Felt Christmas Dove Ornament

To show off your holiday festivity, create this lovely felt Christmas dove ornament to hang on your tree this year. You can reuse this great decorative craft year after year and you'll love the fact that you made it yourself!

Materials:

Pattern

• Dove template below, reduced or enlarged as desired
• White felt
• Scrap of gray felt
• Sequins or buttons as desired
• Kreinik holographic thread colors in a variety of thread weights (we used threads from the Make Mine 3-D Holographic thread set)
• Sewing needle, stuffing or fiberfill, scrap of ribbon

Instructions:

1. Using the dove template, cut out two dove shapes from your white felt. Place them together.
    
2. Using a color of Fine #8 Braid, Tapestry #12 Braid, or Very Fine #4 Braid, straight stitch (or running stitch) around the inside edge of the doves. Leave a small opening, insert stuffing, then finish sewing closed.
    
3. Use sequins or buttons for the eye, securing onto your felt using your Kreinik Braid or Blending Filament.
    
4. Cut your gray felt into the shape of a small heart. Set it on its side and position it near the middle of the dove to look like a wing. Stitch down using a color of Kreinik Braid or Filament. We stitched a breast-cancer awareness ribbon on the gray wing, then attached a heart sequin right next to it.
    
5. Attach your ribbon scrap to thte dove as an ornament hanger. We covered the spot where we knotted the ribbon onto the dove by placng a button there, embellished with Kreinik Braid.
    
6. Cut 2” pieces of holographic threads and lay at the taiil. Secure with fabric glue or hold with your hand as you cover the base ends with a small white rectangle of felt. Sew it onto the front of the dove just at the base of thte tail, covering the thread ends, using your Braid in a running or straight stitch.
    
7. If desired, add a poem or message by writing or typing it on paper, then inserting the paper between the felt layers at the tail.