Posted By: Alyx on January 24th, 2012
Here’s a easy ornament for Valentine’s Day.
Posted By: Alyx on January 9th, 2012
In honor of the NFL Playoffs and my hometown, Houston Texas.
Luckily the Texans logo is pretty simple and was easily replicated using the kimekomi technique. .
Tools and Materials Needed:
- ball point pens in 2 colors
- measuring tape
- craft knife
- glue stick
- craft glue
- tucking tool (I use a straight upholstery needle)
- foam ball (I use a 7cm ball)
- cotton fabric in red, white and navy blue
- white and silver cord
- red and navy satin ribbon
- 2 pearl headed pins
- 2 beads
- 5 white star sequins
Basic Instructions:
- Print the logo off the internet. The logo can be easily found using a google image search.
- Trace the logo by pinning it to the ball and punching little holes around the shape.
- Connect the dots on the foam.
- Draw a simple 6 division over the top of your logos using a different colored pen.
- Cut the logos with your craft knife.
- Cut the 6 division lines with you craft knife, but don’t cut the lines inside the logos.
- Tuck the fabric inside the logos first and then on the outside. The hardest part of this ornament was getting the white fabric to fit smoothly around the logos.
- Glue cord in the seams.
- Pin a bead, hanging ribbon and a bow to the top.
- Pin a bead to the bottom.
I’m pretty happy with the results and look forward to making similar ornaments for other teams in the future.
Leave your team recommendations in the comments.
Posted By: Alyx on December 25th, 2011
Tools and Materials Needed:
- ball point pens or permanent markers in 3 different colors (I use black, red and green)
- measuring tape
- white out
- (optional)tracing paper
- (optional)card stock or heavy paper
- craft knife
- glue stick
- craft glue
- tucking tool (I use a straight upholstery needle)
- foam ball (I use a 7cm ball)
- 4 colors of satin fabric (I use white, yellow, pink, and blue)
- 3 colors of satin cord, should coordinate with your fabric colors (I use white, pink and blue)
- satin ribbon in the color of your choice (I use yellow and white)
- 6 pearl headed pins in the color of your choice (I use green)
- 6 large flower sequins in the color of your choice (I use silver hologram)
Instructions:
- First thing you need to do is draw a Double Combination 8 Division on your ball. Visit the Combination Divisions page for a video tutorial on how to do this. You should start out with a true combo 8 drawn in black, and then continue with the double combo 8 division in red.
- Once your Double Combination 8 Division is drawn, trace the pattern seen in the diagram below in green ink. This diagram is a view from the north and south poles of your ball.
- Next, white out the black and red lines inside the green triangles.
- Then, white out the black lines inside the red triangles. The red triangles look like they are behind the green ones.
- Cut along all remaining lines. I cut the green lines first, then the red lines then the black lines.
- (optional) Make a cutting pattern for the green triangles. Using your tracing paper and a pen, trace the green triangles and cut it out. Then paste it to some card stock or heavy paper and cut about 1cm around the traced triangle. Cut off the pointy ends. Use this pattern to cut out 8 triangles of blue satin fabric.
- Place the blue fabric over the green triangles and tuck into the cuts on the foam. You will have 8 blue triangles mirroring each other over the equator line when finished.
- (optional) Make cutting patterns for the top and bottom of the red triangles. Cut out 8 pieces of pink fabric for each pattern.
- Next cover and tuck pink fabric over the red triangles, tops and bottoms covered separately.
- (optional) Make cutting patterns for the north and south pole triangles. Cut out 8 pieces of yellow fabric and 8 of white using the patterns.
- Cover and tuck fabric over the triangles at the north and south poles alternating yellow and white fabric.
- (optional) Make cutting patterns for the equator triangles. Cut out 8 pieces of yellow and white fabric for each pattern.
- Cover and tuck fabric over the triangles at the equator alternating the yellow and white fabric.
Once the ball is totally covered in fabric the color pattern should look like this from the north and south poles. Please note that the yellow and white fabric colors should oppose each other from the north and south pole.
- Now it’s time to glue the cord to the seams. Using your tucking tool, scrape a small amount of glue from your glue stick and apply it to the seam. Place the cord over the top of the glue and pat it down gently. Only a small amount of glue is needed.
-Start with white cord around the equator.
-Next, glue pink cord in an X outlining the bottom half of the pink triangles.
-Then trace the blue triangles with blue cord. Rather than tracing each triangle individually, cut 4 pieces of cord that is a few centimeters longer than the circumference of your ball. Wrap each piece individually in a continuous line in the same pattern as when you were drawing your original combo 8.
-Once all your blue cord in place, do the white cord at the north and south poles. For this you only need 4 pieces for each pole, they will criss-cross at the pole.
-Glue the pink cord at the tops of the pink triangles in one continuous piece, as seen in the video.
- Next, pin flower sequins at the south pole and on the equator at each point where 2 blue triangles touch.
- Top off your ornament with a white hanging ribbon, flower sequin and yellow and white bow. Alternate 2 loops of yellow, then 2 of white, then 2 more yellow and 2 more white. 8 loops in total. For more information on making the bow and hanging ribbon please see the Bow Video on the Tutorials Page.
Here are a couple more variations on the “Jester” design.
Merry Christmas and Happy Ornament Making!
