff. Then stitch the red pieces together by sewing around the outer edges in running stitch, but leave the top open. Attach the ribbon loop to the corner of the top back edge. Work a row of running stitches across the top of each side of the stocking to secure the white cuff. There should be plenty of space for a chocolate!

Bauble decoration

• Cut out two circles freehand or use the template. Join the circles by sewing around the outside with running stitch, leaving a space about 2cm (¾in) wide to add stuffing.

• After stuffing with kapok (toy stuffing) or a clean pair of tights, continue sewing up the gap with running stitch, adding the ribbon loop for hanging.

Holly decoration

• Use the templates. Cut out two pieces of green felt using the leaf template, and sew veins onto them using small back stitches. Cut out two or three red berries using the berry template, and stitch to the top near the ribbon. Sew the leaves together, sewing in a loop at the top.

Adding sequins

• We sewed sequins to the bauble and Christmas tree. Using a continuous thread, and the sequins randomly all over the decoration. Or you could add the sequins before stitching the felt pieces together.