Polystyrene Patchwork Christmas Baubles

The polystyrene patchwork Christmas bauble are my favorite Christmas decorations. They are very easy to do, what you need is a polystyrene ball (like this Polystyrene Craft Balls Packof 50 30mm), assorted  Christmas fabrics, a bit glitter if you like, fabric glue (Beacon – Quilters Choice Basting Glue – 59.15ml
), a cutter or a small sharp knife.

See a list of Christmas fabrics I recommend from Amazon.co.uk:
- Gold on Purple Christmas Patchwork Fabric

- Christmas Festive Blocks Patchwork Fabric

- Patchwork Fabric Christmas Santa

- Christmas Patchwork Fabric Bells on Black

This is the knive I recommend to use, I have the same one and works very well, specially since we need something small and sharp to cut through the polysterene ball: ProCraft 2 Craft Knife, . I use the exact same one and it is very cheap to buy from Amazon uk. Using any felt pen, start by decorating your ball as you wish.
To help you with the design, mark first, the top and bottom of the bauble. Usually the polystyrene balls come with the marks already. The by measuring all the way around the ball you can decide on a design.
For example, if the bauble is 30mm across, mark every 10 mm around the middle. Using a measuring tape, follow every point to the one on top and color with the felt pen. You should have divided the ball in three diagonal parts, (this is a very simple design for a Christmas bauble made with patchwork) using the crafts knife cut through the drawn lines. Then decide on the colors and the Christmas patchwork fabrics you want to use. Cut a piece of material larger than the area we want to cover. Insert the material through the cut using a metal nail file. When most of the material is in and is really tight, cut the excess with some sharp patchwork scissors, then complete with the metal nail file, to finish inserting the fabric in the cut. Once the ball is covered is time for creativity. You could just add a lace bow and a string to hang it from or use glitter, glue and any other decorations you wish.
How do I make the hanger and the lace bow? Simple, using one of those really large needles (a Twisted wire large eye needle) go through the bauble from top to bottom with a piece of  golden string, go up and through the bow with the golden string, making a knot leave a piece of string long enough to hang the bauble from and then go through again. At the bottom of the bauble pull the two pieces of string tight and make a good solid knot, cut the excess of string and rearrange the Christmas bauble. As you’ll see, the result is absolutely amazing.

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