It’s that time of year again at NomadeCrafts – our annual tradition of unveiling a new handmade Christmas ornament collection! After the first year’s focus on classic baubles and another set of 4 stunning ornaments last year, this season we’re taking things to a whole new level with a series of intricate, sculptural designs.
From spiked polyhedrons and petal globes to woven and stitchless spheres, along with a twisted teardrop and an eight-pointed star, each ornament brings its own personality and construction style. Whether you prefer clean geometry, traditional motifs, or elegant curves, there’s a project here to match your creativity.
Ready to bring these designs to life? Let’s gather the materials and dive into the step-by-step process for each ornament!
Most of the initial steps for these ornaments are identical. When that’s the case, only one ornament will be shown for that step. Specific instructions will be provided for each ornament whenever the process differs.
Print out the pattern corresponding to the ornament 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 hole punch to punch the stitching holes for all the pieces.
Use a 3mm hole punch to punch the hole that will accommodate the swivel rivet when applicable.
For the stitchless sphere, use a 2.5mm hole punch for the four corner hooks.
Cutting out the pieces of the project
Using a pair of scissors or an X-Acto knife, cut out all the pieces of the ornament.
Bevelling, skiving and creasing the pieces
The outer edges of each of the 12 stars that form the spiked polyhedron should be beveled on both the grain and flesh sides. This softens the edges, gives them a more rounded appearance, and makes assembly easier.
For the second option, use a swivel knife or groover to cut a line from the center of each star to the four low points around the perimeter. Besides adding a decorative detail, this scoring allows the star to fold cleanly along the five surfaces that shape it once the ornament is assembled.
For the petals globe, bevel the two edges that taper toward the tip (on the flesh side only) on every petal. This helps the “bulbs” form sharper points during assembly.
You can also use a swivel knife to add a decorative cut down the center of each petal. This encourages a subtle crease along the middle for a more defined look.
Depending on the final look that you are aiming for, you can omit those steps.
It is also recommended to skive about half the thickness of the tip of each petal so that they don’t protrude when they are stitched together.
Bevel the edges of twisted teardrop’s pieces marked + on the rough side only. This is to help with the assembly.
For the 8 pointed star, bevel all the edges (grain and flesh sides) to round them slightly and make assembly easier.
Painting the leather
Use the method of your choice to decorate your ornaments.
I used Angelus metallic leather paints:
Copper for the first option of the spiked polyhedron.Pacific Blue for the second option with touches of Silver on and around the edges.
Riot Red for the petals of the petals globe.
Pewter for the stitchless sphere with touches of Bronze around the top and bottom edges.
Copper and Rose Gold for the slices of the woven sphere.
Prince Purple for the slices of the twisted teardrop, with touches of Gold around the edges marked + and Gold for the topmost piece.
Silver for the 8 pointed star.
Assembly procedure for each ornament
Spiked Polyhedron
During the development of this ornament, I ended up with two slightly different designs, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. In the first option, all 12 stars that make up the ornament are constructed from five individual quadrilaterals. In the second option, ten of the stars are made as a single piece that requires stitching along only two edges to create their shape. The top and bottom stars are still built from five quadrilaterals to maintain symmetry in the final polyhedron.
In my opinion, the first option has a nicer appearance, but it takes considerably longer to stitch. For this reason, I decided to include the second option as well, allowing you to choose whichever design best fits your needs.
Option 1
Assemble each of the 12 stars of the polyhedron by stitching 5 quadrilaterals together using a cross-stitch.
5 of the quadrilaterals have a trimmed tip. This cutout will serve as the opening for the swivel-rivet screw, so be sure to stitch these 5 quadrilaterals together and position the hole at the center of the star.
Secure the swivel rivet to the star that will be at the top of the ornament by screwing it through the center hole.
To create the top-half of the ornament, 5 stars will be consecutively stitched to the star that we prepared during the last step.
Each star is positioned so that their points are facing each other. Use a cross-stitch to connect them, consecutively stitching two sides at a time as shown on the illustrations.
Repeat the last steps to create the bottom half by stitching together the remaining 6 stars.
Then stitch the two halves of the polyhedron together. Align them so that their points interlock: two points from the top half align above one point from the bottom half, then one point from the top aligns above two points from the bottom, and so on around the shape.
