Patchwork Christmas Trees Galore

I've been mad busy making seasonal items for a fundraising craft bazaar on behalf of CHICS children's cancer care support group. Usually, I never do anything Christmassy until the last minute but when I did my patchwork demos, some weeks ago, in Abakhan I had to start early and have some seasonal items prepared. Most of all the items I made in the store will go to the fundraiser for CHICS and I have since made so much more for their stall. Just a couple of things are earmarked for family.

I'll add a few details of how to make each item as I go along.

This easy tree hanging is made from 4 1/4 inch equilateral triangles of fabric (the backs can be plain). Just sew together two triangles, leaving a gap to turn inside out, then stuff them with a bit of wadding.

Sew them together as in my picture and decorate with bobbles, bells, bows, to your taste.

It can be made bigger or smaller, as you prefer, by adjusting the size of the fabric triangles or by adding more rows.

I would suggest that it is better if it has a cane inserted into a casing along the bottom as it then hangs much better.

This next tree uses fabric origami and is constructed from units each of 5 inch triangles. 

Each unit consists of 2 pieces of contrasting fabric sewn together, turned inside out and pressed.  The centre point of each side is taken to the centre point of the triangle then stitched. 

The triangle is then reversed and the process repeated again taking the sides to the centre and then stitching to hold them in place. 

A button, bead or bow decorates and covers the centre stitches. 

The are lots of directions for this tree on the web, pinterest, Youtube etc.

The next simple tree hanging is made from Suffolk Puffs (also called Yo Yos), a traditional patchwork technique.

Circles of fabric, are stitched around the edges then pulled up to gather into the centre. Buttons or bows hide the centre fabric ends and stitching. They are then stitched together, at the contact points. into the tree formation, as in the picture. 

The circles of fabric should be approximately twice the desired finished size required for the puff. I think mine were around 4 inches and therefore 2 inches finished Suffolk Puffs.

(Optional) I inserted a circle of card into each puff to add a little weight and help the tree to hang better.

Next a quick tree with VERY little sewing....

For this tree I ironed bonding web to the back of my fabric then cut out my diamonds which were ironed to fuse them, close together, onto a base fabric, in the arrangement shown below.

I then laid ribbons along the line of the triangle edges then decorated the cross points with vintage buttons. This both secured and decorated it but also hid the cut edges.

I then stuck it over a piece of card and backed it with felt. Quicky, easy peasy!

Close up of the "ironed on" diamonds to show that the joins just don't show.

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The tree decorations below are hand stitched over small card triangles in the layout as shown. Lots of instructions available on the web but they are quite simple, though a little time consuming, to make with being all hand stitched.

Finally, here's a work in progress. I was shown how to make this tree hanging by a lady in a craft group I visited and it is made from plastic milk bottle tops. A good recycling project but it takes ages to collect enough tops. There are 21 already in this one and I may add another row before I back it with felt.

I asked a local cafe to save their tops for me as we don't use much milk but maybe family and friends could provide enough.

                      Circles of fabric are gathered then a little wadding is added before inserting the bottle top and pulling up the fabric and securing. They are then stitched together at the contact points and when complete the tree is backed with felt.

I enjoyed making this as I always love to recycle whatever I can but it did take a good while to construct.

It has been really enjoyable and rewarding making a collection of goods for the sale and seeing how the stocks have quickly built up.

Any queries please leave a comment or email me and I'll help with further details but I hope some of you will have a go. 
Don't forget the little fabric handy pots in my previous post, another handy useful little make.