It’s the festive season again, which means a whole of new leather holiday decorations ideas from NomadeCrafts! I completed the first batch of 6 new ornaments for 2025 before my local Christmas market opened. When it finally did and I paid it a visit, I started thinking about other designs as I was walking around – inspired as I was by the festive atmosphere and the warm spicy red wine that I was drinking. I didn’t want to wait another year to make those ideas a reality so I immediately got to work after I arrived back home. I hope that you will enjoy the result!
Initially the plan was to include three patterns as part of this release. However the third project turned out to be very difficult to assemble. Since I am not in the business of selling frustrating projects, I decided to offer it for free on its own as The Puzzle Bauble for the valiant (and very patient) crafter!
Most of the initial steps for these decorations are identical. When that’s the case, only one decoration will be shown for that step. Specific instructions will be provided for each decoration whenever the process differs.
Print out the pattern corresponding to the decoration that you will be working on.
Make sure that the pattern is not resized by checking your print settings. You can check if it was printed properly by measuring the reference found at the bottom of each page.
Securing the pieces of the pattern to the leather
Roughly cut around the shape(s) of the pattern and use masking tape to secure them to your piece of leather.
Punching the stitching holes
Use a 1mm hole punch to punch the stitching holes for all the pieces.
For the peppermint candy, use a 2mm hole punch to punch the two holes that will accommodate the ring.
Cutting out the pieces of the project
Using a pair of scissors or an X-Acto knife, cut out all the pieces of the decoration.
Bevelling and skiving the pieces
For the peppermint candy, bevel both sides of one edge for each piece – the edge that will overlap the next piece. The opposite edge does not need to be bevelled as it will be covered. This step is optional and purely aesthetic.
Use a skiver to skive the two extremities of each piece. Aim to reduce the thickness by half. All those parts are going to end up stacked on top of each other, which is why it is important to make them thinner (but not too thin or the last hole might tear during stitching).
For the star, bevel all edges of the two pentagons (both sides), and bevel all three edges (both sides) of ten triangles. Bevelling the flesh side helps the pieces join at the proper angle, while bevelling the grain side is for aesthetics.
For the remaining ten triangles, bevel only the two longest edges – on both the grain and flesh sides.
Painting the leather
I used Angelus leather paints to paint the two decorations:
Riot Red and White for the peppermint candy.
Pearlescent Gold with touches of Bronze along the edges for the star.
Assembly procedure for each decoration
Peppermint Candy
First setup the hanging ring inside the two holes.
Then, stitch two pieces together using a saddle stitch. Remember to position the piece with the bevelled edge on top.
Add the next piece on top of the last one. Continue this process until all eight pieces are attached, leaving only the final two edges – from the first and last piece – to be stitched together.
As you progress, it will become more difficult to access the needle holes from the inside. This is when curved needles become essential.
That final stitch is the most challenging part. The edge from the last piece (currently on top) must be stitched underneath the edge of the first piece.
First, thread your needles through the initial two holes of each piece in the final assembly order: start through the last piece from underneath, then through the first piece, also from underneath. Next, carefully tuck the tip of the last piece beneath the tip of the first piece and pull the thread tight. This is why using a leather that is not too firm is important. It makes it easier to wiggle that last bit in place.
When you reach the end, you must repeat this operation of tucking the tip of the last piece. At this stage, an S-curved needle or a fine-hooked curved needle will be essential to navigate the last two holes.
Congrats, you’ve done it!
5-Pointed Star
Start by stitching the small side of five triangles around one of the two pentagons, using a cross-stitch.
Repeat the process with the second pentagon to form a second star.
The two halves of the star are joined by five side panels, each a parallelogram composed of two triangles stitched together along their short sides.
Join two points of each star by stitching a triangle between them.
Once both long edges of the side panel’s first triangle are connected, connect it to the second triangle of the side panel by stitching their short edges together.
Then stitch the long sides of that second triangle to the corresponding edges of the two stars.
Repeat this process four more times to complete the decoration.
There is more than one way to skin a cat, and you may prefer a different approach when attaching the side panels. For the last panel in particular, it is easier to first stitch the short sides of the two triangles together and then attach the completed parallelogram to the star halves.
Finally, thread your cord through the two holes at the tip of one point and tie a double knot to create a hanging loop.
You can also insert a ring through those holes. Using only a cord, as I did, may cause the ornament to hang with its side facing forward. (I used this method because I did not have a gold ring available.)
Final result
I hope you enjoyed following along this tutorial. Please consider posting a photo of your creation in the comments below. It would mean a lot to me to see my little projects out into the world as you make it your own.
Any feedback/question about this tutorial or project idea that you’d like to see posted here is and always will be more than welcome.
Happy crafting!
