The difficulty level is intermediate – not for beginners. If you've completed my Twelve Days Ornament Series, you are likely ready to step into the Ebenezer series! (Twelve Days is a great primer as it builds your skills when you do the patterns in order.)
Skills needed for this particular pattern are backstitch, whipstitch, detached chain stitch, drawing on the face with pencils, precision cutting/sewing/glueing of very small pieces, and working with pipe cleaners, beads, and sequins.
As with the rest of my ornament patterns, Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is organized into detailed step-by-step instructions with scads of diagrams and tips.
The pattern includes 15 years to trace and embroider on the back, if you like.
This eerie, silent spirit is described by Dickens as dressed in black from hood to toe, with the only distinguishable feature being his pointing hand. You can see I took some artistic license in my choice of colors and in the fact that the spirit's face is visible within the hood. Feel free to be more faithful to the text and use only shades of black felt and floss, if you like! I just couldn't do it. #becausecolor
The dirge of spirits you see above were all made with the same two Benzie Ebenezer color palettes I curated for the rest of the series. Nary a black robe among my samples because I just can't resist using lots of color, y'all. My apologies to Mr Dickens, but I have it on good authority from a Dickens scholar that he loved to dress in garish colors, so I'll just say this is a tribute to his personal fashion sense! I had fun coming up with the thorns/wilting flowers on the robe and skull embroidery motif for his gown, and wanted them to have some nice pop!
Because this pattern has two ornaments, it will take about three or four crafternoons to make a Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come set. Put on a good movie or podcast, make a hot cuppa, and enjoy the process. It will be worth it! :-)
And don't forget the Victorian glam! Choosing to add some metallic embroidery, metallic tassel, and metallic wool felt accents (like the petals) will level up the holiday sparkle.
This ornament is best constructed using Sulky Stick 'n Stitch (aka Sticky Fabri-Solvy) which makes the process much faster, easier, and more accurate. If you already have the materials on hand to make the other patterns in the series, you might just need a few more things like a flat scrap of Pellon 70 Peltex (or sub a white piece of stiffened craft felt), colored pencils, white gel pen, and some white or iridescent glitter. There's a full materials list on the first page of the pattern shown below. Click to zoom:
I will be publishing detailed color guides for these samples soon. Ish. Those will coordinate directly with the amazing felt/floss/notions kits put together for your buying convenience at Benzie Design!
To purchase the instantly downloadable PDF pattern, visit my Etsy shop. :-)