I have enjoyed my “Walking Crew” during lunch at the elementary I am subbing at, and of the people I walk with occasionally is the gym teacher. Our district is still in a hybrid learning model, so on the day that students are not in the building, many of us can walk at lunch. A few walks ago, we were talking about Christmas decor. The gym teacher mentioned he had a small tree, has been thinking about getting a larger full sized tree. I mentioned that I am hosting an ornament swap and I would make him an ornament for his tree, but that meant he’d have to commit to getting one! ha. 
I continued to tease him that it would be his favorite ornament and he’d have to hang it first every year – even if he and I had a falling out and no longer got along!
So, I started thinking about what kind of ornament I should make. He likes to do weight lifting and local strong man competitions, so I settled on a barbell.
I cut a toilet paper roll in half, then used double sided tape to tape it back together. Then I used tape to over the seam. I stuffed it with fiberfill.
I used black wool felt and sewed a rectangle around the length. I cut small circles in the toilet paper roll as end caps, and then sewed a same sized piece of felt at the ends. I used a grey scale piece of wool felt for the weights. I cut two for each weight, traced the end of the barbell for the center circle, and whip stitched around each side.
I needed a way for this to be the favorite ornament, but I knew size wouldn’t allow me to say exactly that. I free drew a prize ribbon in Christmas colors. Cut, an even smaller piece of white from an index card and labeled it " # 1 Ornament." I whip stitched the top curve of the ribbon onto the barbell.
Now, he has no excuse and plenty of time to get his tree in time for Christmas!