Option 2
To create the second polyhedron, start as we did for the first by stitching two stars each made up of 5 quadrilaterals.
As with the first option, on star has a hole in its center to accommodate the swivel rivet.
The remaining 10 stars only require two opposite edges to be stitched together in order to take shape.
The rest of the assembly is the same as with the first option.
Petals globe
Similar to the spiked polyhedron, there is both a longer and a shorter way to make the petals globe. Even though the first version is the one that matches what I originally had in mind, I included the easier option 2 as well.
Option 1
The top of the sphere is composed of the 5 notched petals. 2 petals are stitched to the shorter edges of each of those 5 petals
First, consecutively stitch together those 5 trios of petals using a saddle stitch (step 1 on the first illustration).
Then connect the 5 opposite short edges that remained un-stitched (step 2 on the illustration).
Repeat this process a second time to obtain the bottom of the sphere.
To complete the top, stitch together the opposite longer edges of each petals using a cross-stitch.
Every time you reach the top, stitch the round washer underneath. The role of this piece is to make sure that the swivel rivet can be secured properly.
Stitch the bottom in the same way.
Screw the swivel rivet to the top.
Stitching the center section of the sphere follows the same logic as the top. Use the remaining 30 petals to form 10 connected trios. The only difference is that each trio is oriented opposite to the one next to it.
10 petals trios are now stitched together using a saddle stitch, forming a sort of garland.
As you did for the top and bottom, stitch together the opposite longer edges of each petals using a cross-stitch to form a closed ribbon.
Finally stitch the top and bottom to the ribbon using a cross-stitch. The orientation of the ribbon relative to the top and bottom doesn’t matter. However make sure that the tips of each “bulb” are aligned: 3 petals from the ribbon + 2 from the top or bottom form a complete bulb.
If you’ve been reading the previous steps thinking, “What on earth is he talking about?”—don’t worry. There’s another way to assemble this ornament that may be easier to visualize. However, it uses a lot more thread and arguably takes more time, which is why I preferred the other method.
Still, here it is:
Create 20 trios of petals by stitching the short edges of three petals together using a saddle stitch.
Next, stitch five pairs of long edges together with a cross stitch to form the first bulb. Continue forming bulbs in the same way. Eventually, all the trios will be joined, creating 12 bulbs and completing the ornament!
Option 2
Similar to the second option of the spiked polyhedron, options 2 requires the two top and bottom bulbs to be created by cross-stitching the long edges of 5 petals together. The remaining 10 bulbs only require two opposite edges to be cross-stitched to one another to take shape.
Then each bulb must be connected to 5 surrounding bulbs by stitching the short edges of their petals to one another using a saddle stitch.
Woven sphere
The woven sphere is made of two sets of six strips, with each set being the mirror image of the other.
These twelve strips need to be stitched to the top disc (the one with the hole). Alternate between strips from each group as you stitch them in place using a saddle stitch. Make sure to stay consistent about which group of strips lays on top of the other throughout the assembly.
Then screw the swivel rivet to the disc.
Weave the strips together as you work your way around the ornament. Each weaving pattern needs to be repeated six times to complete one level.
As you progress, I recommend using clothespins to lock each completed weave in place so they don’t loosen or unravel while you move on to the next ones.
I recommend making at least nine criss-crosses for each strip – the more, the better. I managed to reach ten by keeping the clothespins on up to the ninth weave and completing the final one as I stitched the strips to the bottom disc.
When you reach the last weave, stitch the ends of each strip to the bottom disc using a saddle stitch to finish the ornament.
Stitchless sphere
This ornament is made up of 30 identical rectangular pieces. Each piece has four hooks—one at each corner—and every piece is assembled to its neighbours following the same principles:
The top and bottom edges of each piece always sit over the side edges of the surrounding pieces. In other words, the side edges of each piece always lie under the top or bottom edges of the adjacent pieces.
The top-right and bottom-left corners of each piece hook into four other pieces, forming a five-hooks node.
The top-left and bottom-right corners hook into two other pieces, forming a three-hooks node.
To begin assembling the ornament, hook 5 pieces together using their top-right hooks, with each hook passing under the one before it.
