Vintage Christmas Wreath Beaded & Embroidered Ornaments

Draw round the inside of the embroidery hoop. This will ensure that your design will fit inside the hoop!

In a cursive style of handwriting, write the word "joy." On the downstrokes, add extra lines and color in the spaces.

Around the letters, draw 3 rough circles. If you don’t like them, don’t worry, just erase it and have another go.

Add some leaves. Don’t make them too small and be sure to space them out. It will look nicer and be easier to sew. Please note that my designs don’t have the leaves on! I decided that I’d rather just sew them and not be constrained by what I’d drawn.

Repeat for the words "love" and "peace." If you wanted to, you could just write the words and use the garland you’ve already drawn. I redrew them because I wanted each hoop to look slightly different.

Now transfer them to the fabric. You could either use dressmakers’ carbon paper, or you could trace them. If you want to trace them, it’s easiest to do this if you use a lightbox. You can make a lightbox yourself using a plastic box and your phone.

Bring the thread through to the right side at the start of where you want to begin sewing. Make a stitch by passing the needle through to the back. Now bring the needle through to the right side again.

Make another stitch by passing the needle through from front to back at the end of the previous stitch.

Now bring the needle back up on the right side, and make another stitch by sewing back to the end of the previous stitch.

You’ll need to use small stitches for sewing curves, and longer ones where the lines of the design are straighter.

Bring the needle through to the right side of the fabric. Make a loop by passing the needle back through to the back, next to where the loop starts. This will be the bottom of the stitch.

Bring the needle back up to where you want the other end of the stitch to be.

Catch the loop and pull it taut.

Now sew over the loop.

Bring the needle through to the right side. With the needle close to where the base of the knot will be, wrap the thread around the needle a couple of times.

Pull it taut. Pass the needle through to the back, not in the same space though or you’ll lose your knot!

Hold the knot with your thumb while you pull the thread through.

The letters are worked in backstitch. I wrote each word without lifting the pencil off the page, so it’s possible to sew each word all in one go! Just start at one end and keep going, just as if you were writing.

For the thicker downstrokes, go back and add an extra line of stitching.

For the dot of the "j" in joy, sew a French knot.

The garland is also sewn using the backstitch. Choose a point where all three lines intersect and start there. Go round once, following one of the lines. When you get back to where you started, go round again following another of the lines. Keep going until you have completed the garland.

The leaves of the garland are worked in lazy daisies. Starting on the outside of the garland, sew lazy daisies at an angle so that they are all pointing in the same direction. Spread them out and don’t make them too small!

When you’ve sewn leaves around the outside of the garland, sew some more on the inside. Don’t worry if you have to miss some leaves out for the letters.

Once the embroidery is completed, sew seed beads to the garland.

Pop the embroidery hoop you’ll be using to display the embroidery over the top of it and draw around it. Trim the fabric down to a couple of centimeters away from the circle you drew.

Using the inside part of the hoop, draw round it onto a piece of felt and cut it out.

Put the embroidery into the hoop for display. Sew a running stitch around the excess fabric at the back and pull it tight.

Sew the felt to the back of the embroidery.

Tie a piece of ribbon for hanging.