DIY: Boba Fett Ornaments. Add Some Bounty to Your Tree

Happy Christmas in July… on the second day of August!

Several months ago, I started making Disney-inspired Christmas ornaments. I figured if I started early enough in the year, I’d have plenty of decorations ready by December.

So far I have exactly one: Winnie the Pooh. You can read about my many adventures in creating him here.

Shrugging off my procrastinistic (is that a word?) tendencies, I decided today was the day to make Winnie a friend. My first thought was Piglet, but he looked too intimidating… er…  time-consuming to make. Owl and Rabbit seemed harder than I wanted to tackle today too.

So my next thought was Boba Fett. (My mind is a scary place sometimes.) Who better to keep Winnie the Pooh company than a bounty hunter from Star Wars? Now that I think of it, what could possibly say “Merry Christmas” better than Boba Fett? I’ll make him green and red to make that connection a little clearer for you. Oh, and really, I settled on Boba Fett because he didn’t look too hard to make and I already had the felt I needed.

Want to make one too? Here are the steps, just in case you need them:

First I sketched a pattern of Boba Fett’s helmet from a photograph I found online. In order to get the two sides of the helmet symmetric,  I cut one side of the pattern, folded it in half and then cut the other side to match. I sketched the T-shape design for the center of the mask on the pattern too.

Then I cut out the pattern and pinned it onto felt. So technically, Boba Fett’s helmet is an olive green color with grey scuff marks from altercations with his targets. That look doesn’t translate so well to felt. I stuck with dark green. To add a little more interest I made the back half of the helmet tan, to mimic another color from Boba Fett’s uniform. Camo would look cool too.

Next I cut out the helmet shapes. I left about a quarter inch of felt around the pattern to allow room for sewing. Just thought I’d mention that part, because I usually forget.

Once I had the helmet shapes, I went back to my pattern and cut out shapes for the face. (Would we call it a face?) I’m referring to the shapes that cover where his eyes and nose would be. It kind of looks like a skinny T sitting on top of a bigger T. I made the larger shape red (Ho Ho Ho), but if you want to keep Boba Fett in his element you could try a dark orange or burnt sienna like the one in Crayola boxes. The skinnier T shape is black.

After I cut the shapes for Boba Fett’s face out of felt, I sewed the face shapes onto the helmet piece. First the red, then the black. You could save time here by using flexible fabric glue.

Next, I cut out the numbers for the date and glued them to the back of the helmet. Since it’s not looking like I’ll make many ornaments this year, I thought I’d commemorate the occasion. You could skip this part or add different details, like a name, a place or the rest of Boba Fett’s helmet.

Once the glue dried, I flipped the helmet pieces upside down (design facing in) and sewed the helmet piece together. I left the bottom of the ornament open for stuffing. Then I flipped the ornament right-side out.

Finally, I stuffed the helmet, sewed across the bottom of the ornament and added a loop of embroidery thread for hanging.

And there he is. Makes you want to say “Bounty Hunters. We don’t need their scum!” doesn’t it?

Maybe that’s just me.

Oh, if you’re new to this blog, I feel like I should point out that I’m not a crafter, I just play one online. The purpose of trying projects like this is to try something new, flex some creative muscle and add a little fun to an otherwise normal day. I have no doubt you could build a better Boba Fett! Maybe it will inspire you to tackle something else too?

If you’re not into ornaments, you could also use these on backpacks or baby mobiles. Add a specific date to the back and use it as a party favor. Scale up the size and turn Boba Fett into a pillow. Change his colors and he looks an awful lot like The Mandalorian. Another idea is to turn it into an activity by skipping the sewing and just creating the helmet and face pieces for kids to rearrange as they please. You may need to make Darth Vader shapes too.

See what I mean? I’m feeling more creative already.

You can too. Add a little (bounty hunter) magic to your world.