DIY Penguin Christmas Tree Ornament

This Felt Penguin Ornament Christmas Craft Activity is perfect for kids, tweens and teens who can sew. This penguin is actually cute all year round. You can add some Christmas scent to this little fellow as a scented gift idea.

List of Supplies:
1. Felt fabric –black, white, orange and another color of your choice
2. Pencil or pen – for tracing the template
3. Scissors
4. Needle and thread
5. Ribbon
6. Pink sharpie

Penguin Template

Step 1:
Trace the 2 main body parts on black felt fabric (you can choose any other color if you want to).
Trace the other body part on white felt; the beak and feet on orange felt and lastly, trace the strip
(muffler) on any colored felt you want.

Step 2:
Prepare orange thread in needle and stitch the beak on the white body part.

Step 3:
Use black thread to stitch the eyes. Trace the eye shape on the white body part using a pencil.
Simply stitch along the traced eye pattern.

Step 4:
Use the pink sharpie to draw 2 blush patterns on both cheeks. Place the white body part on any one
of the black body parts. Prepare white thread in needle and stitch along the outer edge of the white
piece to join it with the black piece.

Step 5:
Done stitching the white piece? Now place the prepared piece (from the previous step) on the other
black body part. Make sure that all sides are matched.

Step 6:
Take a small piece of ribbon (about 6 inches will do) and fold it into half.

Step 7:
Insert the 2 open ends of the folded ribbon between the 2 black body parts, on the top end. Prepare
black thread and needle. Start to stitch the 2 black body parts together from the top end, stitching
both black parts and the ribbon together.

Step 8:
Keep a small opening to stuff the felt penguin.

Step 9:
I am using left over felt fabrics. Cut the left over felt penguins into small pieces to prepare them for
stuffing.

Step 10:
Simply insert the felt pieces into the felt penguin through the open end.

Step 11:
Stitch to close the open end once you are done stuffing.

Step 12:
Take the felt strip and wrap it around the penguin’s neck. Do a small stitch on the join of the muffler
to secure it.
Add more details if you want to.
Enjoy!

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I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking.

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section.

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily.

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right.

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next.

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]

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