Button and Felt DIY Christmas Ornaments

I couldn’t let Christmas go by without making some fun DIY Christmas ornaments.  So naturally I went overboard and made a bunch of different ornaments.  You’ll see the rest of those in the next few weeks, but let’s start with these.  They’re made of felt and cute little buttons, so they are my favorites of the bunch. Make sure you also look at all of my other homemade Christmas ornament tutorials and free felt Christmas ornament patterns!

Supplies needed:

• free DIY Christmas ornament patterns – Instructions to download are at the bottom of this post.
• felt (type and colors listed on the pattern)
• buttons
• white paint (optional)
• embroidery floss (white, brown, and black)
• baker’s twine
• small red rhinestone (optional for Rudolph)

You can use any kind of buttons.  I liked the more rustic look of these wooden buttons that Oriental Trading Company sent to me a while ago, so I used them.  There were a few heart ones in the package, and those worked perfectly for the deer head.  Looking at the preview on their website, I don’t see the exact heart buttons that I used, so I don’t know if they are included anymore.  They might be, but I don’t know for sure.  The larger circles are 1/2-inch in diameter and the smaller ones are 3/8-inch.  The hearts are 1/2-inch at their widest part and 1/2-inch tall.

I used some white chalky finish paint to paint the snowman buttons white.  You could also just use some acrylic paint.  Dip your brush in a little water if you still want to see the wood grain on the buttons.

Cut out the pattern pieces.  I find it helpful to cut small pieces with tape rather than pins.

Sew the background pieces on first, using a running stitch and two strands of embroidery floss. (Embroidery floss is made of 6 smaller strands, so you pull those apart to make it smaller.)

Sew the buttons on and add the embroidery.  The hands are sewn with four strands of floss and the hat with two.  The snow is made using french knots and four strands of floss.  I love french knots!

The snowman’s scarf is made from some red and white baker’s twine.  String it on a large embroidery needle and tie a knot in the end.  Bring it through from the back on the left of the snowman’s head.  Cross over to the other side of the snowman and push the needle through to the back.  Bring it up through the first spot again and tie the twine in a knot.  Cut off the excess, and he’s got a little scarf.

For the girl snowman (would that be a snow-woman?)  I separated the baker’s twine and used the red part.  Thread it through the embroidery needle and stitch it though next to her head like the photo below.

Finish off the snow-woman by tying the twine into a little bow, and cut off the excess.  Isn’t she cute?

Now take a piece of the twine (or some ribbon) and sew it in a loop on the second circle that you cut for the ornament.  I used a sewing machine to make sure it would be secure.

Do a blanket stitch around the ornament (two strands of floss) to sew the two circles together, sandwiching the hanging loop in between the two felt circles.

The reindeer on this ornament got a little rhinestone glued on to make him Rudolph.  That’s optional, but oh so cute!

What do you think?  Do you love the little button snowmen as much as I do?  I’m so excited to show you the rest of the ornaments that I made for the tree this year.  Until then, go check out the 12 days of Handmade Christmas Ornaments series that I did a couple years ago.  Lots of good stuff there.