For these Snow Globe ornaments I bought 70 mm fillable clear plastic ornaments.
For each ornament I cut a cardstock circle that sat on the ledge inside the outer half ball. The interior of the ball was less than 70 mm so I couldn't use that dimension when I cut the circles. Instead I took the inside half ball, the one with the ledge on the outside,
laid it on the cardstock and used a fine pencil to draw around it.
Then I cut just a tiny bit inside the pencil line,
so that the circle fit on the ledge without dimpling or falling inside. (It sometime took a few tries to get it just right but after I had one that worked I could use it as a template.)
For each snow globe ornament I used 2 stitched pieces. These ones were stitched on 25 count fabric using an original design that I call Crayon County Snow Globes. Charts for these designs can be found by clicking on the image below.
The stitched design measured about 50 mm across,
and I decided that I would cut them so that cardstock and fabric showing around the stitching would be approximately the same width. I chose to cut them so that the fabric would be 60 mm across. I wanted to back them with white cardstock so I used a circle cutter to cut two 60 mm white cardstock circles.
If I hadn't owned a circle cutter I could have used a compass to draw the circles on the cardstock and then cut them out with scissors.
Before I mounted the fabric on the cardstock I pressed the stitched pieces. I placed them on felt, placed a damp cloth over them and then applied a hot iron.
After they were cool and dry I marked them so that I could more easily center them on the cardstock circles. I placed a pin on the left edge of the stitched design,
placed one of the cardstock circles over the stitched design and used another pin to mark the right edge of the cardstock circle.
When I removed the cardstock circle
I discovered that there were 12 threads between pin and the edge of the stitching.
I used a needle and thread to make a long stitch 6 threads (12 divided by 2) from the outer edge of the stitched piece,
and more long stitches the same distance from the top, left side and bottom of the stitched design.
I laid the stitched piece face down on a piece of felt and applied decoupage medium to the outside edge of one of the cardstock circles. (I chose to use decoupage medium because it is thinner than most glues and I believed that it would soak more into the fibres of the fabric and help prevent fraying.)
I gently laid the cardstock circle, glue side down onto the fabric.
When I was satisfied that it was well centred I put a small clear plastic bag over the cardstock circle and used my fingers to lightly press the cardstock and fabric together. (The main purpose of the plastic bag was to keep me from getting glue all over my fingers and then transferring it where I didn't want it!)
I flipped over the stitched piece, put it in a bag (where I knew there was no glue residue!) and used my finger to firmly press just the unstitched fabric flat against the cardstock circle.
After I repeated these steps for the other stitched piece I laid them both face down on the felt,
covered them with a plastic bag (or plastic film),
weighted them down with a heavy book and left them to dry.
And while we're waiting for them to dry I will demonstrate how I center the cardstock when there isn't an edge to edge design. For the stitched piece below I used a metallic filament thread to mark the centerlines of the stitched piece and a pencil to mark the centerlines on the cardstock circle.
Then I flipped over the stitched piece, applied glue to the other side of the cardstock circle, lined up the centerlines and pressed the circle to the fabric. Before continuing I removed the metallic filament thread.
When the decoupage medium was dry I was ready to proceed.
Because I didn't think that the decoupage medium had completely saturated the fabric threads I also wanted to treat them from the top. I could have used a fine brush to apply more decoupage medium but I instead decided to use a fast drying, fray preventing solution. I used just enough to make sure that the area corresponding to the edge of the cardstock was covered.
When they were dry I was ready to cut the fabric. With the cardstock circle facing me I used long smooth squeezes of the scissors (not choppy snips) to cut exactly along the edge of the cardstock.
When they were both cut I was ready to glue them to the larger, blue cardstock circle.
I again used decoupage medium, but I could have used a thicker glue. I applied it a little more liberally than I had before,
then flipped it over, centered it on the blue cardstock circle, placed a clear plastic bag on top and pressed it firmly in place.
Then I flipped it face down on the felt, covered it with a plastic bag
and weighted it down with a heavy book while it dried.
When it was dry I used a pin to poke a hole in the cardstock to indicate the top center of the fabric piece
and used this mark to find the top center when I glued the second stitched piece to the other side of the blue cardstock circle.
When that was dry I was ready to assemble the ball.
When I made the penguin ornament I used small pearl beads to simulate snow but afterwards I wondered if, over time, they might scratch the inside of the ball. This time I searched for tiny white pompoms but I was unsuccessful. I settled on using tiny foam pellets. I didn't know where I could buy them locally so I bought a dollar store travel pillow, made a small hole in a seam and squeezed some into a bowl.