Posted By: Alyx on December 15th, 2011
This week I’ve been playing around with the Double Combination 8 Division. It’s the latest in my series of combination division tutorials which can be found over on the Combination Divisions Page.
Over at temarikai.com they have printable diagrams of the various types of divisions. They are especially helpful in brainstorming new designs. For this ornament I printed out their double combo 8 diagram and started coloring in the sections. This is the result.
I used this pattern to create my latest kimekomi ornament “Kaleidoscope”. The diagram is the view from the north and south pole. Just repeat the pattern using 5 different colors of fabric using the kimekomi techinique.
Watch out for the orange diamonds. I combined 2 separate sections as one. It’s easiest to find that section and white out the dividing line before you start cutting the foam. Otherwise you might accidental cut where you don’t need to. Also, I didn’t use batting for this ornament because the sections are so small. You will need to white out those extra lines so they don’t show through the fabric.
Love this ornament but don’t have time to make it yourself. It’s now for sale over at my Etsy shop.
Posted By: Alyx on November 30th, 2011
Recently I’ve added a new tutorial page to the site, Combination Divisions. One of the new divisions I’ve posted is the Combination 10 Division. I’ve been obsessed with this division for the past few weeks. There are so many cool designs that can be done using a combo 10. My new “Starry Night” design is just one of many.
Tools and Materials Needed:
- ball point pens in 5 different colors
- measuring tape
- white out
- tracing paper
- craft knife
- glue stick
- tucking tool (I use a straight upholstery needle)
- foam ball
- quilt batting
- 2 colors of cotton fabric
- metallic cord in the color of your choice
- 3/4 inch sequin pins
- satin ribbon in the color of your choice
- star sequins in the color of your choice
- beads (optional)
- craft glue
Instructions:
- First you will need to mark the combination 10 division on your ball. Watch the video below to learn how to do this. This video is also located on the new Combination Divisions page.
- Once your combo 10 is marked, trace three 5 pointed stars with a different color pen or a marker. The stars will need to stand out easily. If your ball is like mine and there is a major indentation at the north pole of your ball, turn the ball so that this indentation is in the center of your first star.
Once you have your first star traced turn the ball to the left, find and trace the next star. It’s points will touch the points of the first star.
Then turn your ball once more to the left to find the third star. The third star may seem a bit off center. Now you have 3 large stars surrounding your ball with a new north and south pole.
- Mark your new poles with a bright color. Here I used red.
 New North Pole  New South Pole - Next trace the diamond patterns at the north and south pole with another color of pen. Here I used green.
 Marked Diamonds from the North Pole  Marked Diamonds from the South Pole - The next step is optional depending on the color of fabric you intend on using for your star. If you are going to use a dark fabric, you can skip this step. However, if you are going to use a light colored fabric, you will need to white out the lines in the stars so that the lines do not show through the batting and fabric when you are finished.
You may need to white out the extra lines inside the diamonds at the poles if you intend on using a light colored fabric there as well. For my ornament I’m going to use navy blue at the poles to simulate a dark sky, so there is no need for me to white out those lines.
- Now you will need to make a cutting pattern for the quilt batting. For this ornament I’m only going to use batting on the stars. This give the ball a little more texture and dimension in the end. The stars will be raised and the navy background will be flat against the foam. Lay the tracing paper over one of the stars and wrap it so it curves with the ball. Trace the star onto the paper. When your done straighten out the paper and cut out your pattern. It will look distorted but that’s OK. It’s due to the curve of the ball. Use that pattern to cut out 3 stars of quilt batting.
- Next you need to make the cutting pattern for your fabric. Lay the batting pattern down on some card stock or thick paper. Trace around the star, leaving about a half a centimeter of space between the edge of the batting pattern and your drawn line. Now cut out your new pattern and use it to cut out 3 stars of fabric.
- Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the diamond shapes at the poles. For this ball I will discard the batting pattern and use only the fabric pattern for the diamonds.
- Next, cut the foam along the outline of the stars and diamonds.
- Glue a piece of star shaped batting to the foam in the star shaped section. Then lay one of your star shaped fabric panels over the top of the batting and tuck the fabric edges into the foam. Do this for all 3 stars.
If you have one star with that factory made indent or hole in the center, just fill it in with some extra batting and then glue the regular batting piece over the top. This should smooth it out so you never knew it was there.
- Once all your stars are finished, start on the diamonds. This time however, do not use do not use batting underneath the fabric. If you want, you can glue the fabric directly to the foam. However, be sure the glue doesn’t soak through the fabric. Only a very thin layer will be necessary.
- Now that all your fabric is in place it’s time to glue your cord around the stars. Using your tucking tool, scrape a small amount of glue from your glue stick and apply it to the seam where the 2 colors of fabric touch, outlining the star. Gently place the cord over the top of the glue. Do this all around the 3 stars. Only a small amount of glue is needed.
- Pin star sequins in each star in a random pattern.
- To finish, add a hanging ribbon and bow at the top of the ornament. You may also wish to add a sequin and bead at the bottom or, like in my yellow and navy ornament, a fringe of sequin stars hanging from the bottom. Need help making your bow? Please watch the “Making a Bow” video on the Tutorial and Techniques page.
That’s pretty much it! Here’s a look at all 3 sides of the finished product.
Happy Ornament Making!
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Disclaimer No copyright infringement intended in this blog. If you are the original owner of any media used and would like it removed please contact me.
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