Leisure Sewing: Pretty Egg (Fabric Decorative Ornament)

Eggs in the Country

by Victor Gabriel Gilbert  (France, 1847-1933)

You've probably seen the egg-shaped decorated cakes in bakeries and grocery stores around the country. This dainty little sewing project is a replica of these egg-cakes, and only takes a small of amount of time to make.

It is made of polar fleece but any fabric can be used. This one is a pink egg shape, stuffed with polyester fiberfill,  trimmed in rucking, and topped with a rose and leaves that look just like the icing in the real cakes. Here is how to make one:

With a pencil and double layer of fabric, draw around the cardboard egg pattern which is included in this post and then cut out the fabric.  Machine or hand-stitch a small seam around the edges, leaving a gap big enough to insert stuffing.

When filled sufficiently to your preference, stitch up the opening, and then cut a long strip of fabric about 3/4 to one inch wide. Make the strip two times the circumference of the egg by wrapping it around the outer seam twice to get the right measurement.  This is called ruching, which is a simple kind of ruffle.  To make it, knot a long piece of thread and sew a running stitch , using long stitches down the middle of the strip of fabric, pulling it to gather slightly as you go.

Check to see if it fits the egg, wrapping it around the seam line once, before you knot the other end. Loosen or tighten the gathers as needed and then tie off.

Attach the ruching trim to the egg by sewing through the middle of the ruching again, through the seam of the egg, covering the seam, all the way around.  It should look a little like piped icing.

Using another piece of strip, approximately 3 inches long, (or use the pattern provided) sew a gathering stitch at the lower end.

Gather up the piece like this,

and pull up the thread and tie off.

Then, roll the gathered piece so that it looks like a rose, 

and stitch the lower edges together.

Lay the rosebud on some felt leaves from the pattern. Put gathering stitches down the middle of the leaves before attaching the rose, and pull up the threads slightly to give the leaves some shape, and to make them look like icing. Or, take a stitch in the back of each leave to give it a puckered look.

Imagine what a white bowl filled with these eggs in lemon yellow, mint green, baby blue or white would look like!

Print the pattern out on card stock, or trace around an egg-shaped card for your guide.

Part of the enjoyment of making something like this is the cost: just a few cents if you use little bits of fabric and trims you already have. You can scent them by spraying some vanilla cologne (available at Dollar Tree) into the fiberfill before you stitch up the seam.  It is tempting to make a lot of these, but one of them will make a nice package topper or little gift to include in a package for someone.

Have a look at Pink Saturday to see projects others are making.

The fabric eggs you see below are sold in a popular catalog online:

These velvet eggs are from Victorian Trading Company  - The trims are made of wool and chenille trim. I tried to figure out how they were made but ended up just inventing my own, as you see in the above demonstration!  These are about 6 inches long by 5 inches wide, and my eggs are almost as big. So you see, if you make these cloth eggs, you are making something that sells for about $12.00 apiece online!!  Make some of my fleece piped-icing eggs  for your etsy shop and sell them for your nest-egg!!   Check out my chicken pattern here.

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