My husband doesn’t get it, what he considers rubbish I look at as a recycling challenge. I do get a kick of making crafts out of the scaps of other projects. This Christmas felt tree project is one of my more successful ones.
I save all the families old wool sweaters and felt them for repurposing. Felting wool sweaters are just basically shrinking them in a hot wash so they would only fit a small child.
As there are no longer any toddlers in my house I keep these sweaters for crafting, no need to cry over spoilt wool anymore!
When it happens with one of my husband’s sweaters he gets suspicious now and thinks I do it accidentally on purpose (in some cases he might be right!)
Friends and family also hand me their old wool sweaters to repurpose. A couple of weeks ago I made a lovely soft recycled sweater blanket and then out of the scraps some gorgeous felt flowers for a wreath.
I still had a pile of sweater felt scraps and decided to make them into a cute felt Christmas tree. In fact, I made a few of these Christmas trees as they make a lovely festive decoration on the mantle.
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Recycled Sweater Scraps Into Cute Felt Christmas Tree
What you need to make a felt Christmas tree
Felted Sweater Scraps – (you can of course use craft felt). To felt your sweaters, just put them into a hot wash in the washing machine as I did with my sweater mountain pillows.
Don’t worry if your sweaters don’t felt in the machine, as long as they don’t unravel and fray when cut, you can still use them for this craft. If a sweater has been knitted by machine often it will not fray when cut.
- Cardboard tube (toilet roll or kitchen paper tube)
- Fabric Mod Podge
- Hot glue gun
- Scissors
- Tape
- Twigs for the trunk
- Small Wood Slice
How to make Felted Christmas Trees
1.. The first thing to do is to make a cardboard cone. Cut the cardboard tube lengthways and then roll it into a cone shape. Secure with tape and trim off excess cardboard so that the base is even.
There is another tutorial to make cardboard cones out of pizza bases with this upcycled denim Christmas trees tutorial. This is handy if you want to make larger felted Christmas trees.
2. Next, cut the felt sweater scraps into zig-zag strips approximately 1″ wide. You can use pinking shears for this, but I think you get a better shape by doing it by hand.
You will need enough felt strips to cover the whole of the cardboard cone.
3. Then, starting at the bottom of the cardboard cone, glue a strip of cut felt around the bottom of the cone. Then glue another one above this overlapping slightly as you go. Continue until the whole of the cone is covered.
4. Finally, to make the trunk of the tree simple glue a twig to the center of the wood slice using a hot glue gun. Then glue the top of the twig to the inside of the cone. This gives the trees a natural rustic look.
Another fun alternative to the wood slice base is to use cotton reels, as I did with these mini tartan Christmas trees.
It’s fun to make these trees in different shades of sweater felt. They are so easy to make. I’m working on having a whole forest of felt trees in different shades for my Christmas mantle. If you have any felt scraps left over, then I suggest using them to make sweater felt balls.
Every year, I make new upcycled tabletop mini Christmas trees for the mantle. As well as these felt Christmas trees, I’ve also made some other upcycled sweater felt trees, but these had more of a Scandinavian feel to them.
Crafting with old sweaters is one of my favourite fabrics to upcycle. I keep all the wool scraps from my larger upcycle to craft for small projects for Christmas. Check out these other Christmas sweater crafts.
- Handmade sweater felt ornaments
- Scandi woven hearts – this combines both repurposed sweaters and denim
- Felt tassels from sweaters
- Cookie-cutter Christmas ornaments
- Funky felt garlands – this upcycled Christmas craft uses the smallest of sweater felt scraps.
Visit allfreechristmascrafts.com for more tabletop Christmas tree ideas.
Emily
These are absolutely darling! What a clever way to re-use old sweaters. Thank you for linking up with Merry Monday – I’ll be featuring your sweater trees at our upcoming party. Merry Christmas!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you so much, I look forward to seeing the feature.
Megan
What a fun upcycle for old wool sweaters! These are so rustic-ly beautiful! #MM
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, I love to upcycle old sweaters I think I now have a sweater pillow for all seasons.
Jamie
Those are so cute. What a great way to use up scraps, etc.! 🙂
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, they are fun to make too.
Susan
I am so charmed by these adorable felt Christmas trees. I love upcycling crafts and can’t wait to give this a try. Congrats, you’re featured at the This Is How We Roll Link Party.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you so much for the feature.
Cecilia
So adorable! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm–pinned!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you ?
Maisy
Claire, your felt trees look absolutely adorable, and I love that they are recycled – or upcycled?! I have featured you at the Friday Favorites linky party this week. Come check it out! https://be-alice.blogspot.com/2017/11/friday-favorites-week-400.html Hope you pop by and visit again this week 🙂
Claire Armstrong
Thank you so much and thanks for the feature.
Carrie @ Carrie's Home Cooking
Thank you so much for sharing on the Whisk It Wednesday Link Party. Make sure you stop by tomorrow and join us again! Hope that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Carrie @ Carrie’s Home Cooking
Claire Armstrong
Thank you and happy thanksgiving to you!
Libbie
These are adorable! Love the trees and plan to give them a try this weekend. Pinned!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you and have fun with them.
Lisa
Got to love upcycling! These look great.
I especially love the more natural colours, rather than bright green like a lot of Christmas decorations.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, I like all sorts of colours for Christmas but these seemed the most suitable felt scraps for this project.
Leanna
All of these crafts are adorable, but your little trees are just fantastic. Beautiful craft, pinning.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you Leanna!
Lins @ Boo & Maddie
We’ve just come back from Estonia and felting is such a huge craft pasttime there, I saw so many items that reminded me of you! Thank you for linking up to #HomeEtc X
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, my son went to Estonia in the summer for a summer school and really enjoyed it.
Amber
Such cute trees I love them Claire
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Amber.
Mia
What a great idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love these Christmas trees!!!!!!!!! Kisses, my friend.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michelle Leslie
Adorable Claire, you always come up with the neatest ideas. I wonder, would it be wrong of me to tell my hubby that our thermostat in the washing machine is broken and that’s why his sweaters look so small 😉
Claire Armstrong
Thank you Michelle. Accidents do happen with the washing machine ? And if he does complain you can always suggest he does the washing from now on and I’m sure that would keep him quiet. It would my husband!
Debrashoppeno5
How adorable. I would want a whole forest of these trees.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, they are so easy to make it wouldn’t take long to have a whole forest.
Susanne
Claire, these are so cute!!! You are shrinking his sweaters on purpose, aren’t you, lol!! I love them!!
Claire Armstrong
Thanks, I might not be quite as careful with them as I should perhaps be.