This simple wool felt Christmas ornament pattern is easy and fun to make. It mimics a traditional honeycomb folded paper decoration. Play with different color combinations to make fun patterns or use a single color for a simplistic look.
Wool Felt Christmas Ornament Accordion Ball Materials
- wool felt
- embroidery floss to match
- jar lid or similar to use as a pattern
- embroidery needle
- scissors (Fiskars)
- disappearing ink pen
- iron
- optional: craft glue (Aleene’s)
Wool Felt Christmas Ornament Accordion Ball Directions
You will need to cut out a total of eight felt circles. You can make your wool felt Christmas ornaments in all one color or use several colors. For our multi-color wool felt accordion ball I use two circles of each of the following colors: red, pink, lime, and green. For my basic wool felt accordion ball ornament I used four circles of light blue felt and four circle of white felt.
Use the disappearing ink marker to trace a circle pattern onto your felt. I found that a mason jar lid was a great size for these wool felt Christmas ornaments. Cut out eight wool felt circles.
Fold the wool felt circles in half and press with a warm iron. This will remove any wrinkles (I was using felt out of my scrap bag) and set in the center crease. If you are using acrylic felt skip this part (or test a small piece of felt to make sure it won’t be damaged by the heat).
Align two felt circles, crease to crease. I always paired mine by matching colors. Open the felt circles, keeping the center crease aligned.
Use 2 strands of a matching embroidery floss and stitch in the ditch (crease) with a running stitch. Tie off your thread and trim.
Once you have sewn the two felt circles together, fold them closed again. Take a second pair of felt circles, open them up. Sandwich the sewn pair (still folded close) in between the new pair. Align the center creases along the sewn edge of the first pair.
Sew the second pair together with a running stitch. Be careful not to stitch through the first pair, but rather keep all the stitches aligned down the center. Tie off your thread and trim.
Fold the second pair of felt circles closed and sandwich your first two pairs between a third pair of felt circles. Align the center crease and sew down the center. Repeat with the last set of felt circles.
All eight of your wool felt circles should now be sewn together. Open all the folds to create a holiday ornament ball shape. From now on we will call each felt piece that sticks out from the center a flap. You now have 16 felt flaps.
Use 6 strands of embroidery floss to add a hanging thread at the top of the wool felt holiday ornament. Go in the crease of one color and out the crease directly across from where you went in. Double knot the thread at the top of the ornament. Tie off the additional thread making a 3-4 loop for hanging. (In my first ornament I did this step at the very end which you can do, but I found that it looks cleaner if you do it before the next step).
Now it is time to create the pleats or accordion fold. You can do this by either using craft glue or using a blanket stitch. The glue method creates a simple, less fussy looking ornament. The blanket stitch method add a homemade charm to the felt ornament. For either method, measure 1.25 inches (or approximately 1/3 of the way down) from the top point of the ornament down the outer edge of each flap. Make a mark with a disappearing ink pen.
In this step, we will be attaching two flaps together that were created by the same circle of felt. If you are using glue, run a bead of glue along edge of a flap stopping at the mark you made. Fold the felt circle close and pinch the edge together until the glue sets.
If you are blanket stitching, fold the felt circle close and blanket stitch along the top edge of the flaps until you reach your mark. Hide the ends of the thread in between the two flaps.
Repeat all the way around the top seven more times.
Flip your felt ornament over. Measure 1.25 inches from the bottom point of your ornament and make marks along the outside edge of each flap. This time when you attach the flap edges together, you will want to attach a flap to the flap of the felt circle next to it. This will create an accordion fold.
Glue or blanket stitch as you did around the top. Repeat 7 more times around the bottom of the ornament.
Hang your wool felt Christmas ornament ball on your Christmas tree. We don’t have our tree up yet so our Aloe plant is looking mighty festive at the moment. 🙂
Thank-you Michelle,
what a great little project to keep those fingers busy at any time of the day. I love the little decorations and,yes they are so evocative of years past when paper decorations were so treasured and unwrapped so lovingly each year.
Thank-you
A wonderful idea 👌
Such darling, creative colorful ornaments! I have a granddaughter and grandson who LOVE “to make”. I can’t wait to surprise them with this “waiting for Christmas” project! We’ll have so much fun! Thank you!
such lovely designs, and easy to follow patterns.
would hot glue gun work to attach folded pairs together?
I generally prefer to use tacky glue on felt. I find that it holds better without all the bulk. If you want to try hot glue, I would test it on scrap bits of felt first to make sure it doesn’t melt. 100% wool felt won’t melt but synthetic felt or a blend might. Good luck.