Each piece also hooks to the previous one at the bottom-right corner, passing that hook under the top-left hook of the adjoining piece.
Secure the swivel rivet by screwing it through the five-hook node at the top of the structure.
Then add 5 more pieces around the structure. Each of these pieces connects to the existing two-hook nodes using its top-left hook, and to the surrounding bottom-left hooks using its top-right and bottom-left hooks.
You should now have 5 three-hook nodes and 5 single bottom-right hooks remaining.
Connect 2 pieces to each three-hook node to form 5 five-hook nodes. You should now have 10 two-hook nodes in front of you.
From there, repeat the same process in the opposite direction to complete the sphere. If you get lost, remember that every piece interlocks with its neighbours using the same pattern – add one piece at a time, following the assembly logic described at the start.
Twisted teardrop
This ornament is made of two sets of five pieces each, which alternate to form the teardrop shape.
Use a cross stitch to join the first two strips – one from each set. Refer to the pattern to ensure you are stitching the correct edges together (+ with +, – with –).
Continue adding the remaining strips in the same way until only two edges are left to be stitched together.
Use curved needles to stitch the last two opposite edges.
Screw the swivel rivet to the top piece.
Use a single needle to attach the top piece to the teardrop. Start by passing the needle through a hole in one of the valleys of the teardrop, then through a corresponding hole in a petal from the top piece. Continue by going through the next hole in the teardrop, then back into the next hole of the petal. Skip the next two holes of the teardrop and repeat this process with the following petal. Once you’ve stitched through all the petals, pull both ends of the thread tight to fold and secure all the petals onto the teardrop, then finish with a double knot.
8 Pointed star
Form 8 pairs from the 16 quadrilaterals by stitching them together along their center line using a saddle stitch.
Fold each half of the pairs onto itself.
Join the pairs by stitching two opposite long edges together using a cross-stitch, starting at the right(ish) angle.
Once you reach the tips, go trough and continue on the other side.
Then stitch a small quadrilateral to the 4 smaller edges.
To end the stitch, you can double-knot your thread and hide the knot by pushing it through the intersection of the three pieces.
Continue stitching all the pairs together in the same manner until the 8-pointed star is complete.
Finally, attach a ring through the holes at the top of any of the eight points to finish the ornament.
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
6 Christmas ornaments made with leather
4 to 8 hours / ornament
Intermediate
Common for leathercraft
It’s that time of year again at NomadeCrafts – our annual tradition of unveiling a new handmade Christmas ornament collection! After the first year’s focus on classic baubles and another set of 4 stunning ornaments last year, this season we’re taking things to a whole new level with a series of intricate, sculptural designs.
From spiked polyhedrons and petal globes to woven and stitchless spheres, along with a twisted teardrop and an eight-pointed star, each ornament brings its own personality and construction style. Whether you prefer clean geometry, traditional motifs, or elegant curves, there’s a project here to match your creativity.
Ready to bring these designs to life? Let’s gather the materials and dive into the step-by-step process for each ornament!
Requirements
Skills
Tools
Bill of Materials
For each ornament:
Spiked polyhedron
Petals globe
Woven sphere
Stitchless sphere
You really want something thin (no more than 1.2mm) and as firm as possible for this one otherwise you won’t be able to assemble the ornament.
Twisted teardrop
8 Pointed stars
Pattern
6 Hanging Leather Ornaments Patterns Pack
$6.00Walk-through
Most of the initial steps for these ornaments are identical. When that’s the case, only one ornament will be shown for that step. Specific instructions will be provided for each ornament 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 ornament 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 hole punch to punch the stitching holes for all the pieces.
Use a 3mm hole punch to punch the hole that will accommodate the swivel rivet when applicable.
For the stitchless sphere, use a 2.5mm hole punch for the four corner hooks.
Cutting out the pieces of the project
Using a pair of scissors or an X-Acto knife, cut out all the pieces of the ornament.
Bevelling, skiving and creasing the pieces
The outer edges of each of the 12 stars that form the spiked polyhedron should be beveled on both the grain and flesh sides. This softens the edges, gives them a more rounded appearance, and makes assembly easier.
For the second option, use a swivel knife or groover to cut a line from the center of each star to the four low points around the perimeter. Besides adding a decorative detail, this scoring allows the star to fold cleanly along the five surfaces that shape it once the ornament is assembled.
For the petals globe, bevel the two edges that taper toward the tip (on the flesh side only) on every petal. This helps the “bulbs” form sharper points during assembly.
You can also use a swivel knife to add a decorative cut down the center of each petal. This encourages a subtle crease along the middle for a more defined look.
Depending on the final look that you are aiming for, you can omit those steps.
It is also recommended to skive about half the thickness of the tip of each petal so that they don’t protrude when they are stitched together.
Bevel the edges of twisted teardrop’s pieces marked + on the rough side only. This is to help with the assembly.
For the 8 pointed star, bevel all the edges (grain and flesh sides) to round them slightly and make assembly easier.
Painting the leather
Use the method of your choice to decorate your ornaments.
I used Angelus metallic leather paints:
Assembly procedure for each ornament
Spiked Polyhedron
During the development of this ornament, I ended up with two slightly different designs, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. In the first option, all 12 stars that make up the ornament are constructed from five individual quadrilaterals. In the second option, ten of the stars are made as a single piece that requires stitching along only two edges to create their shape. The top and bottom stars are still built from five quadrilaterals to maintain symmetry in the final polyhedron.
In my opinion, the first option has a nicer appearance, but it takes considerably longer to stitch. For this reason, I decided to include the second option as well, allowing you to choose whichever design best fits your needs.
Option 1
Assemble each of the 12 stars of the polyhedron by stitching 5 quadrilaterals together using a cross-stitch.
5 of the quadrilaterals have a trimmed tip. This cutout will serve as the opening for the swivel-rivet screw, so be sure to stitch these 5 quadrilaterals together and position the hole at the center of the star.
Secure the swivel rivet to the star that will be at the top of the ornament by screwing it through the center hole.
To create the top-half of the ornament, 5 stars will be consecutively stitched to the star that we prepared during the last step.
Each star is positioned so that their points are facing each other. Use a cross-stitch to connect them, consecutively stitching two sides at a time as shown on the illustrations.
Repeat the last steps to create the bottom half by stitching together the remaining 6 stars.
Then stitch the two halves of the polyhedron together. Align them so that their points interlock: two points from the top half align above one point from the bottom half, then one point from the top aligns above two points from the bottom, and so on around the shape.
Option 2
To create the second polyhedron, start as we did for the first by stitching two stars each made up of 5 quadrilaterals.
As with the first option, on star has a hole in its center to accommodate the swivel rivet.
The remaining 10 stars only require two opposite edges to be stitched together in order to take shape.
The rest of the assembly is the same as with the first option.
Petals globe
Similar to the spiked polyhedron, there is both a longer and a shorter way to make the petals globe. Even though the first version is the one that matches what I originally had in mind, I included the easier option 2 as well.
Option 1
The top of the sphere is composed of the 5 notched petals. 2 petals are stitched to the shorter edges of each of those 5 petals
First, consecutively stitch together those 5 trios of petals using a saddle stitch (step 1 on the first illustration).
Then connect the 5 opposite short edges that remained un-stitched (step 2 on the illustration).
Repeat this process a second time to obtain the bottom of the sphere.
To complete the top, stitch together the opposite longer edges of each petals using a cross-stitch.
Every time you reach the top, stitch the round washer underneath. The role of this piece is to make sure that the swivel rivet can be secured properly.
Stitch the bottom in the same way.
Screw the swivel rivet to the top.
Stitching the center section of the sphere follows the same logic as the top. Use the remaining 30 petals to form 10 connected trios. The only difference is that each trio is oriented opposite to the one next to it.
10 petals trios are now stitched together using a saddle stitch, forming a sort of garland.
As you did for the top and bottom, stitch together the opposite longer edges of each petals using a cross-stitch to form a closed ribbon.
Finally stitch the top and bottom to the ribbon using a cross-stitch. The orientation of the ribbon relative to the top and bottom doesn’t matter. However make sure that the tips of each “bulb” are aligned: 3 petals from the ribbon + 2 from the top or bottom form a complete bulb.
If you’ve been reading the previous steps thinking, “What on earth is he talking about?”—don’t worry. There’s another way to assemble this ornament that may be easier to visualize. However, it uses a lot more thread and arguably takes more time, which is why I preferred the other method.
Still, here it is:
Create 20 trios of petals by stitching the short edges of three petals together using a saddle stitch.
Next, stitch five pairs of long edges together with a cross stitch to form the first bulb. Continue forming bulbs in the same way. Eventually, all the trios will be joined, creating 12 bulbs and completing the ornament!
Option 2
Similar to the second option of the spiked polyhedron, options 2 requires the two top and bottom bulbs to be created by cross-stitching the long edges of 5 petals together. The remaining 10 bulbs only require two opposite edges to be cross-stitched to one another to take shape.
Then each bulb must be connected to 5 surrounding bulbs by stitching the short edges of their petals to one another using a saddle stitch.
Woven sphere
The woven sphere is made of two sets of six strips, with each set being the mirror image of the other.
These twelve strips need to be stitched to the top disc (the one with the hole). Alternate between strips from each group as you stitch them in place using a saddle stitch. Make sure to stay consistent about which group of strips lays on top of the other throughout the assembly.
Then screw the swivel rivet to the disc.
Weave the strips together as you work your way around the ornament. Each weaving pattern needs to be repeated six times to complete one level.
As you progress, I recommend using clothespins to lock each completed weave in place so they don’t loosen or unravel while you move on to the next ones.
I recommend making at least nine criss-crosses for each strip – the more, the better. I managed to reach ten by keeping the clothespins on up to the ninth weave and completing the final one as I stitched the strips to the bottom disc.
When you reach the last weave, stitch the ends of each strip to the bottom disc using a saddle stitch to finish the ornament.
Stitchless sphere
This ornament is made up of 30 identical rectangular pieces. Each piece has four hooks—one at each corner—and every piece is assembled to its neighbours following the same principles:
To begin assembling the ornament, hook 5 pieces together using their top-right hooks, with each hook passing under the one before it.
Each piece also hooks to the previous one at the bottom-right corner, passing that hook under the top-left hook of the adjoining piece.
Secure the swivel rivet by screwing it through the five-hook node at the top of the structure.
Then add 5 more pieces around the structure. Each of these pieces connects to the existing two-hook nodes using its top-left hook, and to the surrounding bottom-left hooks using its top-right and bottom-left hooks.
You should now have 5 three-hook nodes and 5 single bottom-right hooks remaining.
Connect 2 pieces to each three-hook node to form 5 five-hook nodes. You should now have 10 two-hook nodes in front of you.
From there, repeat the same process in the opposite direction to complete the sphere. If you get lost, remember that every piece interlocks with its neighbours using the same pattern – add one piece at a time, following the assembly logic described at the start.
Twisted teardrop
This ornament is made of two sets of five pieces each, which alternate to form the teardrop shape.
Use a cross stitch to join the first two strips – one from each set. Refer to the pattern to ensure you are stitching the correct edges together (+ with +, – with –).
Continue adding the remaining strips in the same way until only two edges are left to be stitched together.
Use curved needles to stitch the last two opposite edges.
Screw the swivel rivet to the top piece.
Use a single needle to attach the top piece to the teardrop. Start by passing the needle through a hole in one of the valleys of the teardrop, then through a corresponding hole in a petal from the top piece. Continue by going through the next hole in the teardrop, then back into the next hole of the petal. Skip the next two holes of the teardrop and repeat this process with the following petal. Once you’ve stitched through all the petals, pull both ends of the thread tight to fold and secure all the petals onto the teardrop, then finish with a double knot.
8 Pointed star
Form 8 pairs from the 16 quadrilaterals by stitching them together along their center line using a saddle stitch.
Fold each half of the pairs onto itself.
Join the pairs by stitching two opposite long edges together using a cross-stitch, starting at the right(ish) angle.
Once you reach the tips, go trough and continue on the other side.
Then stitch a small quadrilateral to the 4 smaller edges.
To end the stitch, you can double-knot your thread and hide the knot by pushing it through the intersection of the three pieces.
Continue stitching all the pairs together in the same manner until the 8-pointed star is complete.
Finally, attach a ring through the holes at the top of any of the eight points to finish the ornament.
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: