Felt Christmas Tree

I am sure you have a seen a pin or two on pinterest of a felt Christmas Tree that your kids can play with in hopes of leaving your main tree alone. Last year I told myself that I would do it for this year. A couple of weeks ago, I knew it was now or never. I wanted it done so that I could put it up for the whole season so I needed it done ASAP.

The main pin that I see all of the time, the mom simply cut the tree out of green felt and adhered it to her wall. I wanted to be able to hang mine so I decided to have a background to it but I had to make it sturdy. Hopefully Miller will not attempt to pull it down.  I used a light grey background that was 36" x 36". I bought two wooden dowels that were 36" with a 1/2" diameter. I rolled the fabric over it and pinned it down. Then I sewed a seam on both the top and the bottom. The dowel can slide in and out if necessary.

I wanted to make a few more accessories than the original pin (mainly for me). I really wanted strings of lights. I cut out three 36" long, thin strings from black felt. Then I cut out a ton of small black rectangles that "attach" the bulb to the string. Of course I cut out the bulbs. I stuck with the main 4 colors because whenever I thought of classic Christmas lights, that is what I saw.

I laid out the string and spaced out the lights every 4 inches. Then I hot glued them in place. 

I went back over them each with a small black rectangle. After doing the first step, I realized that this was totally unnecessary, but I liked the way they looked.

I made three so the tree, and surroundings could be decorated. 

I glued the trunk down and then the tree, except for the bottom corners so that the presents can be placed behind them for more tree decorating space. 

As for the presents, I debated about leaving the bows and ribbon separate from the box but that would just be a lot of scraps to deal with. They can be removed and moved around, as well as the star. I thought Miller could play around with other toppers possibly down the road. 

Ta- Da! Here is the finished product. I sketched out some basic ornament shapes and used that as a template. I had a couple of each color in each shape. You can always use cookie cutters as a template as well. Maybe when Miller, and hopefully other  little Trusty's, are older, we can make more and different ornaments and presents.

I am excited for him to play with it but I fear that this year will just be mostly pulling all the ornaments off and carrying them all over the house. Maybe Miller will surprise me (I know better than to think this).