Let’s Make A Serger Christmas Ornament

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year. Perhaps you can relate to this on some level: The experience of feeling a live being growing inside of my belly, then being born absolutely perfect and beautiful with all of the necessary pieces and parts to sustain life was truly awe-inspiring for me. If I needed one more reason to believe in some sort of higher power, giving birth to two little children sealed the deal for me. I am thankful for my babies and the many gifts in my life, but I feel the holiday season offers us a specific and deliberate time of year to reflect on those beliefs, whatever yours may be. Additionally, I absolutely love when the snow comes and lays that beautiful, sparkling white blanket over our trees. I am one of the few people I know who hopes all year for snow, and LOTS of it!

Along with the snow, I love the sounds, smells and sights the holidays bring. My Christmas tree goes up as soon as it is socially acceptable; or maybe a little earlier, that is between me and my girls!

I recently saw that Matthew over at www.misterdomestic.net was doing a holiday “Ornament Along,” how fun!?! Several of his ornament ideas will be making their way into my holiday gift bags, but the one that inspired me the most was his binding strip Christmas Tree. I saw that and immediately thought of my Baby Lock serger and the Strap and Belt Loop Attachment!! Matthew uses a fabric folding and pressing method to create the strap he used for the ornament, but, you know me! If there is a way to create it on my sewing machine instead of by hand, I will figure it out! After a little bit of playing, I came up with a great way to use my serger to create this project. I’m going to send you over to Mister Domestic to watch his video for final construction, but here is how I used my Ovation to hack his tutorial!

Machine Supplies (the rest can be found on Matthew’s Tutorial):

Baby Lock Serger with Cover Stitch Capability
3/4” Belt Loop Binder Attachment
Holiday fabric cut WOF on straight of grain 7/8” wide (one width of fabric creates one ornament). Cut one end at a 45 degree angle. I used “Holiday Flourish” from Robert Kaufman.
Strips of Baby Lock Cutaway Stabilizer cut 1/4” x width of stabilizer roll (You want enough to run the length of your strips, you can feed them in end-to-end, keep reading)
3 Spools Madeira Aerolock Serger Thread to match your fabric. I used white for my needles and red in the Chain Looper, but you can play here!

Machine Set-up:

Thread machine for Cover Stitch Wide Stitch Length = 3, Differential Feed = N.
Attach Belt Loop Binder Attachment to sewing table of Serger using the screws that came with your serger to hold it in place. Make sure it is on straight.

Construction:

Insert angled end of fabric strip into opening of Belt Loop Binder with right side of fabric facing up.
Gently feed fabric all the way through the attachment and back toward your needles. I use the needle changing screw driver or tweezers to gently nudge fabric through the attachment, then grab the fabric with my tweezers and pull it under the needles. *Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to get in there with your tweezers and show your fabric who’s boss!
Once the fabric is folded under on both sides and under needles, gently lower presser foot making sure the fabric doesn’t come unfolded.
Turning the hand wheel toward you, lower the needles to anchor fabrics and threads together. *Pro Tip: Taking a little extra time in the beginning to get everything lined up perfectly will ensure success when you put your foot on the gas pedal!
Stitch a couple of stitches, then gently lift the fabric off of the opening of the Belt Loop Binder and slide a strip of 1/4” cutaway stabilizer under the fabric, centered on the attachment. Push it in as far as it will go and continue stitching until you can feel or see that you are getting to the end of your stabilizer strip. *Pro Tip: Adding the stabilizer gives the strap the body it needs to stay somewhat stiff in the ornament. Mister Domestic used a thin fusible interfacing for this. Without some sort of stabilizer, your tree will look a bit wilted.
Stop and gently insert another strip of stabilizer beneath the fabric and continue sewing.
Repeat this process until you have sewn to the end of your fabric strip.

Once you have reached the end of the strip, trim off the excess stabilizer and thread tails and you are ready to create your ornament! For full video instruction on the completion of the ornament check out the video below!

I hope you enjoy working with this attachment as much as I do. Please be sure to leave a comment for me and let me know what holiday color combination you came up with!