Crochet decorations

The Christmas decorations are all packed away for another year in readiness for welcoming in 2018. Before they all got sent off to the loft I managed to snap a few photos of some of my crochet (and one knitted) decorations.

These little thread crochet stockings may be the first tree ornaments I ever crocheted and were simple to make up with a heel worked in too. The pattern is by Karen Perkins.

These ginger bread men are also some of my first - you can tell as they date back to when I only ever worked in one loop so my crochet in rows looked corrugated! Pattern by Priscilla Hewitt.

This is my crochet poinsettia - made using the lovely pattern by June Gilbank but with thread instead of yarn so it would fit on my Christmas tree.

I've made so many of these lovely crochet granny squares over the years, they look very lovely in crochet thread and also show up beautifully on a tree when made up in white cotton. 

Pattern by Michelle Kludas from the Royal Sisters blog.

Next up are these very quick and satisfying to make simple crochet baubles pattern by Lucy of Attic24.

These little Christmas trees were designed by myself 10 years ago - one of the first patterns I wrote up and shared. Pattern can still be found here on the CrochetMe site.

Aww - this little bear bauble still makes me smile each year with his snuggly blue striped scarf wrapping him up. Pattern by Stephanie Jessica Lau.

Another favourite are these snow men ornaments - they turned out so very cute (unfortunately I didn't think to keep any for my own tree, all of these made friends in new homes). Pattern by Audra Brown and available as a free Ravelry download - you may need a Ravelry account to access this one.

This is one of my few knitted decorations - made after my visit to the first Yarndale back in 2013. Pattern was published in the Yarndale program that year. I really love this pretty bauble and if it hadn't taken me about 5 hours to make I would have covered my tree with more :-)

Last decoration now - these are the holly leaves I made up this year as presents (as well as making up so many felt hearts) - simple and pretty from the holly pattern by Lucy of Attic24.

Even more decorations

This year I finally got around to photographing some of the handmade Christmas tree decorations I've made over the years for our family tree. I've focused on just the felt decorations this time, I'll also try and take some more photos of a few of the yarn ones as well.

I made a batch of these pretty white decorations back in 2012 (original blog post) inspired by the decorations shown in the Christmas 2011 Mollie Makes issue.

These delicate little bells decorated with buttons were made about 3 years ago, I made them from a pattern in one of my craft magazines but can't remember which one now!

I absolutely love this little felt gingerbread house decoration (original blog post) this one is from a pattern in "Fa la la felt" a fabulous book packed with beautiful felty Christmas goodness.

This little Christmas Scotty dog was made a joke for my husband (original blog post) - he had thought a 'Poinsetter' was a type of dog, so I made him this and told him that was what it was :-)

These stars are what I made and gave out to family last year. They turned out very pretty with some Christmas fabric from one of my sisters and a tiny wooden star button sewn on.

This snowflake bauble was from another year... I borrowed a friend's diecast machine and couldn't stop cutting out these pretty snowflakes. They were quick to sew on with a bit of silver thread and some little silver star sequins as well to add some extra sparkle.

These two gorgeous felt decorations are full of character and detail. They are both from kits by paper-and-string - she does such beautiful and well thought out patterns. (Original Christmas pudding post)

This simple and pleasing felt tree decoration is another one from "Fa la la felt" - I love the vivid pink with the green and the free hand swirls in contrasting colour on each side (original blog post).

This little stocking was a quick attempt at a Pusheen style decoration for my husband who loves the silly and cute cartoons... didn't quite turn out as well as I had wanted... would have been better out of the stocking and looking plumper.

These two felt decorations I made back in 2010 (original blog post) using a pattern in the December 2010 issue of Sew Hip magazine. I love the ric-rack detail across the middle and the little bit of embroidery at the top of the baubles.

Last one to share with you... these stars I made many years ago to decorate our first Christmas tree together - probably back in 2006. They are as simple as they look - just a simple star shape with some sequins added for a little bit of extra sparkle. The sequins catch the light from the tree lights and I love seeing them up on our tree each year.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at some of my past tree decorations - can you tell how much I love working with felt? I'll get some more photos taken of my yarny ornaments to share soon too :-)

After a bit more sewing I've finished my little deer decoration.

He has a very sweet little embroidered blanket/saddle with gold thread details. He also has a pompom collar with thread tassels attached.

I'm super pleased with him and he is now hanging happily on our very full Christmas tree :-)

Happy Christmas!

I've been trying to finish up this adorable little reindeer felt tree decoration, and I'm very almost there...

I'm a little stuck with the gold embroidery on his blanket saddle so I thought I would just share a photo of him unadorned as he is beautiful already.

He has been made from the lovely kit which came with issue 86 of Mollie Makes.

Crazy Christmas crafting

I've been a busy embroidering bee over the last two months making up a lovely stack of these Nordic style snowflake hearts. For each heart I free hand embroidered the snowflake before blanket stitching together and filling with stuffing.

I'm delighted with how they came out, these are on their way to new homes right now to help make lots of friends and family's trees a tiny bit more Christmasy.