DIY Matryoshka Fabric Ornament

It's that time again.

Ornament time!

I thought I'd pop in today with a little tutorial on how to make this matryoshka doll ornament.

To begin, assemble the following:

• any image cut out of fabric (I used the fabric on the right to cut out the doll on the left)
• two pieces of felt cut out so that there is an extra 1/4 inch around the edges of the image
• craft glue
• sequins
• thread (you can either use embroidery floss or regular thread)
• seed beads
• small-eyed (beading) needle
• ribbon (6 inches long)
• fiberfill (aka stuffing)

My apologies for the slight fuzziness of the pictures.  It was very dark and gloomy here in Ohio today but I decided to use natural light anyway.

Start with your image and the two pieces of felt:

Glue the fabric to the felt using craft glue.  It's a good idea to smear the glue right to the edges.

Next, do all of your beading.  Remember that to keep sequins on, you don't go back through the bead when you sew back through the sequin.

Overlap the fabric a smidge with each sequin because the stuffing will pull the sequins away from the image.

(Once you've beaded to your heart's desire, you can trim up the felt if you need to. Mine wasn't perfect, but I didn't trim it.)

Pick up the other piece of felt and sew the ribbon to it.  The ribbon will be sandwiched between the layers.  Be sure the ribbon is on top of the back piece, especially if your pattern is asymmetrical!

Put the beaded side on top and start sewing the two pieces of felt together around the circumference of your ornament.  I used regular thread and a very small whipstitch (the stitches were maybe 1/8" long).

You still need to stuff your ornament, so stop about an inch from the beginning (or I guess you could call it the end?) and stuff:

Once you've stuffed, sew the rest of the way around to close the opening and knot off the thread.

I like to put the year on the back of my ornaments -- just in case future generations care to know when their great-granny made that old sequinned matryoshka.  For this, I used one strand of embroidery floss because I was too lazy to find a larger needle, but I highly suggest using at least two strands of floss.

Tada!

It would have been super cute to hang a small bell off of the bottom, don't you think?

This ornament was inspired by some antique felt ornaments I have.  When I get the chance, I'll be sure to post a picture or two.  (Update -- Here are the vintage ornament pics.)

Let me know if any part of this is unclear or I left out any important details.  Unfortunately, I don't know the designer of this particular doll-print fabric, but there are all sorts of Russian doll prints available if you make a quick internet search.  (The size of this ornament is about 2" tall.)

Last week, I used this same fabric to make mini plush dolls.  (They are currently for sale here at my Etsy shop.)  And I'm thinking about using it to make a crinkle toy or two.  Isn't it amazing what you can do with 1/4 yard of fabric?

Are you as crazy about felt ornaments as I am?  Here are more ornament idea posts from last year:

"1st Christmas" felt stocking
Felt mittens
Sequin angel