DIY: Scrap Fabric Christmas Trees

For the first time ever, we are setting up a holiday "village". You know, those little lighted houses and shops. We were lucky enough to have a set gifted to us, and I've been waiting eagerly to set it up.This past week I put up the buildings.. now I'm working on adding some "life" to my little scene!

As I was looking for ways to use my fabric scraps, I came across this adorable idea for making Christmas trees from fabric scraps! These look like the perfect size for my village!

Here's how I made them, based on these instructions from The Small Object Steno Pad.

Materials:

• 4 fabrics (I'm going to make one with different fabrics, one all green felt)
• light or medium weight interfacing, depending on the weight of your fabric (I didn't use this with the felt)
• thread
• hot glue

Tools:

• scissors
• something to trace the pattern on to the fabric
• an iron
• pattern

I suggest you download the template here. I printed mine on card stock for a sturdy pattern that's easy to trace around. Once you've got your pattern printed and cut out, you're ready to start.

Place your pattern on your fabric (ironed flat, if needed). Trace around the pattern, then cut. Repeat for each pattern piece. Cut out a matching piece of interfacing for each pattern piece.

For fabric trees, following the interfacing instructions, iron the interfacing to the wrong side of your fabric pieces. I didn't use interfacing on my felt tree.

Again, just for the fabric trees, not the felt -- Using  a zig zag stitch, sew all the way around each fabric piece, keeping close to the edges.

Now it's time to make your cones. You could sew these, but I just used hot glue. I applied glue from the bottom edge to about 1-1.5 inches in, and up in a triangular shape. Quickly make the cone shape, pressing fabric together to secure the glue. See my picture below. Repeat for the remaining 3 cones. I'll show you with the felt, it's easier to see in these pictures:

Ta Da...

Stack your cones to form your tree. If they need some support, try putting a little tissue paper inside each. Mine didn't need any hot glue to stay together. I think they will be easier to store "nested" when I'm ready to put them away so I did not glue them together. They stand together well without any glue!

Felt works great too.. I need to find some decorations for this one.

You could have a lot of fun embellishing the felt one! So many possibilities here!

~ Have fun!


This post is linked to the following blog parties... check them out for lots more diy ideas!