I set the half ball that had;the inside ledge in a jar lid, so it wouldn't roll around, and placed about a teaspoon of foam pellets in the ball.
Then I used a soft brush to brush away any cut thread debris from both sides of the stitched piece
and carefully laid the cardstock and fabric sandwich in the half ball so that the top of the stitched piece corresponded with the top of the ornament and the cardstock rested on the inside ledge.
Next I carefully piled about a teaspoon of beads onto the top of the stitched design.
I applied a few drops of model cement onto the hanger part of the ball half and
carefully placed the other ball half over the top so that the hanger parts lined up.
I pressed the hanger parts together then snapped the rest of the ball together before I squeezed the hanger part for the length of time indicated on the model cement instructions.
I didn't want to rely on the model cement (I probably shouldn't have bought the child safe version!) so I made sure that my decorative bow was tied tightly.
Pinwheel 2018
(For design. designer information on the ornaments pictured above see Equator Band Ball Ornaments.)
Having now made 5 of these cross stitch ornaments I think the biggest challenge is adapting patterns so that they have the right dimensions to fit on a band that will fit on a ball. I used 2 1/2" diameter foam balls which had a circumference of just under 8 inches and the visible part of the bands have been 15/16 to 1 1/8 inches tall. For other sizes of balls I would aim to have bands where the width of the visible area = the circumference of the ball and the height of the visible area = approximately the width divided by 8. You could use Math to figure out how big to make the band or you could instead use a strip of paper.
To use the strip of paper wrap it around the widest part of the ball, mark it and cut it where it overlaps the beginning of the strip.
The visible area of your stitched band will be as long as this strip and if you fold the strip into 8 equal parts (by folding it in half, then quarters, then eighths) you will know how wide to make your strip.
For my Winter Landscape Ornament the height of the visible part of the band is almost exactly 1/8 of the length of the paper strip and the top and bottom edges of the band fit snuggly to the ball.
For my Skating Party Ornament the height of the visible part of the band is a little taller than 1/8 of the length of the paper strip and the top and bottom edges of the band do not fit snuggly against the ball.
The pattern I used for ornament tutorial below was an adaption of Prairie Schooler #158 "Christmas Eve". The original design area is 155 stitches wide but I knew that on my 22 count hardanger fabric the visible area of the band would be 175 stitches so I shifted elements around to make a design that is 175 stitches wide. If I wanted the design to fit snuggly to the ball I would have made the height of the visible area of the band 175 divided by 8 = approximately 22 stitches tall. I decided to stitch a design that was 23 stitches tall and leave a bit of space above and below the design.
After I finished the cross stitching I basted a line two threads above and two "threads" below the stitched area. I also used the ends of the basting threads to indicate the center of the design.
I sewed strips of contrasting fabric to the top and bottom. My seams were sewn one "thread" inside the lines I basted. This time I used the sewing machine but on some of the other balls I just used a needle and thread to backstitch the seam. (Despite the fuzzy focus I decided that this photo was worth including.)
I trimmed the seams to about 1/4" and pressed them open.
To trim the fabric to the right height for the ball I used the strip of paper to make a pattern that is as wide as the paper strip and as tall as the paper strip folded in half.
After I cut out the pattern I folded it in half to crease a centerline and then laid it on top of the fabric so that the folded centerline of the pattern lined up with the centerline I had basted on the stitched piece.
Then I used the pattern to trim the fabric from the top and bottom edges. (Note that I didn't trim the sides because I need seam allowance but I could have taken this opportunity to mark the seam allowance.)
(Aside. Since my circle template was on my desk I played with the idea of someday making circular padded ornaments using a stitched band and two strips of fabric.)
Then I needed to add the gathering threads for the top and bottom of the ornaments. As I mentioned on an earlier blog post, I have previously used three rows of the short and long stitches that are used to make smocked ornaments but for this ornament I just used a simple running stitch. For demonstration purposes I decided to make one line of gathers on the bottom edge and 2 parallel lines of gathers on the top edge.
To make sure that the gathering threads for the top would line up and make nice straight pleats I made a stitch guide. On a previous ornament I made the guide by placing translucent tape on my quilting ruler and marking the 1/4" lines on the tape.
Then I placed the tape on the fabric.
This time I used a 1/2 inch wide strip of 1/4" graph paper. I cut it the graph paper strip the exact length of my paper pattern (ball circumference) but I also double checked that it was the same length as my stitched design.
