So, it looks like we won't have to ignore my whole
"I'm going to try to make a felt Christmas tree" promise after all. Saturday after my comprehensive finals (which didn't go so badly, but I'll find out the final results Friday), I tackled my own version of a child's Christmas tree and am pretty pleased with the outcome! I think Preston was pretty happy, too.
I decided to make Preston his own Christmas tree because 1) I thought it'd keep his hands off the real one and 2) he loves stickers and sticking things on/pulling things off stuff, so having his own tree to decorate seemed like his cup of tea. However, most of the felt trees I had seen on Pinterest were flat and stuck on the wall. I didn't really want to put anything on the wall, and I liked the idea of a stand-alone version we could move around. So I started working on how to make a base for a 3D tree.
I figured cardboard would be the easiest thing to find and began a search for a large box. Luckily, I didn't have to look too far because we still had the box our dining room table was delivered in. It was perfect. I used a tripod box to estimate the height and a diaper box for the length of the base to achieve that perfect Christmas tree isosceles triangle. I cut out the first triangle and used it as the template for three more triangles.
Initially, I'd brought out a pair of scissors to cut the triangles out, but just three cuts was murder on my hands, so I opted for Scott's knife. It was much easier to manage, but the whole time I felt like I needed adult supervision. Then I realized I was the adult in the situation and worried for the future generation for whom I'm responsible to watch in blade-wielding situations.
I used the pieces as the pattern for four triangles of green felt, which I bought four yards of, before my sister and I taped the cardboard pieces into a pyramid with packing tape. We ended up only making the tree three-sided because it was easier to keep three pieces aligned to tape than it was with four.
My biggest concern with an angled tree was covering the angles. I'd been working out the logistics in my head for this tree for a couple of weeks, and this was the issue keeping me up at night. So, I decided to cover the angles in green felt first before I placed the green triangles I'd already cut onto the tree. There was a lot of hot glue involved and a lot of finger-burning in the process.
I didn't like how flat the tree looked with just the felt triangles. It needed some texture, so I cut five-inch wide strips of felt long enough to wrap around the tree and scalloped the edges. Then I wrapped each around a section of the tree. I cut down the excess fabric that would result in the strip turning around the angle and tucked it under each side with some more hot glue. It caused a little bumpiness in some spots, but not too badly.
Then, using square sheets of colored felt, I cut out the ornaments, their embellishments, and the star for the top. One sheet of each color was plenty, and I had some leftover even after making 15 ornaments. I also bought some thick, yellow ric-rac for tinsel that I ended up not using except as ornament embellishment. In the end, the whole thing cost me $17, and I had a lot of green felt left over. I would've probably been OK with just three yards, but I didn't want to run out mid-project and had no idea how much I'd need having never done anything like this before. It took me about four and a half hours to complete.
I'm really happy with the end result! Preston has been happily taking the ornaments off and sticking them back on, clapping for himself every time. I hope it becomes one of those iconic Christmas decorations for him — like the pair of wooden reindeer my grandfather made are for me — that whenever we unpack the Christmas boxes, it's the thing he looks forward to and feels like Christmas to him.
