Sleeping Beauty Ornament

Week three of our Fairy Tale Ornament series brings you Sleeping Beauty. This ornament is perfect for anyone who loves stitching, even your knitting and crocheting friends.

Once upon a time, there were a king and queen who longed for a child of their own. When at last they had a daughter, they were overjoyed and held a celebration for all the kingdom. They invited all the fairies in the land to the party to give their blessings to the princess; however, one of the fairies was thought to have died and did not receive an invitation. All were surprised to see this old fairy arrive, and they worried that she seemed unhappy at her omission. The youngest fairy hid behind a curtain so that she could give the final blessing and undo any harm the disgruntled old fairy might bring. The princess received blessings of beauty, kindness, grace, and talents. When the old fairy spoke, she declared that the princess would one day prick her finger on a spindle of a spinning wheel and die. The youngest fairy stepped forward and countered that the princess would not die, but fall asleep for a hundred years.  Fifteen years later, the princess stumbled upon a hidden spinning wheel, and as foretold, pricked her finger and instantly fell asleep. The youngest fairy got word and travelled by dragon-drawn chariot to the palace, where she put all the servants to sleep, so that when the princess awoke, she would not be alone. The palace was immediately covered in rose briars so no one could enter. When the hundred years had passed, a young prince heard the story of the princess and vowed to get into the palace to waken her. At first glance, he fell in love, kissed her, and she awoke. Everyone else woke too, and they held a feast, marrying the prince and princess, who lived happily ever after. 

The day I (Teri) made this ornament, I invited a friend to come and learn how to stitch it with me. First, we gathered materials we would need: the pattern, a 3.5-inch circle template, black wool for the background, hand-dyed brown for the spinning wheel, and bits of green for leaves and red for the rosebud. I also had needles, marking pen, beads, and thread for embroidery.

We first marked the circle on the black wool, cutting out two of them, one for the front and one for the back. We traced the spinning wheel on the freezer paper and pressed it onto the brown wool, which I had backed with Soft Fuse.

Now I had to really study this to determine the best way to stitch the units of the spinning wheel. If I were stitching it with cotton, I would likely stitch each unit separately, but I was thinking the wool might look a bit lumpy, so I decided we should cut it as one unit. 

I carefully cut around the outline of the spinning wheel. To cut the inside of the wheel, I cut through the wheel along the side as pictured on the freezer paper above. After removing the freezer paper, I took the paper off the Soft Fuse on the back of the spinning wheel and ironed it in place on the background circle. Once the piece was stitched down, it was not evident that it had been cut. I whip stitched the spinning wheel in place with matching silk thread. One caution: I have a tendency to pull my stitches a bit too tight; to be sure the wool doesn't pucker, try not to use too tight a tension. (I learned this the hard way.)

My friend, working on her first appliqué. I can't wait to see her finished ornament!

         

I chose a wool thread that matched the spinning wheel to outline the spindle. I cut and whip stitched the rosebud in place beneath the spinning wheel.

I placed the leaves. With my Sewline white marking pencil, I sketched the vines as a guide for my embroidery. After using the stem stitch with wool thread for the vine, I whip stitched the leaves in place. (You could do these steps in either order.)

Again, using my Sewline white pencil, I sketched the spokes in the wheel and used the matching thread to stitch them. I also outlined the arm of the spinning wheel, which covered the place where I had cut through to the inside of the circle. I stitched a wooden bead in the center for an axle.

Using a few dabs of glue, I placed a piece of Timtex interfacing between the two black circles to stabilize the ornament. I stitched a small hanging ribbon to the interfacing before stitching the circles together.

Using a knotted blanket stitch (see tutorial here) and adding a bead between each stitch, I finished my ornament. I used perle cotton #12 and #6 glass beads.

We hope you are enjoying stitching these ornaments. For your free pattern, click here: Sleeping Beauty. If you have made Cinderella's slipper or Little Red Riding Hood, we'd love to see some of your examples. You could share them on our Facebook or Google+ pages. Or post your photos on Instagram and tag us (@needleseyestories). 

UPDATE: Thank you for stopping by here! A detailed pattern will be available at a future date at www.needleseyestories.com

We are so glad you have stopped by to visit our blog. Bet you can't guess what next week's fairy tale will be!