My partner was Marie from The Inspiration Vault. Her blog is packed with awesome craft and DIY tutorials! She puts up several trees so I had plenty of inspiration to choose from. In the end, I decided to create an ornament for her growing collection of purple ornaments.
After the requisite brainstorming and stressing and second guessing that's always part of creating for someone else, I saw that I had an old magenta sweater in my donate pile. From there, it wasn't long before I had a little soft cone shaped Christmas tree ornament made from the cable knit sweater. An upcycled sweater Christmas tree ornament!
I've got a tutorial and free pattern to make your own upcycled Christmas tree ornament below.
And if you're wondering about the ornament that Marie made for me… well, I can tell you it's GORGEOUS. Like, just about knocked me out when I opened up my package. I don't have a photo for you right now because the light is no good and would not do it justice, but you can see photos and a tutorial for it over on her blog.
Sand the dowel pieces and paint (if desired). These will be the trunks of your trees.
I left a small bit unpainted because that's where I was holding the dowel, and that part is not going to show.
Cut tree out of sweater fabric. Sew a basting stitch along the curved edge.
Fold in half right sides together, with long straight sides matching. Stitch down that side with a ¼" seam allowance to make a cone. Stop the stitch line just above your basting stitches.
Turn right side out. Use a dull pencil to poke the point out. It looks a little like an elf hat right now.
Stuff with fiber fill stuffing.
When you get to the bottom, add a circle of chipboard (cut using the pattern). There should be a hole in the center of the chipboard so the tree trunk can go through.
If you notice that my circle is cut from the edge to the middle, that's because that was the only way I could get my scissors to the center of the chipboard. You could also tape over the cut if you want, but really it doesn't hurt anything to just leave the cardboard cut.
Pull the basting threads to cinch the bottom. Leave the hole big enough for the dowel. Tie the thread ends and poke inside the hole.
Put a good amount of hot glue on the dowel, leaving about an inch at the bottom without glue.
Push the dowel up into the hole in the bottom of the Christmas tree. If some of the glue ends up on the bottom of the tree, you can just paint it to match the trunk.
Thread a length of embroidery floss or thin yarn through the top of the tree and tie to make a hanging loop.
Embellish your tree as desired. I opted to keep it simple with just a felt star at the top.
Here's one I made for my own tree in white.
What a fun little tree to make! I love that they are upcycled using what you had on hand.
What a fun way to upcycle an old sweater and the color choice is unexpected too. Thanks for joining and sharing your ornament tutorial on the ornament exchange.
I love how you could use any color sweater to make the ornament! Great idea!
Those sweater trees are so adorable! Would love for you to stop by and link this up to More The Merrier Monday.
These are so darling! And how clever to use a sweater that you were planning to get rid of!
Those are too cute!! I never have old sweaters but I sure wish I could so I could try them out!