a christmas ornament upcycled from an old beaded sari

I’ve said it before but I am a very lucky woman! I have the best friends who often give me bags of potential craft materials “in case you can use it for something”. A few years ago one friend gave me a bag full of old saris.

This one is a polyester organza, very transparent and very slippery to work with. It is also very heavily embellished with the most beautiful beads and sequins. It had a couple of stains that just wouldn’t come out and a few small tears which makes it perfect for crafting.

It’s time for another Sustainable Craft Challenge, where I join a group of my creative blogger friends and we all share a craft idea with a sustainable twist. It could be a craft project with an upcycling or recycling element or be an idea that reduces waste and therefore consumption. This month our theme is CHRISTMAS.

I’ve made ornaments for the Christmas tree with some of the embellished parts of this sari but these ornaments could be used for decorating for Diwali, Navratri, Eid or any other time you want to celebrate by decorating with beautiful hanging ornaments of course. I plan to keep some of these for our tree and give some to the friend who gave me her old sari in the first place by way of a thank you.

How to make hanging ornaments from an old sari

To make your own Christmas Ornaments from an old sari you will need:

An old sari with beaded embellishment
Thick corrugated card
Scrap of paper and pen to make a template
Scraps of thin wadding/batting
Sewing thread and needle
Sharp fabric scissors & scissors for cardboard
Scrap card in a toning colour to your fabric
Quilters clips or clothes pegs
Seam ripper
Metallic cord or thin ribbon
A strong PVA glue, something like Anita’s Tacky glue or Impex Hi Tack or Aleene’s Tacky Glue

Exactly what your ornaments will look like, the size and shape etc will depend on the beaded and embroidered areas of the sari you are upcycling. I’ll explain what I did with mine and then you can just adapt it to fit whatever you are working with.

Make a template

The first thing you need to do is to make a template. Start by cutting one of embellished areas from your sari allowing a wide border of fabric around the outside.

I found this was a bit trial an error, but I couldn’t think of a better method. Place a piece of scrap paper underneath the beaded design and then fold the fabric back to mark on the paper just outside of the design all the way round. I experimented a bit and found the ornaments look best if the beaded or embroidered design covers almost all of it, so it’s right up to the edge. I used a glass to draw round to smooth the bottom part of my template, but how you do this will depend on what shape you are making. Allow a little extra space at the top for your hanging cord to go. You can see in the 4th picture how the beaded design covers almost all the template area.

Prepare the inner card

Cut out your scrap paper template and then use it to cut shapes from your thick corrugated card.

card cut into raindrop shapes and covered with a layer of wadding

Apply some glue to the card and stick on a piece of thin wadding or batting. When they are dry, cut them out and put to one side.

Prepare the sari fabric

Next you’ll need to prepare your beaded sari fabric; if there are any clusters of beads or sequins near to the main design area you are working with you’ll need to remove them. If there is just decorative stitching I think you’ll be ok to leave it in place but beads and sequins are lumpy and will get in the way in the next step. I used a seam ripper but small sharp embroidery scissors would work just as well.

Next grab a long length of sewing thread and double it up for strength. Sew around the fabric with a long simple running stitch, pop the wadding covered card inside and the pull the thread up tight. You’ll need to turn it over to check the right side, give it a bit of a wiggle to get the design positioned correctly and then once you are happy, cast off the thread securely.

Back the ornament

Next cut a backing for your ornament to cover all the gathering from the scraps of coloured card. Using the template draw your ornament shape on the scrap card and cut out a couple of millimetres inside of the line, so the backing is just a little smaller.

Apply glue to the back of the backing and then stick it to the back of the ornament. Use the quilters clips to hold it in place until it dries. If you don’t have any quilters clips then something like laundry clothes pegs would work to.

Once that’s dry all you need to do is make a hole in the top and thread your cord through for hanging.

Ta Dah! Now make loads more, it’s quite easy to get a production line going.

I did experiment and try making some much smaller ornaments from the small circular motifs on my sari. I cut as much of the gathered fabric away from the back as I could but it still has a bit of a bulge at the back and a creasing of the card that I don’t really like. Maybe a circle of felt would work better on this smaller size?

I conclude that this idea works better on slightly larger motifs. The ones I’ve made here measure 3” x 2.5”

christmas ornaments made from an old beaded sari

I am lucky to have good friends who give me their old bits and pieces for upcycling, and where I live saris and kameez show up in charity shops all the time so access to these beautifully embroidered and embellished textiles is not an issue. I imagine ebay and vinted are also good places to look for 2nd hand saris if it’s harder to find them where you are.

Now let’s check out some more Christmas craft ideas that have a sustainable twist with the Sustainable Craft Challenge: