Last week, I continued to share nearly insane plans for the hand-made ornaments for this year's annual holiday card handmade ornament insertion.
I showed you how I made the twisted cord. Now, I have to stitch the cord to each ornament.
The first step in the final (I promise) installment of 2021 ornament-making involves a fair amount of calm. It's a fiddly, fussy affair.
The cord has a 'clean' end where it folded back onto itself. I like to start with that end.
I use a laying tool or stiletto to find a spot where the front and back pieces were sewn together with a bit of a gap in the threads, and ease the space open a tiny bit.
Then insert the cord end.
With fine thread (60 wt cotton), I stitch the cord to the ornament so it lays along the ornament edge, straddling the front and back of the ornament.
Note to self: That #@$%& (translation: delightful) cord-end has a tendency to escape repeatedly before it's sewn between the layers.
As I sew the cord to the ornament edge, I make sure that each stitch grabs a tiny bit of the stitchery fabric, goes through the cord, and grabs a tiny bit of the backing fabric.
Very fussy, indeed
As the starting point approaches, I park the needle and wrap a small piece of Scotch tape around the cord.
. . . Then cut, leaving about 1/8" of cord covered with tape to keep it from untwisting.
Then back to the laying tool or stiletto to jam the tape-covered end between the layers.
The 'escape' tendency persists on this end, too. Delightful!
I finesse the area a bit to minimize lumpiness. Then secure the cord the rest of the way with the fine thread.
At first glance, you might think that I'm hiding the cord closure where I'm holding the ornament. In fact, the closure is at the bottom of the photo.
Cut about 6" of perle cotton and insert in one of the corners for a hanging loop.
As you can see, I actually made two variations of the cord and hanger. The ornament on the left was sewn onto the ornament starting at the top corner, leaving a tail, about 4-5" long at each end. I then secured the cord to the ornament at the join (this could also be knotted), and then knotted the cord and trimmed it for the hanging loop.
I actually prefer the version with the plain perle cotton hanger, but the first option avoids that lumpy join.
And that's it. At last count, I have about a dozen ornaments stitched, sewn, and ready for the cord.
I'm in the Home Stretch!
Happy Stitching!
Head Hummingbird
Hummingbird-Highway.com
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