Tuesday 3 November 2009

Christmas Decoration Tutorial 1

Want to make some decorations? How about having a go at making a Suffolk Puff Christmas Garland?






From paper towel. You will also need: needle and thread, small amount of stuffing/filling, glue and sequins.




First you need to colour the paper. You can use paint, food colouring anything really. My paper is leftover from mopping up dye spills. I have heaps of it.

Now you can use the Clover Yoyo Maker if you have one. Just follow their directions. It is exactly the same except you are using paper. For those of you who don't have one I'll show you how to make a suffolk puff the old fashioned way.





Draw a circle onto the paper. Make sure you cut just inside the drawn line so you can't see it when its cut out.





Thread a needle with coordinating thread. I only used black so you could see it. Fold the raw edge over a little, approx 6mm, and start stitching. You are making even stitches these were about 6mm with a 6mm gap in between. Keep folding and stitching.






When you get back to the beginning make sure that you take the extra stitch back to the first stitch. I hope the picture shows that the thread is in the same place as the tail of the knot. Hold the knot between your finger and thumb, this will stop it pulling through, and gently gather up the paper. The paper towel is surprisingly strong but just the same it will rip if you get too carried away.








The flat shape will start to form into a cup.









At this stage pop a small amount of stuffing into the opening.







Continue gathering up the stitching while gently pushing the stuffing down.










When the puff looks like this secure your stitching with a couple of backstitches. Don't panic if the puff hasn't formed this tight in the centre and the stuffing is showing.








A few drops of glue,












And a couple of sequins will conceal all. Make all of your puffs first, then add the sequins before stringing onto stong thread to form the garland.




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3 comments:

Kylie said...

These are so gorgeous. Thanks for the tutorial Trish! K

Tracey said...

Thanks for posting this tutorial, Trish. Something to do with the kids.

Steph said...

Paper? Who would've thought? Great idea.