Stuff The Bunting Christmas Tree Tutorial

Our local fabric shop... the wonderful Belle Fabrics (who still do not have a website... grrr!) had a version of this tree in the window, so with their permission I used it as a starting point for my tree.  I thought you might like this tree which means we can use lots of the techniques from the last couple of years, from how to make bunting, to the Christmas stars we are going to use on top of it.

You will need:

Two contrasting, yet complementary fabrics, two fat quarters will do it with fabric to spare
Cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter or dressmaking shears/scissors
Needles, pins and cotton
Stuffing
Fish knife
Ribbons, buttons, bells for embellishment
Iron and ironing board
Paper, pencil, ruler and protractor or pre-made template

Firstly we are going to create the templates for the tree triangles, I used a template from my patchwork, but if you are making one then I suggest 5" sides and creating an equilateral triangle with angles of 60'.  We will be using the classic 1/4" seam allowance.

Iron your fabrics and cut out 19 triangles in each fabric.

Take a triangle from each fabric pile and pin them together, with right sides facing, start two thirds of the way along the base of your triangle, sew around the other two sides and just one third of the base, which leaves a third open.  Trim the across each of the three corners to reduce the bulk. 

Take your fish knife and pop it into the top angle of the triangle and push it through so that the right sides are now out, make sure you poke the knife into all the corners to ensure that they are sharp and pointy.  

Iron each of the triangles.

Fill with your choice of stuffing, you will find it easier to use small amounts rather than using a quart to fill a pint pot.  

When it is full, over sew the opening.

Set out the triangles as shown, then tack the corners into place, use a knot in between the layers and use a cross stitch to hold them in place.

Now, play around with your buttons and ribbons, and sew them permanently in place.

Right, we need to hang it up so I thought I would use one of the patchwork stars we made a couple of weeks ago and attach that to the top so that you can hang it up, although you could also gussie up a wide ribbon, too.

I did have a thought... how about getting a group of pupils from a class to paint a Christmassy image onto calico triangles using fabric paints and then make it into a tree for a teacher or for a grandma... I can tell you now that it would mean so much more to a teacher than another mug or a candle but possibly not as much as chocolate or wine!

I know that Christmas Pie Crafts wanted to see if I had made any hearts, so this weekend I borrowed Deborah's twig tree and fireplace to see how they looked... so if you look closely you will see all of the quilted and patchwork decs we have have worked on over the last few weeks... hope you like them :)