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I used double sided tape to adhere the strip of graph paper to the fabric. (If I hadn't had double sided tape I would have basted it in place.) I placed the guide approx. 1/8 of an inch from the edge of the fabric and made sure that the ends of the strip corresponded to the ends of my stitched design/ future seam. (Since I hadn't previously marked my seam allowance I used my quilt ruler to determine the placement of the future seam.)
Then I was ready to make my gathering stitches. I began by poking my needle into the fabric just inside the graph paper guide (so it wouldn't be on or inside the future seam) and I made 2 stitches every 1/4 inch.
I also made sure that I finished just before the end of the graph paper guide (so that the end wouldn't be on or inside the future seam) and that I finished with my thread on top.
Then I used the guide to make the second line of gathering stitches that exactly matched the ups and downs of the first line of gathering thread.
Making the single line gathering stitches along the bottom edge was more straight forward but I again used my quilting ruler to make sure that the thread started and ended just inside where the seam will be,
and I made sure that the thread ends were on the top of the fabric.
After the gathering threads were in place I sewed the two ends of the strip together to make a tube. I used a double running stitch,
then trimmed and pressed the seam.
I turned the tube right side out and then inserted and centered the ball. (The ball is centered when the fabric meets in the middle exactly the same on the top and the bottom.) I also checked that the seams were still flat open.
When I am gathering fabric into a tight circle I like to make a second line of gathering that exactly matches the first. (Because: the thread is less apt to snap and if it does I can easily recover the pleats; the thread is less apt to fray the fabric; and it is easier to maintain a tight circle while I tie the knot.) To make the second line of gathering I threaded one thread end onto my needle and continued the stitching on the other side of the seam.
I went about halfway around with that thread end and then stitched the second thread end around towards it. When they met up ...
I gently pulled on the 2 thread ends to make a very tight little circle of fabric.
When it was as tight as possible I knotted and cut the thread and then use the eye end of my needle to "comb" the gathers into more even pleats. This is what the bottom looked like after it was gathered and "combed".
After I had gathered and tied the top thread on the top of the ornament I drew up the second row of gathers. Even before I "combed" the pleats they were neater than the bottom but they too benefitted from a bit of adjusting.
These photos show the difference between having the two rows of gathers on the top and the one row of gathers on the bottom. With a single row of gathers the soft pleats resembles a puffy fabric yoyo. With the double row of gathers the more sharply defined pleats better follow the curves of the ball and resemble the spokes of a wagon wheel.
I knew that when I removed the second line of gathering from the top the pleats they would be better defined than the bottom pleats, but not as defined as they had been before I removed the gathering threads. To help maintain the pleats I misted the top of the ornament with spray starch and dried it with a hair dryer before I removed the gathering threads. (I wouldn't have used the spray starch if I had suspected that the threads might not be colorfast.)
I have previously explored many different ways of capping the top and bottom of smocked ornaments. This time I decided that I would use simple wood buttons. When I use buttons I usually choose ones that are a little concave and then install them upside down.
Before gluing the buttons to the ornament I used some pearl cotton thread to stitch the buttons and to make a hanger. Then I applied a minimal amount of fast drying FabricTac glue to the buttons, pressed them firmly to the ornament and checked to make sure that no excess glue had squeezed out. If any excess glue had squeezed out I would have used a toothpick to ease it back under the ornament and then pressed the buttons down again. (This is a little easier to do with white glue and if one chooses to use white glue they can use angled pins to hold the buttons firmly against the ball while the glue dries.)
These photos again illustrate the difference between the one and two rows of gathers.
Either method works well so the choice is just a matter of the look one wants to achieve. (If one wants even more well defined pleats they can use well matched thread to make 3 rows of smocking gathering, as I did on my first ornament experiment. Because the threads barely show as points between the pleats they can be left in place on the finished ornament.)
And this is how the design straddles the seam.
On this ornament there is a noticeable waviness where the stitched band meets the fabric strips. At first this puzzled me because although it is one of the taller bands it is the exact same height as the Skating Party band. I also considered that the stitched bands might be different widths but the visible area on both is 175 stitches. Then I concluded that it must have something to do with the fabric. On the Skating Party ornament both the cross stitch fabric and the added fabric are a little stiffer than the fabrics used on this ornament. In future if I use taller bands, that won't fit snuggly to the ball, I will probably stiffen the stitched band with iron on interfacing. (If I were going to stitch this same design again I would probably adjust the pattern up to 200 stitches and stitch it on 25 count fabric.)
