Circle Bell Ornament

This ornament from C&T Publishing will bring the jingle to your holiday season! Make them as gifts for all your friends using an assortment of holiday fabrics. They're fun and easy!

Materials:

• 1 piece each of 2 different fabrics
  and 1 piece of regular-weight fast2fuse at least 6˝ × 6˝ each
• 26˝–28˝ rattail cording
• 2 small jingle bells—optional
• Embellishments
• Olfa circle cutter—optional

Steps:

1. Fuse different fabric to each side of a 6˝ round or square piece of regular-weight fast2fuse.
    
2. Cut into a 5˝ circle.
   
   
    
3. To cut the circle in half, measure in 21⁄2˝ from the edge of the circle and cut a straight line.
    
4. From this point, you have 2 ornaments to work on. Embellish a different side of each for 2 totally different ornaments—or do the same things to both and have identical ornaments.
    
5. Beginning at the center of the straight cut, zigzag rattail or other decorative cording on using monofilament polyester thread or thread to match your fabric and cording. Leave about 1˝ of cording at the start.
    
6. At the end, make a loop of cording. Use 6˝–8˝ of cording, depending on how low you want it to hang. Bring the end of the cording across the start of the loop and anchor it well. Trim the end to about 1˝. These ends will be hidden inside the bell.
   
   
    
7. Embellish the sides and edges of the bell. Use decorative stitching, hot ribbon, hot-fix crystals, prebeaded fringes, feathers … go for it!
    
8. Fold the circle in half and sew the sides together with a 1.5–2.0 width, 1.0 length zigzag (see photo). Backstitch at the start and end. A drop of thread glue at the end will make sure the threads won’t pull out. Be careful to keep any embellishment fringes out of the way as you sew up the sides.
    
9. Steam it a bit and gently hold it over the base of a small glass (I finally found a use for that cute shot glass in the back of the cupboard!) to get a nice round shape.
   
   
   
   Note: Make the circle a bit bigger and cut it in thirds for a longer, leaner bell. OR Sew some prebeaded fringe inside the bell so just the beads show from the outside. Attach with decorative or monofilament thread, depending on what you want for the outside of the bell.