DIY Disney Ornaments : Add Some Magic to Your Tree

Happy New Year! The first two months of the year don’t really count. It’s cold, at least where I live, and there are numerous interruptions to our schedules like snow days, sick days and new PBS Masterpiece shows to binge watch. Therefore, I think you need at least 8 weeks to get a true feel for what the new year is all about before you can set meaningful goals. If you’ve already broken your new year’s resolutions based on the January approach, you know what I mean. Consider this a fresh start. You’re welcome.

One of my goals for 2017 is to exercise more creativity. Writing, painting, crafting and other words that make my husband nervous have been downsized to a tiny compartment of my being for far too long. It’s time to grow, laugh and play more. The only (primary?) problem is my mind is way more ambitious than my skill level or my patience. But it’s a new year. So, alas, I craft.

Photo from disneystore.com

Over the holidays, I noticed these adorable ornaments at Disneystore.com. I have secret dreams of decorating an entire tree exclusively with Disney characters. I currently have maybe three that would qualify, so that would make one sorry little tree. These cute ones at the Disney Store are small and relatively expensive ($17 each), which would evolve my holiday display into one very expensive sorry little tree. I really like how these particular ornaments are lightweight and unbreakable, unlike many of the other ones Disney offers.  So, I thought. Why not make some of these myself? (I’m being rhetorical, no need to respond.)

I started with the materials I already had on hand, which included a surprising amount of felt (have I walked this path before?) as well as freezer paper, thread, pins, needles, fabric paint and an image of my goal. I should point out that these are entirely for my own purposes, not to sell, so it’s not like I’m pulling something over on Disney.

Photo from Disneystore.com

First up: Winnie the Pooh. Please include the “Winnie” when you address him instead of shortening it to just the last word. Thank you. Isn’t he cute?

My first step in recreating Winnie the Pooh was to create a pattern. I pulled out a piece of freezer paper and measured off a 5 ½” section, to match the dimensions of original. Then I sketched the outline of Winnie. It took a few tries. The hardest part was the head shape. It doesn’t have to be perfect though. That’s part of the appeal of having something handmade, right? I like freezer paper for patterns because it’s easy to sketch on and the smooth side lays flat on the fabric, but you can obviously use whatever paper you have.

Then I cut out the pattern and pinned it onto the felt. I doubled up the felt so I’d only have to cut once to get both pieces (front and back) for the ornament. Next I trimmed the felt around the pattern, leaving about ¼” of a border.

My next step was adding his face. I opened the two pieces of fabric and turned one of them over to sew the face on the correct side. I used black embroidery thread, rather than my 3D fabric paint, because I thought it more closely resembled the look of the original ornament. Either option would work. I stitched the eyes first, making small horizontal lines of gradually increasing and then decreasing lengths to resemble a circle. Then I stitched the mouth, because I think it is easier to center the nose after the mouth is already in place. After the nose, I added his eyebrows.

It’s far from perfect, but I think he’d pass for Winnie the Pooh in a line up.

After I finished sewing the face, I put the two pieces of felt back together with the “face” side down. Then I pinned him back together and sewed around the outside edge. You can save some time here by using a sewing machine if you have one. I do, but I forget how to thread it and it’s in my basement, so I stitched this by hand. Whichever you choose, make sure you stitch pretty thoroughly. The ornament will be stretched when you flip it inside out and stuff it will filling, so you don’t want it to fall apart.  I finished stitching around the perimeter of the ornament, leaving one of his arms open. Then I switched the fabric inside out.

Next, I created his jacket. I didn’t have any fancy chenille like they used on the original, so I used red felt. I again made a pattern, pinned it to the felt and trimmed around it. This time I folded over the felt to serve as the tops of the sleeves to save me some time sewing and help with the fit. Then I stitched up the sides of the shirt, flipped it inside out and set it aside.

This was about the time that I remembered I don’t really enjoy crafting, so I took a break and returned the next day. Honestly, it helped to know that the next step involved stuffing something.

I used basic Poly-fil I bought at the grocery store that morning to start filling out Winnie the Pooh’s shape. Winnie is known for his love of honey and the resulting waistline, so I spent some time here trying to get the belly as full as I could. Then I stitched the rest of the ornament closed. These stitches show more prominently than my previous ones, but most of them will be covered by the shirt.

Next step was to put on the shirt. The sleeves were a tad too long after I put it on, so I carefully trimmed them down. The shirt was a little too long too, but I didn’t want to trim it and risk messing up the project so close to the end. Instead, I folded the bottom of the shirt and tucked it under itself. I kind of like how to turned out because it makes the shirt look tighter across his belly in true Winnie the Pooh fashion.

The final step was to create the tag and the hanger. I used card stock and more embroidery thread. I changed the message on the tag from the original ornament to reflect the year, since I’ve already established I’m not a fan of calling Winnie by his last name. Then I ran the thread through a loop near the back top of his head so the ornament would hang straight.

And that’s it. Here’s Winnie. I won’t win any awards, but I’m happy to be one step closer to decorating my Disney tree.  It’s early enough in the year that maybe I can make him some friends by the holidays.

If I can do it, you can too… probably better! Add a little (more) magic to your Christmas tree.