Here is another free felt Christmas ornament in our Santa’s Workshop Applique Collection. Toy trains are a part of childhood and look lovely on the tree!
These ornaments were based on our Santa’s Workshop Toy Train Applique which can be found HERE. I made them two different ways. The first ornament has a border around the design and in the second ornament there is no border. Decide which you like best and sew away!
You can view all to the projects in our Santa’s Workshop HERE.
Toy Train Ornaments Materials:
- Bordered Pattern or
- Borderless Pattern
- Felt – although I usually use 100% wool felt for items that get high use, like children’s toys, I am fine with using wool blend felts for ornaments. To learn more about felt read our article Felt 101.
- Embroidery floss
- Sequins or other materials used for embellishing
- Metallic embroidery floss or 1/8″ ribbon for hanger
- Stuffing – I used Polyfil but you can also use wool roving
Toy Train Ornaments Directions for Bordered Ornament:
NOTE: Get tips on cutting out felt HERE.
Using the Bordered Pattern, cut out all pieces of felt.
Using the pattern as a guide, position the pieces on a piece on your border felt giving yourself at least a 1″ border around the whole design. Again, using the pattern pieces as a guide, overlap pieces of felt and baste to your border felt.
Using a running stitch and 2 strands of floss, sew the spinning top to the border felt with coordinating floss. Remove basting stitches and add sequins. NOTE: To add the sequins I used 6 pieces of floss and a French knots in the center of each sequin.
Cut a piece of metallic floss or 1/8″ ribbon 8″. Create a loop by bringing the 2 ends together and knot. This will be used to hang the ornament on the tree.
On the back of your piece, position the hanger so the knot is behind the uppermost position on your ornament. Note: Pin your hanger on first to determine position. The train is not symmetrical so there is not a visual center to the train. Notice where I have tacked on the hanger. Tack in place making sure to sew it only to the border felt. Do not go all the way through to the front of the ornament or the stitches will be seen.
Pin, baste or staple your ornament to a second piece of felt that will be the back of your ornament. Make sure your hanger extends beyond the ornament.
Using a running stitch and 2 strands of floss, sew the border felt to the backing, about 1/8″ from the design. When going around the top, make sure your hanger is out of the way. Make sure to leave an opening for stuffing.
Lightly stuff the ornament.
When the ornament is stuffed, finishing sewing the border felt and the backing together.
Cut away the excess felt leaving a 1/4″ border all around the ornament. Be careful not to cut your running stitch that holds the ornament together. Be especially careful when you come around the top. You do not want to cut off your hanger. To cut around the hanger, cut the border felt and the backing separately.
Your Santa’s Workshop Toy Train is now ready to hang on the tree!
Directions for Borderless Toy Train Ornament:
Using the Borderless Pattern, cut out all pieces of felt.
Follow the directions for the Bordered Ornament with these changes:
The finished ornament will not have border but you will still sew the individual pieces to separate piece of felt that I refer to as “tacking felt”. After you baste your ornament to the tacking felt, sew ONLY the pieces to the tacking felt as indicated on the pattern. DO NOT sew the outside edges to the tacking felt.
After you are done embellishing the ornament, pin, baste or staple your ornament to the back. Cut out the ornament, without leaving a border. Again, be careful at the top so you do not cut off the hanger.
There are 2 methods for sewing the ornament together. Using 3 strands of floss you can overcast the pieces together or using 2 strands of floss like I did, sew the pieces together using a running stitch.
Finished!
