Monday, November 26, 2012

Making: Sewn Paper Tree Tutorial


I had it in my mind to make some paper trees to decorate for the holidays. After a bit of searching I could not find a pattern that I liked so I started sketching. I took my sketch ideas and started fiddling around with some papers I had cut out of a book, for another project, and came up with this simple little tree to hang in the window... or any other place that needs a little flare this season.

Supplies:
  • Paper of your choice. 
  • Sewing machine w/ needle and thread
  • Paint or other supplies for embellishment


1. Draw a tree on your paper. You can use a tree cookie cutter as an outline but I like the quirky way a wonky hand drawn tree turns out.


2. With four papers together cut out your tree.


3. Fold each tree in half close to the mid line. These will not be perfect... just get close to half.


4. Starting with two of the trees match up the fold lines.


Press them flat and sew up the middle leaving a long thread tail at the top.


Remember this will not be perfect. The mismatch top adds to the character of the finished tree...


5. Refold those trees along their original fold lines.


6. Open up the other two trees and placing one on top, one on bottom sew them down the middle... leaving a long thread line at the top. Trim the threads at the bottom of the tree.


7. Open up/refold all of the trees and fan out as you please. Use the long threads to hang your tree or add a ribbon for hanging.


You can now paint or embellish as you like. The Artist chose to paint his tree. Be careful with paint... too much and papers start to stick together.


Next time we are going to decorate with pens before we sew the trees together...

Being the Plain Jane that I tend to be I chose to keep mine simple and embellishment free...



Happy Tree Making...

4 comments:

  1. These look like great fun! Thanks for posting how you made them, we'll have to try it out.

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    1. They are simple and fun.
      I have some new ideas for this pattern... Keep you posted on how they turn out.

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  2. sweet! i would love to try these ... maybe tissue paper too? thanks dawn, you do great tutorials. xo

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Erin! Tissue paper would be interesting... You could even have extra layers for each tree. Neat. Let me know if you do it!

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