From a Wedding Dress to Christmas Ornaments

I bought this wedding dress at a thrift shop, it was badly soiled at the hem and had some other staining, also. But it was made of this gorgeous antique white heavy satin. I bought it with the intention of cutting it up and putting it in my Deb's Crafts Etsy Shop which I did. There are several listings there that include fat quarters or squares made from the train, I actually haven't gotton to the dress yet, the train had so much fabric in it. Then of course there are scraps. Although I put some of them in my bags of fancy fabric scraps in the shop this dress was creating like way too many scraps.

So this is what I started doing with the scraps. I have these stars for sale in my Deb Upcycles Etsy shop (or at least I will until someone buys them). They are really easy to make, so even though I'm trying to sell these I'll tell you how they're made.

1. Trace the shape you want on the back of the fabric and cut out with pinking shears.

2. Cut out a piece of quilt batting about 1/4 to 1/2 inch smaller than the shape.

3. Make a sandwich with the fabric and batting making sure the right side of the fabric is facing out on both sides.

4. Cut a small piece of ribbon (I used a small piece of leftover ribbon for this too) and attach to the wrong side of one of the fabric pieces using matching thread.

5. With 2 strands contrasting embroidery thread (another thrift shop find, I put a lot of it up in my Etsy Shop) use a running stitch 1/4 inch inside the edges making sure the batting stays tucked in. Then 1/4 inch inside that do it again. You can have as many or as few rows of stitching as the item will allow.

6. If desired, add a matching button to the center.

And that's it. Enjoy your new handmade ornaments.