Felt Tree!

Here is the newest addition to our felt garden… A tree!  At the moment it is a winter tree, as it has no flowers or leaves or fruit yet. =)  At least that’s how I explained it to Serenity, who immediately wanted to decorate the tree.  She ended up using her jewelry. =)  And carrying it around the house, so I’d say it was a big hit! 

It was pretty simple if a little time consuming to make.  First, I drew a simple tree shape.  I pinned the pattern to my fleece and sewed around it.  I just made the top part of the tree to start with, in the hopes of making it easier to stuff.  After that was sewn, I stuffed each branch with those gigantic pipe cleaners, so that I could shape the tree a little bit, and filled it with stuffing.  (Fold over the ends of the pipe cleaners so no sharp points can poke you!)  After I did that, I could tell that it was still going to be a bit too floppy, so I slid some bamboo poles into the two branches that I wanted to remain the most upright.

The trunk part is stuffed with a pool noodle from the dollar store.  One of the little poles that goes up into the tall branches is in the middle of the noodle, so the whole thing stands fairly tall.  I also added a roll of pennies to the bottom of the inside of the pool noodle to give it a little weight.  It’s nearly as tall as my daughter, about 36 inches.  The trunk is 20, the branch section is 16.  It took 2/3 of a yard of fleece fabric (folded in half) for the top, and the trunk is about four inches wide.  I

For now we just plant it in our felt garden, which holds it upright fairly well.  I may need to build a stand so we can move it around more easily, it definitely doesn’t stand all by itself. 

Next job is cutting out about a hundred leaves, and maybe making some blossoms. =)  Hand sewing all the way, not my fastest skill.