Some Things You’ll Need for Mr Marley

Hello, lovely mmmakers! Are you planning to craft a Mr Marley Christmas ornament when the pattern  becomes available? (Mr Marley is the upcoming second pattern in my current Ebenezer Ornament Series.) I’m busy writing the pattern, drawing the diagrams, and sewing the final samples for you. It occurred to me you might like to know the extra bits and bobs you’ll need to make him ahead of time, so you’ll be ready to roll when the pattern releases.

Beyond the usual wool felt, floss, pipe cleaners/chenille stems, wood colored card stock (nose), stiffened white felt (pigtail), glass beads, sequins, wood beads, etc etc etc, there are a few new items needed for Mr Marley that were not needed for Mr Scrooge:

• 24 gauge wire in gold or silver for his spectacles and misc.
• Some wire snips and tweezers will come in handy, if you don’t already have some.
• About 10-11 inches of gold or silver charm bracelet type of chain, with nice open links. My chain samples measure 6 mm at the longest part of the link. This is the gold and silver chain I purchased, but anything similar will be fine. You’d get three ornaments out of either of those.
• 6 mm gold or silver jump rings for attaching bits to his chain.
• Some needle nose pliers to open and close said jump rings. (I like having two pairs, one to hold the ring and one to bend the jump ring apart.)
• 15, 16 or 17 mm gold or silver jingle bells to attach to his chain in lieu of actual ghostly money boxes. Don’t go larger or smaller than that or they might not look proportional.
• OPTIONAL: If you already have them, eye pins come in handy to insert inside his hands but are not essential. As an alternative, you can just squash a jump ring or fashion a quick loop out of the 24 gauge wire, no biggie.
• OPTIONAL: If you do not wish to make them (see below) you can buy one or two key charms (around an inch).
• OPTIONAL: If you do not wish to make them (see below) you can buy one or two padlock/money purse charms. (You can also see a necklace finding in the photo above which is called a cap, which reminded me of a little purse.)

• If you enjoy working small (like me!) you can make the keys, padlock, and/or purse charms. You’ll need some small scraps of metallic card stock and also metallic wool felt. I found the metallic card stock in the scrapbooking section of my local craft store. (Benzie Design has lots of lovely metallic wool felt, including the gold and silver you see up there ^ in the photo. It’s metallic on one side and wool felt on the other.)
• The padlock has metallic perle floss for the arm of the lock, which you probably already have on hand for the ornament loops.
• The money purse has a metallic sequin/seed bead fastener and an attached jump ring.
• For the key as well as the padlock you’ll need to have a 1/8 hole punch.
• A craft knife like Xacto comes in handy and also a wicked sharp pair of small scissors.

My final Mr Marley samples will be made using my two Ebenezer color palettes at Benzie Design: Victorian and Modern Pastel. Benzie Design will once again be offering kits for this new pattern because they are amazing. If you’d like to wait and see their kits, they might include some of what’s listed above so that you can purchase it all in one stop if you don’t like hunting for bits. If you already purchased a Benzie kit or two to make Mr Scrooge, you might have most of the rest of what you need to make Mr Marley, with the exception of what’s listed above.

Back to drawing diagrams for me! Y’all have a wonderful evening.