Sunday 4 November 2012

How To: Sew Easy Felt Christmas Tree Ornaments

felt christmas tree ornaments

Time for another festive tutorial: how to make simple felt Christmas tree decorations.

 felt Christmas tree ornaments

These ornaments are quick and easy to sew - perfect for beginners! They're also a great way to use up lots of decorative odds and ends from your stash - mix and match embellishments to create a whole set to hang on the tree.

You could also string them on some pretty ribbon to make a holiday garland, maybe with beads or felt balls or pompoms in-between the trees.
 
felt Christmas tree decorations

You will need:

- the templates at the bottom of this post
- dark green felt, brown or red felt (& optional: yellow felt)
- matching sewing threads
- sequins, beads, ricrac, ribbon, mini buttons, embroidery thread, etc to decorate the trees 
- narrow ribbon in red or green
- sewing scissors & a needle

To make the ornaments:

1) Cut out all your felt pieces. For each tree you will need 2 x tree shapes (in green), and 2 x trunk shapes (brown for a natural trunk or red for a pot).

2) Decorate one of the tree shapes. You could use sequins (sewing the sequins on with three stitches of green thread)...

decorating a felt christmas tree ornament with sequins

... beads or mini buttons (sewing them on with a double thickness of green thread), or sew a pattern with some colourful embroidery thread (floss).

For my embroidered ornament I divided a length of thread/floss in half (using 3 out of the 6 strands) and stitched overlapping stitches to create little star shapes.

felt christmas tree ornaments decorated with embroidery buttons and beads

You could also decorate the tree with scraps of ribbon or ricrac. Cut the trim so it overlaps the tree as pictured, and sew it in place with running stitch in matching thread...

decorating a felt Christmas tree ornament with ricrac

... then fold the ends over and secure them in place with a few whip stitches (sewing into the felt but not all the way through it).

decorating a felt Christmas tree ornament with ricrac or ribbon

You could also cut out a star from yellow felt and sew it to the top of the tree:

adding a felt star to a Christmas tree ornament

felt Christmas tree ornament topped with a mini felt star

3) Use running stitch and matching thread to sew the two trunk / pot pieces together. You only need to sew along three sides, as the top (not sewn) edge will be hidden inside the finished ornament.

sewing the base of a felt Christmas tree ornament

4) Add a ribbon loop.

Cut a length of narrow ribbon approx 5 inches (12.5cms) long. Fold it over to form a loop and sew it in position at the top of one of the felt tree shapes using dark green thread. Make sure you sew it to one of the "wrong" sides so the cut ends of the ribbon will be hidden inside the ornament when it's finished.

Sew it in place with whip stitch, sewing into the felt but not all the way through it.

adding a ribbon loop to a felt Christmas tree decoration

5) Stitch the ornament together.

Hold or pin the two tree pieces together, with "right" sides facing outwards. Use dark green thread and running stitch to sew around the edge, stitching the layers together. When you sew along the bottom of the tree, insert the trunk / pot piece in between the two layers as pictured and sew across it, sewing through all four layers of felt to hold the trunk / pot in place.

When you've finished sewing all the way round the edge of the tree, finish your stitching neatly at the back.

finishing sewing a felt Christmas tree decoration

felt Christmas tree ornament decorated with mini buttons

This tutorial is for non commercial use only. Please feel free to borrow photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

To print the templates click here to view the template sheet in another window or tab. Make sure you're viewing the image full size then print at 100%. I've added a scale so you can check if your templates have printed out correctly, but you can make them larger or smaller than mine if you prefer.

templates for felt Christmas tree sewing tutorial




felt Christmas tree ornaments tutorial

21 comments:

Jessica said...

Really cute - just in time for me to make up a batch for for my next installment of tree decorations (I've been trying to make a different design every month since January...)

Thanks so much for sharing!

Unknown said...

Wowwwww!!! So beautiful!!!
Thank to share:-)
Emanuela from Italy

CarlaK.be said...

ooh simply suberb ! thank you !
a good one to teach the children how to sew with felt.
Love from Belgium!

bairozan said...

Simple and beautiful! Even with a simple project, one needs tips and you generously give so many! Thank you!

CarlaK.be said...

I actually tought my kids to make a felt X-mas tree today, it was great fun with gorgeous results !
Check it out on MaakselsCarlak.blogspot.be
Love & thanks again for the great tutorial!

Bugs and Fishes said...

Jessica - what a nice idea to make some ornaments every month! :)

Carla - thanks so much for posting the link to your post, it's so nice to see this pattern being put to such good use!

Reece said...

Perfect! I'm making an advent Christmas tree, and I need to make 24 ornaments to go on the tree, so a few of these will definitely be on my list to make.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful!! Thanks for the idea! My daughters will LOVE to make these! :)

Mar said...

helo just a few lines to tell you that I have done some trees :-) following your idea, thank you so much for your tutorial, if you don't mind I have linked your site on my web. thank you so much and happy new year!!

Csilla said...

Beautiful and very good idea! Thanks for sharing.
Csilla from Hungary

Unknown said...

do you have approximate measurements for the triangle and trunk? i dont have a printer

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for this idea. My 6 & 8 year old sons wanted to learn to sew and I thought this would be a good project to start with. We made the button trees and they loved making them. They have already asked to make more (which we will) along with some of the other felt decorations on your site. Thanks!!!

Bugs and Fishes said...

Reece - I hope you had fun making one of these trees :)

Anon - no problem! I hope your daughters had fun sewing them x

Mar - thanks for linking to my blog, I'm so glad you enjoyed making some trees!

Csilla - thanks!

Anon - thanks so much for your comment! I'm thrilled your sons have enjoyed sewing some of these trees, I hope you'll all have fun sewing some more ornaments together :)

Bugs and Fishes said...

Amy - here are the measurements...

The base of the triangle is 2 inches and 10 sixteenths.

The sides are 3 inches and 6 sixteenths.

The trunk is three quarters of an inch square.

Happy sewing!

Unknown said...

thanks ill give them a try now :-)

Bugs and Fishes said...

No problem, Amy! I hope you have fun making them :)

Anonymous said...

This is a great idea. I can't wait to try it out with my Brownie unit.

Bugs and Fishes said...

I hope your Brownies will enjoy making lots of trees! :)

mily said...

Hello Laura. I found your blog through Angela's (Angela Mary Designs).

These are lovely. I made felt reindeer decorations this year - last year it was Christmas puddings! I haven't tried Christmas trees yet, maybe next year. You can see my attempts on my blog.

I will be following your blog - such pretty designs. I still have a very pretty felt flower bookmark you gave me when we were at school (it's Emily btw!). Hope all is well xx

http://madebymily.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/christmas-decorations-reindeer.html

sue said...

Hi Laura,
Love all your Christmas decoration but expecially these trees.
I'm trying to get in front of myself this year so I will be starting some of these as soon as I've bought the felt.
Thanks for sharing
sue

Bugs and Fishes said...

I hope you'll have fun making your trees, Sue! x