Felt Christmas tree decorations

Of recent years, I’ve enjoyed making little felted treasures to adorn my Christmas tree – and sending them out to family and friends for their Christmas trees too. It started with a class I attended with the very talented Lorna of Stitchbirdie in West Kilbride. She taught me how to make felted paisley botehs …So that year I made a bowlful and sent them off to friends and family for Christmas …The year after that I made felted stars (and wrote about them here) …Then last year, come Advent-tide,  I found myself stitching little felt hearts …This year I decided to stitch felt Christmas trees …As a couple of friends have expressed interest in how I make these trees, this blogpost explains my method.

I started with a Christmas tree template. Here it is on an A4 background to give an idea of the size of my felted Christmas trees (hopefully this image can just be printed out) …I converted my paper template into card and then used that to trace and cut out the felt trees …There was a very loveable impediment when I found Eggy comfortably ensconced in my box of felt …But once you have moved your Eggy and cut out your felt Christmas trees …… the fun thing is to plan what to put on them! I got out all sorts of treasures from my stores – beads, threads, glitter, sequins …… and fabrics! These fabrics are all selected for the tinyness of the details printed on them. I can cut these details out and appliqué them onto the felt trees – like these Day of the Dead images (perhaps a bit surprising on a Christmas tree, but this one is for my daughter who loves that Mexican festival) …I also cut out a lot of flowers from the Japanese cherry blossom fabric – they convey a wonderfully fragile beauty to the little trees they decorate …Old plastic stencils come in handy …… for cutting out little multi-coloured felt circles – so very effective when stitched on with some contrasting floss …With all my goodies assembled, I began to play …Finally having worked out how I was going to make my little trees, I settled in to stitch cosily  – until the cats made it rather difficult, taking over the sofa …Then I heard from an Instagram friend of mine, Janine, that her niece, Kimmy, had been inspired by my pictures to make her own felt tree – this time decorated with buttons! Such an excellent idea, Kimmy – I hadn’t thought of buttons! So I went back to the drawing board – or more accurately –  my mother’s treasured and battered old button tin …And emptied the contents out … what treasure, but alas, mostly rather large …Nevermind, I managed to find enough small buttons to have a productive play. (All of which had to be done discreetly as my husband suffers from koumpounophobia) …So, the felt trees are cut, the decorations sorted, here’s the procedure …First I stitched the pinned fabric and felt decorations in place using two strands of DMC floss …Then I added the buttons. This is tricky enough because you can’t easily pin them, but definitely not helped when Ilsa comes to sit near you … I joined the decorations together with a sparkly chain stitch to simulate the string of Christmas lights festooning our proper trees … And then I added some sequins – a bit OTT, I know, but I do love to pack the decorations on my real and felt Christmas trees …When they’re stitched in place (like the buttons a bit tricky as you can’t pin them), it’s time to stitch the plain back (no decorations on the back!) to the front with blanket stitch …Blanket stitch right round the tree, remembering to stich the rbbon tag in place at the top as you go along …When you have stitched all the way round except at the bottom of the stump …… it’s time to stuff your felt trees. I used sheep fleece (but any  toy stuffing would do) …I don’t stuff the trees very hard because I like them soft and a bit squidgy. Time to blanket stitch around the stump, and you’re finished …The really fun thing is that I can make each one completely different, designing them with the recipient in mind. This blue-flowered one was done for my mother because she is nuts about the colour blue …I love it when I have a bowl or pin -wheel full of variegated little felties – all ready to go off in the post to their new homes. Why there are some cat and daruma ones there too! Happy Christmas everyone!(If you want to make a felted Christmas tree, I hope you find all the info you require here. If not, please do get in touch with me.)