It took a few years for me to commit to the detailed undertaking of a set of 12 embroidered felt ornaments for Christmas. The patterns were pricey, and the required materials made them more so. I decided that the project would be my treat to myself, and hopefully I would be able to complete them well enough to make them an heirloom item for my family to enjoy for years to come.

Between the winter of 2023 and spring of 2024 I completed the 12¹ ornaments, one for each gift of the traditional song².

After a bit of a break I have decided to start a second round of the ornaments, which explains the two turtle doves in the second picture.

I made a decision to take no lead from the colours of my original set of 12, but to stay within the palette of felt colours that I had already set out to match my decor. I’ve laid out a page that summarises all of my materials and the project plans so that I can keep track of the ornaments and wool felt colours and their matching embroidery threads, to make it easy for me if I need to pick up some threads whilst I am at the craft store, or to make reordering easier.

I’ve also decided to add some beads to this second round of ornaments, because I don’t particularly enjoy making the same project more than once, and I want each of the finished decorations to be unique in itself.

Though the beading is taking longer than the embroidery, I am enjoying the additional dimensionality that it is lending, plus it’s keeping my interest in the project fresh.

On the third round (as per the project notes, I’ll be making six and a half rounds of twelve, eventually) I may return to embroidery only, and then interchange with beaded decorations as the project advances, or maybe I’ll have a different idea completely by then.

At the time of writing I have completed the first of the Round 2 ornaments (a turtle dove) and have finished the embroider, beading and cutting out of the French Hen through to the Swan. Once those are all sewn together I am going to have another little break for some there projects before continuing with the ‘people’ ornaments of Days 8-12.

This project is going to take me a few years to complete, but I hope to make something really special by the end of it, and end with a set of 78 ornaments to cherish. As it’s going to be an ongoing project I have put a section on the front page of the website with a progress tracker, which leads through to a page with the project notes and figures.

– Mimi

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1. Actually 14 ornaments, as both the partridge and the goose have additional accompanying ornaments (a pear and an egg, respectively). ↩︎
2. I have chosen to make the ornaments in the order that my family knows, which is a modern ordering and different from the earlier lyrics and pattern instructions, but I think better known here in the UK. ↩︎