Felt Christmas tree and bauble ornament bunting decoration

I love crafting for Christmas, I think it's so nice to be able to get out the same, familiar homemade decorations year after year. When you bring them out just once a year I think that you appreciate them more, and they brings back all the memories of years gone by.

This felt Christmas bunting was one of many crafts that I've been working on this year in an attempt to use up some of my various craft stashes. To make this bunting I used green and purple felt in various shades, some gold ric rac trim, coloured plastic buttons, toy stuffing and a length of dark red ribbon.

The bunting is padded and is double sided, so I'm intending to hang it in my front window so that it can be enjoyed from both outside and inside. I made four Christmas trees and four baubles to alternate along the ribbon and they each measure about 12cm in height.

I began with the Christmas trees. I took inspiration for the shape of the tree from these DIY Felt Christmas ornaments and I was pleased to find that I also had some star shaped buttons in my stash. I used them on both sides of the bunting, and they work well to conceal the stitches used to attach the ribbon. I also used blanket stitch around the edges but my thread colour is closer to that of the felt so it's not as visible. A good thing, as I find blanket stitch tricky to create a neat finish when it comes to starting and finishing a length of thread! 

I found the gold ric rac in my stash too, and luckily I had just enough for all four trees. I sewed the ric rac and the buttons to the tree shapes before sewing the two sides together, adding a little bit of stuffing towards the end. Then I attached the star button to the top on one side, sewing on the second button after I had attached the ribbon to hide the stitches.

Then I made my four ornaments. Again I sewed the buttons and did all the embroidery before sewing the two pieces together and adding stuffing. I tried to make each one different yet similar enough that the worked well together. They have a contrasting felt circle sewn to the middle, using two colours based on what I had in my felt stash!

The final step was to add the ribbon. I sewed the top of each felt creation to the ribbon, and then I added a second star shaped button to hide the stitches.

This Christmas bunting would work well to decorate a fireplace but I'm planning to use it in a window. I think I'm going to buy some small suction cups that will stick to the window, and then maybe I can add some fairy lights as well!