Holiday cheer!

There are so many great projects for the holidays, so why not check out the patterns available like the Stitched stocking by Collette Hunt, our free online project for December. Interested in more holiday projects? Just go to the Projects tab above and search "holiday." A whole bunch of patterns come up that would make great gifts.

As a thank you to all our readers, I'm sharing these two patterns with you. Go to Online Basics to learn about Brick stitch and Square stitch, or go to our Videos page to view demonstrations. After giving these two little cuties a try, download our free graph paper to design few patterns of your own. I can see making a whole holiday charm bracelet or just an adorable pair of earrings. Dress up a gift tag or greeting card with a handmade charm.

To make the tree, thread a needle on about 1 yard of thread, and leave a 10-in. (25 cm) tail. Work the bottom row of the tree first in ladder stitch, then work in decreasing brick stitch for the next three rows. Increase for the next row, then decrease the last four rows. With your thread exiting one of the two beads in the last row, pick up a bead and a soldered ring, and sew back through the bead and the adjacent bead in the last row. Retrace the thread path, and end the thread (Online Basics). Using the tail, make the stump of the tree by adding two beads to the center of the first row. You could use green and brown 11/0 cylinder beads for the tree, and if desired, decorate your tree with assorted 15/0 seed beads.

When working the present pattern, use about 1 yard of thread, leaving a short tail. Once the square stitch pattern is complete, make a bunch of loops of small seed beads for a bow, including a soldered jump ring in one of the loops. End the working thread and tail. Red and green 11/0 cylinder beads would work well with 15/0 seed beads for the bow.

 I'd love to see any other cute patterns you come up with!

Comments

cryssT wrote re: Holiday cheer! on Sat, Dec 4 2010 8:57 PM I think a wire guardian would work well on the top of the tree and probably the present too, rather than a soldered ring.  I'm going to try it that way.