Eh, maybe not. I bet you can find holiday decorations for sale without too much difficulty in most retail outlets at this very moment. And, I must confess that I started working on my holiday gift card ornaments back in January. (I had an idea early on, and I'm pacing myself comfortably this year, for a change!)
On Saturday, my embroidery guild hosted a workshop to make a crafty wooly tree. It was actually quite a treat to work on something "Christmas" without a clock ticking away the seconds as often happens as the holidays get closer!
Darlene, our workshop instructor prepared kits with everything needed to make the project - wool (ready to rip into strips), a dowel for the trunk, two kinds of tape and pre-cut floral wire for the tree branches.
After a bit of instruction, we set about to making our trees.
Once you cut the wool strips, and cross-snip the strips to resemble needles, you wrap them around the branches/wires one at a time.
It's messy business as the branch is treated with a line of tacky glue before twisting the snipped wool around the 'branch.'
Don't look too closely at my finger nails . . . the gel manicure on my thumb experienced a bit of a mishap just before class time!
You need a lot of branches!
The clothes pin holds the glued wool to the bottom of the branch for a few minutes while it dries.
Once you have a few branches, you can start adding them to the trunk using vinyl floral tape to secure them.
As I looked around the room, it looked like we each had a fuzzy buggy whip standing upright at each place after the first few branches are attached to the top of the 'trunk.'
Once all the branches are attached to the trunk (the trunk is maybe 15" tall), the tree looks a lot like a 'real' tree that is wrapped and ready to tie to the top of the car for the drive home. Only smaller. Lots smaller.
One more step to cover the shiny vinyl tape securing the branches to the trunk with brown floral tape for a more realistic look.
With the second wrap on the trunk complete, after a little branch fluffing, it's ready for some handmade ornaments.
And maybe a small string of fairy lights.
And maybe a step back to enjoy!
. . . with a festive beverage!
Here's the finished tree against a more 'calm' background.
Pretty cute, if you ask me.
If you're wondering about making a tree of your own, I don't really have a pattern to share, just some assembly notes from the workshop. However, I did a quick check online, and if you google "Wool Christmas Tree" you'd find some kits and videos online. I'd also add that having the kit with everything pre-cut and marked was really helpful!
Happy Stitching
Joan
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