Holiday Greetings from Veronica at sewVery! Is your home decorated yet? I have a few finishing touches to add to my tree, and we will be all set for Christmas.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are those spent with my mother making Christmas decorations and treats to give to friends and neighbors during the holidays. We lived in a big, older home with so much charm and character, and my mom loved decorating it all over for Christmas!

When I first saw Betz’s Peace Dove Ornament pattern, I knew immediately that I had to make it! The nostalgic style of this sweet decoration brought back all those days spent sewing and crafting with my mom.

 

 

For my Peace Dove Ornament, I strayed from the recommended fabric of wool felt and instead used Cotton + Steel quilting cotton with Pellon Shape Flex fused to it. The interfacing gave the cotton the perfect amount of structure needed for this project.

Now, it has been years since I have done any hand embroidery or cross-stitching, and to be honest, I knew only one or two hand embroidery stitches prior to making this dove! After finding my box of embroidery floss, I used the Stitch Glossary in the back of the Peace Dove Ornament pattern to learn a few new stitches. I learned the Blanket Stitch and the Lazy Daisy Stitch after a few attempts but whether or not I executed them well is another story!

 

 

The Peace Dove Ornament pattern is obviously ideal for a beginner and provides lots of great diagrams and tips for putting it together. I made this beautiful bird in about an hour using just scraps of fabric and batting.

While the pattern shows you how to add lots of embroidered detail to this ornament, you can do as little or as much as you desire. I chose to leave off a few of the detail stitches on the belly and tail of the bird since I used a fabric with a print. If I had had some tiny beads, I think they would have been lovely stitched on as berries or for the eye. Even a tiny, decorative button would be a perfect eye.

 

 

My daughter loves the peace dove ornament, and I now hope to create those same special memories of sewing and crafting with her at Christmas like I did with my mom.

There’s still plenty of time for you to sew up a few Peace Dove Ornaments to adorn your own tree or to share with friends. Buy the Peace Dove Ornament pattern from Betz White’s shop today and make your own holiday memories sewing with a child.

 

Peace Dove Ornament via Betz White Shop

Have FUN sewing and happy holidays!

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This post is part of the Betz White Sewing Collective series. Content is written by compensated contributors expressing their own views and opinions.