DIY Felt Moon Tree Ornament

Because my Mom’s new tree theme is inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I’ve been inspired by celestial bodies (like my Cricut star ornaments and these beaded moon ornaments) and this DIY felt moon tree ornament is the latest “night” themed ornament I made. I followed the same method as I did when making the various felt ornaments I sewed last year (which included animals and moons). These DIY felt moon ornaments are easy to make and endlessly customizable with different felt colors, beading or other decoration (like sequins).

Supplies:

Thin, flexible felt (I use polyester felt sheets, but wool blend or thin upcycled felted wool sweaters works too)
Carpet & button thread (I use Coats & Clark brand)
Thinner, regular thread for beading (whatever you have that goes through the beads)
Thin needle for beading (beading needle is ideal, but other needles can work)
Sturdy sewing needle (to use with carpet & button thread)
Seed beads or bugle beads
Poly-fil/Fiber fill or other stuffing
Tailor’s pencil/pen – I honestly think a marker would work even better
Scissors
Paper/cardboard/printer/cookie cutter – DIY “pattern” supplies
Capped pen

How to Make a DIY Felt Moon Tree Ornament:

Create your moon shaped stencil (print crescent moon clip art, freehand onto cardboard, use a cookie cutter, etc)
Trace your moon onto felt – two for each ornament
Cut out the shapes
Use thread and a beading needle to stitch beads onto the front piece (I anchor the bugle beads twice, seed beads only once)
Using a blanket stitch, start to sew two halves of the moon together (leave an opening for the stuffing)
Gently push in small clumps of stuffing, using a capped pen to push it into the tips of the moon
Keep filling and squish the ornament to move the stuffing around
Finish sewing the ornament closed
Thread some thread through the top to hang

Keep reading for more detailed instructions with photos!

The first step for this DIY felt moon tree ornament is to make a little “pattern” for yourself. Once you can do this, you can make felt ornaments in ANY shape and never have to buy a pattern. Use a cookie cutter, freehand draw your design onto cardboard, or cut out a picture from the internet, like I did! Trace it with a tailor’s pen/pencil/marker onto the felt. I buy my sheets of felt (it’s inexpensive synthetic, it looks a lot like what this company sells) at Fabricland, but you can also find nicer wool felt online (this one is a wool/rayon blend in pretty colors).

Cut out your shapes – I LOVE Fiskars scissors for this because they’re so sharp.

Choose the “front” and add sew on beads. I used a thin metallic thread and a beading needle for this, because some of my seed beads have tiny holes and I had these supplies already. Basically, I just poked the needle from the back side of the felt, slid on a seed bead, poked the needle back down and popped up somewhere else to repeat the process. For bugle beads, I did this step twice (anchoring the bead twice with thread) to make them extra secure. Add as many, or as few beads, as you like – to give you a sense of time, my densely beaded moon took 2-3 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to bead, lol. The more minimalist ones took 1 episode. Bugle beads will fill the space visually much more quickly if you’re short on time and want more sparkle. You can also just add a dusting of beads for a quicker project.

The back will look messy, but that’s okay because it will be hidden inside the ornament – just make sure everything is nice and secure because once the ornament is sewn together you cannot adjust things back here.

When you’re happy with the beadwork, close up the ornament most of the way (leaving an opening for the stuffing), using a blanket stitch and carpet & button thread. I LOVE using carpet & button thread because it’s more sturdy than regular thread but it’s still thin and easy to sew with. You could also use embroidery thread or regular thread, but this is my preference from sewing a bunch of these last year. To sew a blanket stitch, poke the need through the back of the ornament along the edge, having left a little space between the last stitch, then put the needle back through the loop you created (and repeat):

Here’s a closer look at the stitching – small little stitches work best, in a thread that matches as closely as possible. The thread I like had limited colors when I shopped locally this year, but the purple worked for both shades of purple and indigo felt. You can do contrasting stitching, if you like, but I don’t like the focus to be on the stitching.

Here’s the gap I left for stuffing – I found this location best because it made it easiest to fill the points of the crescent moon:

I added stuffing, starting with the points and using a capped pen to push to stuffing into the points. I filled it until I was content with the poofiness, I squished it flat with my fingers and just mushed around the stuffing so it was nice and even. Then I continued the blanket stitch to close up the space.

I will update this post with new photos once we finish decorating my Mom’s tree. We will just add a little gold loop of thread to the top to hang it. I can already tell you that these beads really catch the light and are going to look so, so pretty on her tree! I hope you like this DIY felt moon ornament idea! Check out this post for more felt ornament ideas and see my beaded crescent moon ornaments here.

UPDATE: Use These for Halloween Too!

I used these beaded felt moons as a DIY felt moon garland for my Mom’s mantel. I mixed them in with some DIY acrylic discs we painted and decorated with celestial themes to create a DIY Cricut Acrylic Disc Garland for Halloween. I love that these felt moons work for seasonal decorating beyond the tree.