Looking for a sweet handmade Christmas gift idea? How about a darling handsewn Christmas bear ornament?

This ornament was inspired by a handsewn bear ornament I received as a gift as a small child… it still hangs on our Christmas tree today (over 40 years later!). My name was embroidered on the back. These little bears can be personalized as well, with a child’s name or the year, perhaps. Who knows? You might be creating an heirloom!

Simply download our free pattern, gather your supplies, and watch the video to see how to make this easy project. New to sewing? No worries, our tutorial shows you all of the stitches from start to finish.

Making these bears can also be a nice mother-child activity. Little one can make some big stitches, and mama can do the more detailed stitches. They make a cuddly toy too (just leave off the ornament hanging loop).

Print the FREE pattern…

Download our free pattern, then print it on cardstock. Be sure to select “actual size” when printing the PDF.

Gather your supplies…

Wool or wool blend felt. (We do not recommend acrylic felt from a craft store for this project, as the quality of such felt is not great.) We used white and gray felt for our bears, but you could choose other colors if you like. Etsy is a great place to find wool felt. We used wool blend felt from OneOfTheFlock on Etsy.

Stuffing. For an all natural bear, using wool stuffing is a nice idea. We used polyester fiberfill. Only a small amount of stuffing is needed.

Embroidery floss. We chose white and gray-blue colors for our bears, but be creative – any colors of your choice could work. We love the DMC brand.

Embroidery needle. We think size 5 is nice. It’s up to you how many strands of embroidery floss you use, so pick a needle with a larger eye if you are planning to use more than 2-3 strands.

Sewing scissors and craft scissors. We like to use craft scissors for cutting out the cardstock pattern and sewing scissors for cutting the felt. (Sewing scissors may get dull if they are used to cut fabric.)

Cardstock (Using cardstock works better than paper for printing out the pattern).

Pencil (for transferring the pattern onto the felt).

If the video image does not appear, simply click this link.

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