DIY Moana Ornament – Spring A Little Magic to Your Tree

The calendar claims it’s April, but the snow on the ground outside says otherwise. Rather than continue to wait for a Spring that refuses to arrive, I decided to embrace the cold and dive into a holiday activity. If it’s a holiday activity that can help me dream of warm sunny beaches and turquoise blue water, even better. Today’s post shares how to make a holiday ornament inspired by Disney’s Moana.

Since it seemed a bit too much of a challenge to recreate one of the characters from the film for the ornament (except maybe the coconut pirates?!), I decided to tackle her boat instead. It really is one of the central “characters” of the film if you think about it, since Moana spends so much time conquering that wide, blue, beautiful ocean.

Sigh. Just thinking about tropical waters makes me feel better.

Good enough, in fact, to throw on my coat and boots and head to the craft store for supplies.

There wasn’t much to buy: a small piece of jute burlap (also called hessian), a piece of dark red felt and a roll of jute trim. I’m planning to use some Poly-fil stuffing too, but I still have a giant bag of it from my previous Disney-inspired ornament adventures. I also already had brown and tan felt, fabric glue and dark brown thread.

The first step was to sketch a pattern. I used an image of Moana’s boat as my inspiration. It doesn’t have to be perfect, since her boat in the film wasn’t either. It just makes the ornament look more authentic, don’t you think? Once the sketch was completed, I colored in the symbol with a random red crayon I happened to find in my desk drawer. That last step was just so I wouldn’t get confused on which parts to cut. (If you want help with the symbol, you can find a printable template of it in my Halloween post here.)

Next, I cut out the sail pattern and pinned it to a folded piece of burlap so I could get two sails from one cut. Then I freed the sails from the burlap and tried to get the theme from Jaws out of my head.

The next step was to cut out the pattern for the red symbol and pin it to the dark red fabric. If you don’t want to use felt, you could consider painting the symbol instead. The leftover pattern from cutting out the symbol creates a perfect stencil.

Then I slowly cut out the symbol and tried not to get dizzy from the swirls. I was mildly successful.

Once the red symbol was complete, I glued it on to one piece of the burlap and set it aside to dry.

After the glue was dry, I sewed the two pieces of the sail together. The jute trim I chose was too big for so many stitches, so I separated the strands. You could easily skip this step by using traditional thread. Then I stitched over and under the two pieces of the sail, starting on the curved edge and continuing across the top of the sail and down the other side. The material frayed a little bit here and there, but again I think it adds to the authenticity. Those sails have taken a beating, so they should show some wear and tear, right?

Once I sewed the two sides, I gently stuffed the sail with Poly-fil. I used a small amount, just to give the sail some depth. There was no need to go crazy like I did with Winnie the Pooh or Ursula. Then I stitched the final side closed.

So far so good! You can stop here if you want. Just add a loop to the back and it’s ready to go-oh.

Never one to leave something alone when there’s a chance to overwork it and mess it up, I pressed on. Time to add the boat.

I cut a rectangular piece from the dark brown felt that was roughly 8 1/2″ long by 3″ wide. (That’s 21.5 cm x 9 cm for my metric friends.) Then I folded the corners over on one side, kind of like making a paper airplane. After the first fold, I folded it again into a point and secured it with a pin.

For the opposite end of the boat, I folded over a straight piece of the felt to give it a blunt edge.

Then I folded the whole piece of felt in half lengthwise and pinned the edges. I finished the boat by stitching along the folds with the brown thread and removing the pins.

The next step was to attach the sail to the boat. I cut a piece of the jute trim to about 16 inches (41 cm). Then I tied a small knot on the bottom of one end and slid it into the front fold on the inside of the boat. Using the brown thread, I then stitched over and under the jute trim to secure it in place.

Next I threaded the piece of jute trim and attached it through the sail in the upper right hand corner. Then I looped it across the top, leaving enough slack in the trim to serve as the ornament’s hanger. After that, I sewed the trim through the top of the other side of the sail and gently pulled the line to the bottom of the boat. Then I tied a small knot at the end of the jute trim, tucked it into the boat and secured it with brown thread as I had done for the other side.

It’s easier than I’m unintentionally making it sound. I promise.

The final step was to embellish the front side of the boat. I cut a zig-zag piece of tan felt to mimic the design on Moana’s dress and attached it to the boat with the fabric glue. Then I added a few pieces of sequins to the trim because I just couldn’t stop myself. Moana may brave the stormy sea but she’s still a princess after all! Also, the sequins belonged to my grandmother, so I like to incorporate a few of them into my projects to remind me of her when they’re shining on my tree.

Since I don’t have a Christmas tree up at the moment, I took the finished ornament outside and hung it on an evergreen to see how it would look. Fortunately the morning snow had melted by then, although the freezing temperatures kept me from lingering too long. The ornament is a little big, perhaps, but I’m pleased with the final result. I’m also grateful for the creative break and the mental tropical journey the project provided.

Want to give it a try? If I can do it, you can too. No one kno-ows how far you’ll go-oh!

Add a little DIY Moana magic to your tree.