I love creating and making with kids and this year we are taking part again in Mam Miss’ Kid-Made Ornament series inspired by books. Last year we made a forest of Christmas Trees inspired by The Fir Tree. This year we have made felt robin christmas ornaments inspired by Little Robin’s Christmas by Jan Fearnley.

These adorable felt robin’s will become family keepsakes for years to come and don’t worry if your children are too young to sew, these can be made with fabric glue, so are great for kids of all ages.

How to make a Felt Robin Christmas Ornament

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Materials

Brown and Red Felt (UK Link/US Link)
Brown and red embroidery thread (UK Link/US Link)
Stuffing (UK Link/US Link)
Robin Template
Scissors (UK Link/US Link)
Embroidery needles (UK Link/US Link)
Small black push pins or tiny buttons (UK Link/US Link)
Red ribbon (UK Link/US Link)
Fabric glue (UK Link/US Link)
Sharpie
Little Robin’s Christmas by Jan Fearnley (UK Link/US Link)

Instructions

I hand drew our Robin on to card before the boys traced around it with a sharpie onto the felt. Then using my sharp fabric scissors they cut the robins out on the felt. 2 on the brown and one red breast on the red felt. Fabric glue is great for sticking felt. If you apply it and allow it to dry then you do not need to sew. But my boys are getting older and wanted to sew their Robin’s.

We made it easier by glueing the robin and allowing the glue to dry before stitching. Firstly they stuck the red breast felt on to the body of the bird and allowed that to dry (for around 20 minutes) before stitching it.

For children that are more competent with a needle and thread then you could just pin the felt together and skip the glue altogether.

Once we had the breast stitched in to place then we added the eye. We used a small split pin. We only had silver, so we used a black sharpie. We could have used a small black button.

We wanted our Robin’s to hand from our tree, so we added a small red ribbon at the top, We stitched it before moving on to the next step.

Then we glued round the edge of the robin leaving about an inch gap for the stuffing to go in (if you have younger children then you can skip the stuffing as they look beautiful without it). Once the glue had dried then we stitched the edge using brown embroidery thread making sure we didn’t stitch the gap that was left for stuffing.

Then the birds were stuffed with a small amount of toy stuffing (ours was from a small teddy bear that Alvin had savaged)!

Then they stitched the hole closed.

KID-MADE ORNAMENTS INSPIRED BY CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Our Felt Robin Christmas Ornament was inspired by a delight book by Jan Fearnley called Little Robin’s Christmas. We have a hamper full of books for Christmas and Advent and each year I update it and add new ones.

This is part of 10 Days of a Kid-Made Christmas series. We are all showcasing kid-made ornaments based on books. This series is organized by Mama Miss, and you can find a full list of all the participating bloggers here. I love seeing all the creative book inspired ornaments.