Christmas Magnets

 

I was rummaging through one of my shop drawers the other week and came across some Christmas mini magnets which I made last year for sale at my winter shows. (Remember those days? Where you could have bustling craft fairs full of unique vendors and happy punters?) I only had three left and when I popped them up on my web shop and Instagram, they sold out instantly! So I've been making more as luckily I still have a load of the cute mini embroidery frames in various sizes and shapes. They're all between 3cm and 5cm in diameter so cute doesn't begin to cover it. 

I even had the same fabric that I used last year - which is absolutely perfect for these because of the scale of the holly leaves. I did test out some other fabric patterns but none worked as well as this one and it just has everything Christmassy in it, without being massively 'Christmas' if you see what I mean. 

I have been changing each batch (the third batch is currently drying from the backs being glued on) slightly, so using different green colours, slightly different metallic golds and in this case tiny red beads! These add a beautiful lustre and texture to the hoops I think. 

The holly leaves are stitched in the same way each time with one straight stitch up the middle of the leaf to the top then satin stitches worked from the edge of the pattern to underneath that straight stitch on either side,  keeping that original stitch on top as a central ridge. 

Each hoop is completely unique as I try to fit as many shapes into a fabric piece so the placement is always different. Some have holly leaves centred, but others have the leaves around the edges - it's just how it works out. 

The stitching isn't actually done in these tiny hoops (if you hadn't already guessed) as they are display hoops rather than working ones, so the fabric is stretched in a proper embroidery hoop and then the little shapes cut out ready for mounting on the inner wooden piece which fits into each mini embroidery hoop outer. This then screws and tightens into place and another piece is glued onto the back of the frame to tidy up those edges. 

I've stuck a little magnet onto the back of each hoop and signed it so y'all know it was made by me!

If you'd like your own little festive magnet, these are available in both my Etsy shop and my Website shop (different ones in each so have a look at both sites). There are also new ones which will be uploaded soon to both sites where I have experimented with padding underneath the stitching with a layer of felt to see if that helps the bumpiness of the fabric.