Frilly Christmas Tree Jumper

I work in retail & all the staff are wearing Christmassy themed jumpers until the festive season is over. The legend is that I personally hate all things Christmas but its an urban myth lol.
Here’s my homemade effort….it HAD to be patchwork/appliqué inspired as everything I make seems to be?!?

If you fancy making one it’s super simple & takes just a couple of hours. Firstly just sort yourself out an unwanted jumper or tee top, some felt (I had some dark brown), about 9 oddments of Christmas fabric….or Christmas colours.

Next lay your jumper on flat surface & make a paper template of a tree including its trunk…cut a piece of felt using this.

Now cut strips of the different fabric…sorry the only measurement I used was each strip being 3 inch deep….I tend to do things by eye….kinda organic creations (get her!!!) so I just roughly cut 1st strip about 1 1/2 times length of widest part of tree. Just kept cutting strips an inch or so shorter for each frill layer. Hem each side with zig zag…I used red to keep too the colour scheme

I carried on making strips in the different fabrics….9 was right for my size of tree. The sparkly strips were made from a stretchy belt I picked up in the charity shop this morning for £1….I’m always on the look out lol..

Hand gather along one long end (yes I know you can do it on the machine but I find it a total faff.just keep putting the strip against your tree too see exact length you need (pinning one end whilst you do this helps….keep making frills until you get to approx 2 inches from top of tree ( I pinned them all on ready to sew in place but you could tack them as well)

Sew each frill along top, overlap them to give a layered look….there will be about inch of brown felt visible between the frills

Now your tree is all assembled lay your jumper on a flat surface with something flat & hard inside to help prevent you sewing your back & front together…my cutting mat did the trick

Pin tree into position, I did a running stitch around trunk as a decorative touch then also went around with the sewing machine. Pin between frill layers then sew….this will be a better method of supporting weight of tree than stitching all around the outer edge & super quick which is always my preferred method

Yayyyyyy! It’s all finished….you could add Pom poms, beads, buttons, ribbons to the frills but I liked mine as they were….

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY FRILLY CHRISTMAS