This weekend I finally got around to repurposing some cross stitch holiday cards into a Christmas embroidery hoop DIY. If you already have a crafter amongst your family or friends you may already have some of these cross stitch cards that you can transform into DIY Christmas ornaments.
If not, you can easily get mini cross stitch kits, in particular, Christmas themed ones, from hobby shops or online. I’ve bought ones from Hobbycraft (I’m in the UK) before. Or, just use pretty fabric with a small design on it.
So, I had a stash of cross-stitched cards that my mum had sent to me over the years. Each year I would pack them away along with the decorations vowing to do something with them so they were displayed more prominently and could become a permanent part of our Christmas celebrations.
Finally, this year I got myself into gear in November so I would have time before the holiday madness began to make these embroidery hoop decorations.
All you need:
- cross-stitched picture or pretty fabric
- embroidery hoop
- ribbon
- scissors
- glue
How to make your Christmas embroidery hoop DIY
If your cross-stitch picture is still in the card frame, make sure you carefully remove it without damaging the picture.
Place the design so that it is central over the inner embroidery hoop ring. Secure the outer hoop around it making sure to pull the fabric tight on the back to give a flat finish.
Cut off the excess fabric from the back of the frame. You can at this point glue a felt circle to the back of the frame for a neat finish.
Glue contrasting ribbon, ric rac or pom pom trim around the edge of the hoop.
Tie a cute bow or loop depending how you wish to display your finished holiday decorations. They can be on a wall, branch or your tree.
