Easy Elegant Fabric Trees

My sewing machine has been pulled out of hibernation and is getting lots of use lately. Hidden Bluff has inspired plenty of home sewing projects including muslin sheets, a brocade and lace duvet, muslin curtains, and more. Of course, any seamstress will tell you about her closet that is bulging with scraps. I parted with most of mine when we moved a couple months ago. However, this burst of sewing has resulted in new scraps that I really don’t want to start piling up. Hmmmmmm, what to do? How about some easy elegant fabric trees for the holidays? And they really are easy in addition to using up bits and pieces of good fabric you have laying around. These trees are also easy on the pocketbook which is a bonus in these times.

Easy Elegant Fabric Trees

There were plenty of creamy brocade scraps left from the duvet cover I made for the bedroom which created a nice set of rustic white trees to display. Pearl head pins on my sewing table made lovely tree “ornaments”. Decorative pins of different types are available online or in local craft stores. My pearl pins are the corsage pins which tend to be bigger and nicer than traditional stick pins. Pins are not necessary though. You could hot glue gun other ornaments on or not have ornaments at all.

The only thing I needed to buy was the styrofoam cones which are cheap. If you are going to do a display, then come up with a color theme and buy different size cones to add depth. My craft vision was a creamy white tree display with simple pearl “ornaments”.

Supplies needed:

Styrofoam cones

Strips of fabric (about 3 in. in width either cut or torn. See note below)

Decorative pins (optional)

Note on fabric strips: For a 9 in. cone with a 4 in. diameter base, I used close to 60 in. strips. This may vary depending on how many layers of fabric you put on. Start with a generous sized strip as you can always trim down. As you can see in the photos, I used raw edged strips- some cut and some torn. Both looks are nice, and the variety works.

Starting at the bottom wrap strip around base.

Pulling tightly, keep wrapping around working upwards with each level. There may be small bunches in the fabric, but I find pulling tightly helps to flatten and/or eliminate them. Either way they hardly show with the layers. Keep in mind that you may have to start over and rewrap a couple of times to “get it just right”. But this is a very forgiving project, so no need to worry!

At the top fold over the fabric at the end as shown in the picture, smoothing out bunches as you go.

Tuck in fabric and secure with a pin. Note: make sure to angle pin downwards to avoid having it poke out the other side.

Now your tree is ready to decorate!

Decorate your tree with more pins always keeping pins angling downwards as shown below.

And now your tree is done!

Here is my display of rustic, fabric trees on a runner of faux fur. The raw edged brocade makes it rustic while elegant.

Have a lovely day!