How to Make Fabric Trees from Old Clothes

Looking for a fun & easy decoration for your mantle or shelf this Christmas and winter season? Try these fabric and ribbon trees!

I wanted something to go on my mantle with my nativity set. We just moved into our new house and this is the very first time, I have ever had a mantle so I wasn’t so sure what I wanted to do with it. But since my nativity is very simple and understated, I wanted something really fun to go with it and something lots of color!

Jamie had showed me some sweater trees she had seen on Pinterest awhile back and I thought it would be fun to take some of my scrap fabric and old clothes (I keep a large pile for making t-shirt scarves or other projects) and make some really fun cardboard trees!

How to Make Fabric Ribbon Trees

What you need:

– Cardboard – Cereal boxes, etc work great

– Fabric – Scrap Fabric & Old Clothes work great

– Ribbon

– Hot Glue Gun & Glue

– Buttons, wrapping ribbon, or other accessories (optional)

How To:

Draw trees on your cardboard. I just free-handed it but you can use a ruler if you want to be more precise. I found it was much easier to make the tree tops and trunks separately and then glue them together at the end.

Cut fabric a little bit bigger than the top of your tree. Iron your fabric if it is very wrinkly. Hot glue the edges of your fabric to the back on your tree. I started with the bottom edge. Make sure to pull your fabric tight as you glue (especially on the last edge) so you won’t have bunches in the front. Add any embellishments you want. My mom and I found button looks really cute on some and a lace ruffle looked really cute on another one.

Cover the trunk in ribbon using hot glue to secure. Glue the trunk and top together.

If you want your trees to be free standing, make a little box with cardboard by folding a strip of cardboard and glue to secure (see picture below). Then attach the box to the bottom of your trunk.

I had so much fun making these trees. I made mine very Christmasy but you could choose whatever fabric you want and made trees that are much less seasonal. In fact, I plan on making some more in the spring and having fun trees on my mantle year round!