The Last 3 Ornaments...a Mouse, Jack and Sally

These are the last of the ornaments that I made for my daughter up to this year. After all the cat and dog ornaments from 2000-2004 my daughter wanted me to do something different. In 2005 her boyfriend was going to buy her 2 white mice for her Christmas gift so I decided to make a white mouse for her ornament. This was a really easy ornament to make and I had it done on December 19. I designed the pattern and made it out of white velour. The long tail is just a piece of white velour. When you sew the velour in a long narrow strip and turn it, it curls to make a nice mouse's tail. The eyes and nose are french knots. The ornament is rather small and is only 2 inches tall. My daughter got her mice, but one of them died by the end of January. Both of the mice got sick, but only one was strong enough to fight the infection. She was heart broken and blamed herself. I forget how long the surviving mouse lived.

In 2006 I started to make ornaments from the animated film, "The Nightmare Before Christmas." I had to design these ornaments myself since no pattern exists for them. The first character I made was Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King. He is actually a skeleton, so he is tall and skinny. I had to make him out of velour so I could make him skinny enough and still be able to turn the fabric. I tried to do it at first with cotton, but it was nearly impossible to turn such skinny pieces. I decided to make him in the Santa suit that he wears in the part of the film where he impersonates Santa. I painted the velour and added quilt batting for the white furry parts of his outfit and his beard. He is a rather long ornament and is 7 inches tall. The hat is made of red cotton fabric with a craft ball attached. I used a round toothpick painted white for his neck. Or maybe it was a thin dowel rod.

In 2007 I made Sally. I liked working on Sally since she has a patchwork dress. She is also really skinny so I used the velour for her body limbs as well. In the movie she is constantly sewing her arms or legs back on, and has lots of stitching showing on them. I stitched these lines with black thread. I drew her face with pigma pens. Her hair is embroidery floss. Sally was done on December 13! This was the earliest an ornament was ever completed. Sally is 6 inches tall and also has a toothpick inside her neck for support.

So what ornament do I plan to make this year? I plan to make the mayor from this film. I think he is going to be a challenge. Wish me luck! I will post photos during the process of making him.
Chris