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Christmas Craft Tutorial Holiday Project Highlights Holidays

Gingerbread Man Christmas Ornaments

While brainstorming for a fun ornament to make this year, I thought back to what my grandparents and great grandparents would have done during tough times, like many people are facing these days. I decided to only use things that I already had and pulled out my box of miscellaneous craft supplies. Within the slew of things I found brown felt, embroidery floss, ribbon and buttons. What could I make with this?

gingerbread-men-ornaments
A Gingerbread Man!

Safe enough to have around with the pooch, easy to make, and most of all…festive and cute! You can adapt this to make with kids by cutting shapes out of felt to glue onto the gingerbread man shape. I decided to put these all over my tree and made them with some simple sewing. The perfect craft to do while watching Christmas movies 🙂

 

What You Need to make a Gingerbread Man Christmas Ornament

  • Brown Felt
  • Gingerbread Man Shape Template (FREE Download in The Printable Vault)
  • Scissors
  • Small Buttons
  • Embroidery Thread (cream, or whichever colour you prefer)
  • Embroidery Needle
  • Thin Velvet Ribbon (to hang the ornament)
  • Brown Thread
  • Sewing Machine

 

Print out the Gingerbread Man Template (FREE download in The Printables Vault) to your desired size and cut it out. Pin the template to the brown felt, cutting two pieces for every gingerbread man you would like to make.

 

For the buttons, I went to my Great Grandmother’s trusty Button Tin, full of buttons that have been collected for the past four generations.

 

Back then, my Great Grandmother would cut the buttons off of any garment before it would make it to the trash bin (or more likely, the rag bin to be reused again for cleaning). I still keep all the buttons from things before I through them out and have started a little bag of buttons at my own apartment. You never know when you need buttons to repair a shirt, or for a project like this!

 

I looked for buttons that were proportionate to the ornament, similar in size, but varied in colour.

 

gingerbread-men-ornaments
Using the embroidery thread, sew the buttons in place.

 

gingerbread-men-ornaments
 Create the mouth with 2 slanted stitches with the embroidery thread.
 

 

gingerbread-men-ornaments
The eyes can be made with a simple French knot using the embroidery thread.

 


How to Make a French Knot: Bring embroidery floss out at the spot where you would like the eye. Hold the embroidery thread down with you thumb and encircle the needle 2-3 times. Still holding the embroidery thread, pull up and gently allow a knot to form. Push the needle back in the felt near the original entry point, being carefully not to pull the entire knot through to the backside.
 
gingerbread-men-ornaments

Pin a 6″ piece of the ribbon in a loop at the top of the head. Pin a blank gingerbread man shape to the back of the button one.

gingerbread-men-ornaments

Using brown thread on a sewing machine, stitch 1/8″ in from the edge around the entire shape. Don’t worry if its not perfect because you can cover mistakes with the stitching later. If you would like to stuff it slightly to make it a little puffy, you can do so now, by leaving a 1/2″ hole in the stitches on one side. Then lightly stuff the shape and sew the hole by hand.

 

gingerbread-men-ornaments
Trim any excess thread or felt that doesn’t line up.

 

gingerbread-men-ornaments

Using the embroidery thread, do a running stitch all around the shape. To do a running stitch, pass the needle in and out of the felt, making the surface stitches of equal length. The stitches on the underside should also be of equal length, but half the size or less than the upper stitches

 

gingerbread-men-ornaments
Here is a gingerbread man from start to finish.

 

gingerbread-men-ornaments

And there you have it! A simple, yet cute Gingerbread Man Ornament! You can get creative and add anything you’d like to it. Rickrack lines on the arms and legs? A cute little bow tie? Anything will do 🙂

 

Here they are on the Christmas tree, looking fun and festive. I made 9 to go around my tree, but the great thing is that they are easy to whip up more for another year with a bigger tree.

You could also use them as tags on gifts!

 

MORE HANDMADE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

  • santa-cheeks-christmas-ornament
    Squeeze Santa’s Cheeks Ornament
  • dried-orange-slice-ornaments
    Dried Orange Slice Ornaments
  • handstitched-babys-first-christmas
    Hand Stitched Baby’s First Christmas Ornament
  • simple-felt-ornaments
    Simple Felt Ornaments
  • christmas-gender-reveal-ornament
    Christmas Ornament Gender Reveal
  • Sparkly Clothespin Snowflakes
    Sparkly Clothespin Snowflakes
  • mini-yarn-ornaments-feature
    Mini Yarn Hat Christmas Ornaments

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Comments

  1. Serendipity Chic Decor says

    December 2, 2010 at 7:11 pm

    There is nothing better than the classic gingerbread man. Just adorable. I am jealous of that great stash of buttons you have.

    Take care,
    Lisa

  2. Gail says

    December 2, 2010 at 7:52 pm

    He’s so cute! I’ve enjoyed your blog and have become one of your newest followers. Thanks for your visit and leaving such a sweet comment.

    Enjoy your day,
    Gail

  3. AllieMakes! says

    December 3, 2010 at 4:48 am

    Welcome to the party! The little men are adorable! Excellent job!
    Thanks for linking up to Making It With Allie! I can’t wait to see what you have for next week!
    AllieMakes.Blogspot.com

  4. The homebodies says

    December 3, 2010 at 8:55 pm

    Cute! The white stitching around the whole thing really gives it charm! I love it!

    -Rochelle @ http://homesweethomebodies.blogspot.com/

  5. ♥ Carine Calé ♥ says

    December 5, 2010 at 9:33 am

    Congratulations, great tutorial!!!

    Carine

  6. Lisa says

    December 8, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    Adorable! I love it! I’ve been thinking about trying one with an old sweater, but still trying to figure out how to make it!

  7. Tardevil says

    January 12, 2011 at 5:40 am

    Thanks for the tute! They’re too cute!

  8. Sarah Gill says

    November 21, 2011 at 6:12 pm

    They are definitely cute, who doesn’t love gingerbread!
    Perfect for a country christmas tree too!
    Thanks so much for linking up to Make the Scene Monday!

  9. Steph says

    December 7, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    Just wanted to say thanks for creating the gingerbread man template! I used it for a paper craft here: http://www.sillypearl.com/2011/12/silly-gingerbread-man-gift-card-holder.html

    Thanks for making my holiday much happier! :o)

Trackbacks

  1. It feels like Christmas! - Small Home Big Start says:
    November 4, 2013 at 2:37 pm

    […] I decorated the tree with gold and red Christmas balls in various sizes, red fake holly and little handsewn gingerbread men ornaments. […]

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