Footnotes
The following online content provided some assistance and/or inspiration during the making of this project:
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Tutorial
2 Leather Holiday Decorations
4 to 5 hours / decoration
Intermediate
Common for leathercraft
It’s the festive season again, which means a whole of new leather holiday decorations ideas from NomadeCrafts! I completed the first batch of 6 new ornaments for 2025 before my local Christmas market opened. When it finally did and I paid it a visit, I started thinking about other designs as I was walking around – inspired as I was by the festive atmosphere and the warm spicy red wine that I was drinking. I didn’t want to wait another year to make those ideas a reality so I immediately got to work after I arrived back home. I hope that you will enjoy the result!
Initially the plan was to include three patterns as part of this release. However the third project turned out to be very difficult to assemble. Since I am not in the business of selling frustrating projects, I decided to offer it for free on its own as The Puzzle Bauble for the valiant (and very patient) crafter!
Requirements
Skills
Tools
Bill of Materials
For each ornament:
Peppermint candy
Five-pointed star
Pattern
2 Leather Holiday Decorations
3,00 €Walk-through
Most of the initial steps for these decorations are identical. When that’s the case, only one decoration will be shown for that step. Specific instructions will be provided for each decoration whenever the process differs.
Printing out the pattern
You can get the patterns here if you haven’t already.
Print out the pattern corresponding to the decoration that you will be working on.
Make sure that the pattern is not resized by checking your print settings. You can check if it was printed properly by measuring the reference found at the bottom of each page.
Securing the pieces of the pattern to the leather
Roughly cut around the shape(s) of the pattern and use masking tape to secure them to your piece of leather.
Punching the stitching holes
Use a 1mm hole punch to punch the stitching holes for all the pieces.
For the peppermint candy, use a 2mm hole punch to punch the two holes that will accommodate the ring.
Cutting out the pieces of the project
Using a pair of scissors or an X-Acto knife, cut out all the pieces of the decoration.
Bevelling and skiving the pieces
For the peppermint candy, bevel both sides of one edge for each piece – the edge that will overlap the next piece. The opposite edge does not need to be bevelled as it will be covered. This step is optional and purely aesthetic.
Use a skiver to skive the two extremities of each piece. Aim to reduce the thickness by half. All those parts are going to end up stacked on top of each other, which is why it is important to make them thinner (but not too thin or the last hole might tear during stitching).
For the star, bevel all edges of the two pentagons (both sides), and bevel all three edges (both sides) of ten triangles. Bevelling the flesh side helps the pieces join at the proper angle, while bevelling the grain side is for aesthetics.
For the remaining ten triangles, bevel only the two longest edges – on both the grain and flesh sides.
Painting the leather
I used Angelus leather paints to paint the two decorations:
Assembly procedure for each decoration
Peppermint Candy
First setup the hanging ring inside the two holes.
Then, stitch two pieces together using a saddle stitch. Remember to position the piece with the bevelled edge on top.
Add the next piece on top of the last one. Continue this process until all eight pieces are attached, leaving only the final two edges – from the first and last piece – to be stitched together.
As you progress, it will become more difficult to access the needle holes from the inside. This is when curved needles become essential.
That final stitch is the most challenging part. The edge from the last piece (currently on top) must be stitched underneath the edge of the first piece.
First, thread your needles through the initial two holes of each piece in the final assembly order: start through the last piece from underneath, then through the first piece, also from underneath. Next, carefully tuck the tip of the last piece beneath the tip of the first piece and pull the thread tight. This is why using a leather that is not too firm is important. It makes it easier to wiggle that last bit in place.
When you reach the end, you must repeat this operation of tucking the tip of the last piece. At this stage, an S-curved needle or a fine-hooked curved needle will be essential to navigate the last two holes.
Congrats, you’ve done it!
5-Pointed Star
Start by stitching the small side of five triangles around one of the two pentagons, using a cross-stitch.
Repeat the process with the second pentagon to form a second star.
The two halves of the star are joined by five side panels, each a parallelogram composed of two triangles stitched together along their short sides.
Join two points of each star by stitching a triangle between them.
Once both long edges of the side panel’s first triangle are connected, connect it to the second triangle of the side panel by stitching their short edges together.
Then stitch the long sides of that second triangle to the corresponding edges of the two stars.
Repeat this process four more times to complete the decoration.
There is more than one way to skin a cat, and you may prefer a different approach when attaching the side panels. For the last panel in particular, it is easier to first stitch the short sides of the two triangles together and then attach the completed parallelogram to the star halves.
Finally, thread your cord through the two holes at the tip of one point and tie a double knot to create a hanging loop.
You can also insert a ring through those holes. Using only a cord, as I did, may cause the ornament to hang with its side facing forward. (I used this method because I did not have a gold ring available.)
Final result
I hope you enjoyed following along this tutorial. Please consider posting a photo of your creation in the comments below. It would mean a lot to me to see my little projects out into the world as you make it your own.
Any feedback/question about this tutorial or project idea that you’d like to see posted here is and always will be more than welcome.
Happy crafting!
Footnotes
The following online content provided some assistance and/or inspiration during the making of this project: