Felted fir trees

Craft with Resene, from the Australian Women's Weekly

Soft pastel Christmas trees will make a pretty statement on your festive table, on a sideboard or in your entranceway.

Make felted fir christmas tree

What you need

Resene A4 colour sample drawdown cards, 1 per tree
Pen and ruler
Scissors and craft knife
Hot glue and glue gun
A4 sheets of felt, 3 per tree, or fleece fabric, 25cm x 1m per tree, approximately
Wooden dowel: 7mm diameter, 30cm length
Wooden plaque base or use thick wood slices, coaster size approximately 15mm thickness
Drill and 7mm drill bit
Paint brush
Resene testpot paints. We used: Resene Mystery and Resene Vanilla Ice.

Tree cone

Make a paper cone by rolling the A4 card, using a corner as the pivoting point. (pic A). The base of the cone should be approximately 8cm in diameter and the cone will be about 23cm high. Hot glue along the seam to secure. Use scissors to trim the bottom so it’s even and stable.
To make cone base, place the cone on cardboard and draw around the bottom. Draw tabs evenly around the circle (pic B) and cut out with scissors. Fold the tabs up and glue onto the cone (pic C).

Pic A

Pic B

Pic C

Pic C contd.

Using the craft knife, pierce a hole in the centre of the base, so the dowel fits through snugly. Don’t make the hole too big or the dowel will move around and the tree will not stand up straight.
Drill a hole in the centre of the wooden base, making sure the drill bit is the correct diameter for the size of the dowel, so it is a firm fit. It will be glued in place when it is finally assembled.

Note: You can purchase dowel that is cut in 30cm lengths. If you need to cut the dowel, remember that it goes all the way to the tip of the cone and you need an extra 8-10cm for the trunk. Adjust the dowel length to make trees of different heights.

Tree covering

Cut felt triangles, approximately 4cm wide at the base of the triangle and 5.5cm high from base to apex. You’ll need at least 50, more if you are making a bigger tree.
Cut out about 25 smaller triangles (approximately half the size of the larger ones) for the top quarter of the cone. This makes the tip less bulky.
Start gluing the large triangles around the base of the cardboard cone in a row so the tips hang down (see below). The bottom row of triangles do not overlap. As you work your way up the tree, the triangles should overlap a little more with each layer, and you will use fewer triangles for the layers further up the tree as the cone narrows.

Triangles

Pic D

Paint

Felt details

Add layers of triangles, using the photos as a guide to create a symmetrical pattern (pic D). Use the smaller triangles as you get nearer to the top, making sure the paper cone is completely covered.
Remove the dowel and paint both the base and dowel with two coats of a Resene colour that works with the tree fabric. We used Resene Mystery and Resene Vanilla Ice. Once dry, assemble the tree, using a small amount of hot glue to fix the dowel securely to the base.

Resene Mystery

Resene Vanilla Ice

Project by Marsha Smith, December 2019

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