Wool Felt Christmas Ornaments

How to make upcycled wool felt Christmas ornaments

You will need:

various colorful pieces of wool felt, felted wool, or plain wool cut into small circles

brown felt 1″ wide by 20″ long (trunk)

small piece of yellow felt (star)

embroidery floss, any color

needle

scissors

glue gun

I started by getting out all of the wool I had been collecting. Some pieces were felted sweaters, colorful wools collected from quilting fabric shops (not Joann’s- where you will find wool, but not in bright colors) and wool felt. Because I knew I wanted to make many trees, I just started cutting out circles, starting at about 2 1/2″ in diameter for the largest circles. You can go about in a more organized manner and only cut out the circles you’ll need and avoid extras if you like.

Start making 3 stacks (or lines) of circles working from largest to smallest for the three layers of the tree. Depending on the thickness of your materials (the super thick pieces are from the felted sweaters) you will probably want 7 or 8 circles per stack.

Take a look at your colors and see if you like the mix. Stack up all the three layers, for full effect and make any final adjustments.  Another option is to make the tree with  gradually smaller circles getting narrower all the way up and not bothering with size layers, like the all green tree pictured above.

Get out a needle and embroidery floss, I used embroidery floss because it felt a bit sturdier, normal thread would probably work fine too if that’s all you have. Cut a piece of floss at least 20 inches long, thread it through the needle, knot both ends together.

Starting with the bottom of the bottom, find the middle of each circle, run the needle through, slide the circle down the thread then move to the next smaller circle until the whole tree is built on the thread.

Leave about an inch of the thread at the bottom to use in building and attaching the trunk.

Cut a piece of brown felt about 1 inch wide and 20 inches long. Cut out two piece of yellow felt (exactly the same) for the star for the top of the tree. You can use a pencil to sketch out a star shape on the yellow felt then put the drawn side on the inside when you glue the star on.

Start with the trunk (it is easier to glue if you move the rest of the tree up the thread and out of the way) put a line of hot glue on the bit of thread (at the bottom of the tree) and the very end of the brown felt trunk piece. Start rolling up the trunk around the glue and thread.

When you get to the very end put a couple dabs of glue under the very end of the trunk felt and hold until it cools off.

Cover the top of the tree trunk with glue then quickly slide the tree piece down on the thread to meet the trunk. Center the trunk then hold it until dried.

Arrange the tree layers as tight or loose as you like, then make a knot in the thread at the very top of the tree. Place one of the felt star pieces (penciled on side in) under the thread at the very top of the tree then dab all around with glue.

Place the second star piece on top of the other and hold them tightly together until the glue is dried. Make sure the thread comes out the top of the star, this will be used to hang the ornament. Cut the thread off about 3 inches from the top of the star and knot the ends together.

You are finished and your ornament is ready to hang on the tree!

Here is another way of finishing the tree if you would like the tree to stand on a shelf instead of hang:

To make a tree to stand on a shelf or just for another look, use an old wooden spool for the trunk. Glue the top of the spool right to the base layer of the tree, careful to cover up the bottom thread piece too.

At the top of the tree, cut the thread off just above the knot and glue the star on over the knot leaving off the loop for hanging.

The tree should stand up nicely on a shelf with the spool trunk, if you make the base wide enough, the felt bottom will work for standing on a shelf as well.

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