DIY Poinsettia Ornaments

I've been stitching these time consuming but inexpensive and easy poinsettia ornaments for years. I love the look of poinsettias, but I'm bad about remembering to water plants and didn't like the thought of having poisonous flowers around with small children. So these felt beauties were a way to bring them into our home for the holidays with minimal cost, fuss, and worry.

The materials are simple. For every two ornaments you want to make, you need one 8.5x11 inch sheet of felt in green and whatever color you want your poinsettia to be. You'll need a pack of acrylic gems, a roll of thin ribbon, a needle and thread, and a hot glue gun with plenty of glue sticks.

Cut the red, white, or pink felt into two strips that are roughly 8.5x2.5 and two that are roughly 8.5x3. 

I already had half a dozen red ones on the tree and just needed a few to fill in bare spots, so I decided on white.

Cut two strips from the green felt that are roughly 8.5x3.5. Then cut four circles out of the remaining felt.

You can use a stencil for an inch and a half round if you like, but I just freehanded it the best I could since these were just for us.

Cut flame shaped petals and leaves from the strips of felt you've prepared. The broader the base of each petal, the easier they will be to sew together in the next step.  Making them too small at the base can make creating an "M" fold in them a nightmare, especially if you have pudgy fingers like I do.

You should be able to cut six petals from each of the white, red, or pink strips, and you should be able to cut four leaves from each strip of the green felt.

Once you've finished cutting out all your petals and leaves, it's time to begin assembling.

Start by threading your needle. I like to double my thread for strength's sake and use a long enough piece to sew two whirls before needing to rethread my needle. It just saves my eyes with these small eyed needles.

​Fold the base of your petals in the middle and then fold both sides down again to form an "M" at the base. Pinch this together and hold it in your left hand as shown.

Sorry about the quality of the photo, I think I moved when snapping it.

Slide your needle through all layers at the base of the petal, pulling the needle toward yourself as shown above. Then loop the thread around and slide the needle through again in the same way a millimeter or so over. (You don't want to go through the same place because the thread will tangle, and that's just a headache and a pain.) Pull it tight to hold the fold in place, and fold the next petal in the same way you did the first.

Stitch the second petal the same way you did the first, but don't slide it all the way to meet the first petal just yet. Loop your thread around and slide the needle back through the folded material toward you, making sure to offset the stitch just a bit. Pull until you have a small loop as shown above. Pull the thread at the bottom of the loop until the petals meet, and then pull the needle until the loop tightens around the bottom of the petal.

This helps prevent knotting in the thread or making your whirl so tight it crumples in on itself before you are able to add all six petals.

Repeat this step until all six petals are added to the whirl.

Again, sorry for the blurry photo. It's harder than you'd think to snap a picture one handed, especially if your tripod is rigged out of materials on hand.

Once the last petal has been added and tightened, Pinch the edges of the first and sixth petal together. Run the needle through the outer folds on each petal as shown above and pull tight. (Be careful not to get the needle embedded in any of the petals that refuse to stay out of the way during this step.) Repeat to loop the thread around and pull the whirl closed tight. Knot off your thread and cut to finish this step.

Repeat the process with the small and large whirls for each ornament you're making.

Once you've finished stitching each whirl together, warm up your glue gun and gather your materials for gluing. You need a whirl of small petals, a whirl of large petals, two backing circles, two leaves, an acrylic jewel in any color you choose for the center, and an 8 inch piece of ribbon for each ornament.

Experiment with different combinations and placements until you find which ones make your ornaments look best before gluing. Set the larger whirl down, add a dollop of glue to its center, and press the smaller whirl onto the larger one.

Using another dollop of glue, secure your jewel to the center of your poinsettia. It should look similar to the one shown when you're done.

I tend to stick with clear, red, or yellow jewels for the red poinsettias, and anything from those to blue, green, and purple with the white ones. In all honestly, it doesn't really matter. Just do what looks best to you.

Flip your ornament over and glue down the first backing circle. This will provide the base for everything else we'll add.

Find where your leaves will best balance out the look of your ornament and glue down. I don't have any sort of set placement for these. Mostly, I just use the leaves to fill in any spots that look empty compared to the rest of the ornament.

Loop the ribbon, and secure it with glue.

Add the final backing circle for a polished look and added durability. Hot glue looses some of its adhesion when cooled, so this just adds another layer to keep the ribbon and leaves from peeling off the back of the ornament over time.

Finally, use glue to secure the ribbon to the petals. The ornaments tend to be top heavy, and this will keep them from falling forward when hung on the tree.

Set the ornaments aside and allow them to cool completely. Clear away any hot glue filaments left behind, and they're ready to display.