Easy Christmas Decoration Tutorial 4 - Candy Canes

Hello lovelies!

Christmas is creeping closer by the minute, and I'm existing in a whirlwind of red and white craft supplies, glittery reindeer, teetering piles of presents and Advent Treasure Hunt clues*. My latest fabric decoration tutorial takes a lot less time to make than the felt snowflakes because of the simpler shape and lack of blanket stitching (although you could of course running-stitch the snowflakes together if you wanted to). I know I could've just put real candy canes on our tree but (somewhat paradoxically) whilst I'm sugar-junkie who can eat Dairy Milk for hours without feeling sick, and thinks Bruce Bogtrotter was a chocolate cake lightweight, I'm not a huge fan of sweets. So, instead, I decided to make them out of fabric. 

You will need:
Red and white striped fabric (cotton works well)
Needle, thread and scissors. 
Toy/cushion stuffing (or little, leftover scraps of fabric/cotton balls)
Wool/ribbon to make a loop
Optional - pencil and paper to make a template

To make a candy cane decoration:

1. If you want to use a template draw a large candy cane shape onto a piece of paper, adding a 1cm seam allowance around the entire diameter of the template. Then draw around the candy cane shape twice onto the back of the fabric- once facing up and once facing down. 

If you're not using a template, fold the fabric in half and cut a candy cane shape out of both layers simultaneously

Whichever way you cut your pieces, make sure the stripes are running diagonally across your candy cane, like so:

3. Put the right sides of the two pieces together, and sew around the edge with a basic running stitch- leave the bottom edge of the candy cane open. When you're nearing the top of the cane, push a loop of wool/ribbon down into the centre of the candy cane, and leave the ends sticking out. This means when you turn it the right way round the loop will be on the outside. Sew through the ribbon ends and candy cane pieces to securely attach the loop. 

4. Turn your candy cane the right way round, pushing it through the open end at the bottom (once you've found the end of the ribbon loop, this will help you turn it the right way round much more quickly). 

5. Stuff the cane with toy stuffing and sew up the bottom edge. I would recommend using a pen/chopstick/other poking device to help you push the stuffing right to the end of the candy cane. 

6. Sit back and admire your handiwork (then hang it on the tree/mantelpiece/your boyfriend's ear- whatever makes you feel most festive).

Sweet, huh? (Sorry)

Katie xxx

*I'll be posting up a weekly summary of the clues and presents every Saturday in December so you can guess where the gifts were hidden.