Tutorial: Hello, Kloosha! Easter Ornament

With just a few days before Easter you still have time to make this cute chicken ornament that is perfect for hanging on your Easter tree or using it as a charming decoration in your home. The best part is, all you need is a small piece of fabric and some embroidery floss to make this sweet chicken. So why not give it a try and bring a smile to your face this Easter season!

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 pieces 5" x 5.5" of lightweight or medium weight linen or quilting cotton in natural colour
• Embroidery floss in dark brown, red, yellow, pink and green
• Embroidery needles
• Soft fill
• Sewing accessories
• Optional: A small piece of ribbon or string if you want to make a hanging ornament

NOTE: The bottom of the chicken is rounded so it won't stand upright on its own. However, after you finish your chicken, you can gently push the bottom in to give it a flatter bottom so it can stand leaning against something or even on its own. If you would like to turn this ornament into a pincushion, you can fill the bottom part with rice.

1. To start, download and print out the chicken template at the bottom of this page. Cut out the template.

2. Put two pieces of linen right sides together. Centre the template on sandwiched pieces, pin it and trace it with a water/heat removable pen. Mark the opening.

3. Set the stitch length to 1.8 (or the one shorter than you sew with) on your machine and stitch on the marked line. Backstitch the start and the end of the seam.

4. Trim the seam allowance to about 1/8" and clip the curves and corners.

5. Carefully turn the chicken right side out, pushing all the corners out gently. Using a small amount of soft fill, fill the chicken until it's plump and firm. Do not overstuff it.

6. Sew the opening closed by hand with a Ladder stitch.

7. Use a running stitch and two strands of brown embroidery floss to trace the shape of the chicken on both sides. Then use two strands of red floss and long straight stitches to add the comb, two strands of yellow floss to add the beak. For the eye use brown floss and Colonial knots.

Optional: You can add flowers on the side of the chicken. For the flowers I used two strands of floss and used a Lazy Daisy stitch and Colonial knots.

Here you have it a cute chicken Easter ornament. You can easily enlarge the pattern and make chickens of various sizes. You can add a ribbon loop if you would like to hang your chicken on a tree. Happy sewing and happy Easter!

Larisa xo