Finishing!

Trust me, I know how scary finishing can be!  I was scared too with the finishing of my Christmas ornaments, but it doesn't have to be.  I am no expert, but I will tell you how I finished mine and will provide links to other sites that have more qualified instructions!  Just know that you CAN do it, and just give yourself lots of time.  If you want a great looking ornament, you need to know you can't take shortcuts.  A quality look takes patience more than anything else!

For New Century, Gaelic Christmas and Noel, I used the same process.  What I did was (the velvet ones came with precut mounting board...contact Kim) cut the mounting board to fit the design.  If not using premade ornaments, cut the same shape again and cover with a contrasting fabric.

  I held the mounting board and the fabric in front of it, to the light to centre the design, then trimmed the excess fabric away to 1/2 - 1 inch.  To ensure smooth edges, you need to make about 1/4 inch cuts in the fabric all the way around.  I smeared a craft glue stick around the edges, folded the fabric over, and centred it on the mounting board..  You may also use tape to hold the fabric more firmly.  

Using white craft glue or a glue gun (but I'm never fast enough with the centering and it comes out lumpy)  spread a thin layer over the backing and place the two together.  Immediately place under something heavy and leave to dry.  I left mine for a couple of hours, but it may not take that long.

After they are dry, I put gold cording around the design and you can either stitch it, or glue it in place.  A good way to do this is to make your own cording from floss in colours that you have used in your ornament, make a loop at the top, go around the ornament (this covers where you have glued the front to the back) and gather at the bottom.  Here you would wind more floss around where the cording meets, tie it and trim the floss.  Instant tassel, and a nicely finished ornament.

For the felt ornaments I cut the design out to how many stitches I wanted.  I find this works better with aida.  I then cut felt out slightly bigger than the ornament.  I put white craft glue on the felt, spread it thin so it didn't come out the holes in the aida, placed the design on top and put it under a heavy book.  You can either attach the ribbon for hanging by floss or by glueing in between the design and backing.

Now, there are some that would never put glue to any stitching.  To me, these are ornaments.  They will be taken out once a year and hung on the tree.  To sew, you simply choose a contrasting fabric, sew design and backing fabric together (right sides together) and sew around the edge, making sure to leave an opening for stuffing.  You then turn the ornament right side out, stuff, sew up the opening, trim as desired and hang on the tree.  I haven't gone into too much detail here, but I have found some sites that have this information, I just haven't gotten permission yet to post links.  When I do I will!

I hope this helps some of you with finishing your ornaments.  Whatever method you choose, just have patience.  And FUN!

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