She Made a Village

In the spirit of a handmade holiday, I decided to make ornaments for extended family this year. A project that's not too big (I have a tendency to go a tad overboard, then burn-out) but also not too small — especially when paired with a box of homemade candy (I got all my recipes from Martha, in case you're intrigued).

Using this fantastic tutorial from Pimp Stitch, I made a little compound of elfin houses, as I think Lauren put it in her original post.

I basicallly followed the tutorial exactly as it was written: cutting out the pieces, stitching them together inside out and adding the loop of ribbon...

...stitching on the bottom and then flipping them inside out before adding the embroidery and stuffing them.

The only change I made was to embroider them before stuffing them - but that was really only because I'm not a terrifically confident stitcher and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to maneuver the needle adequately on such a small space without being able to catch it from the back.

I'm very pleased with the way they turned out (these, by the way, are not stuffed yet) although they are a bit more squat that Lauren's (still cute though!).

Happy stitching all!