Christmas conical trees - A tutorial - The Modern Housewife Series Vol. I

I would call them cone trees but that just makes me think of pine cones so conicals it has become. I've seen these wee guys all the internet but mainly in felt. I fancied some for my decorations this year so drafted up a simple pattern that I thought would work and just threw them together. I have more of these just waiting to be filled and finished and then they'll join my festive forest.

Here's how you make them...

1. Download the handy pdf pattern and cut out the two pieces.

2. Draw round your pattern pieces onto some bits of fabric (I shamefully go round them with biro pen on the wrong side of the fabric because no one will see it).

3. With right sides together line up the two straight lines of the cone and sew it up like this...

...you can see that it doesn't have to be perfectly lined up or particularly neat and that the seam is fairly wide for the size of it. That's OK, just trim reasonably close to your stitching and it will make it easier to turn inside out.

4. Turn inside out so right sides now face out.

5. Sew the small circle onto the base of the cone, so that again the right side of the material is facing out, and leave a small gap for filling it. Like this...

6. Fill. I used urad dal (split mung beans) because they are small and white and so fit in quite nicely and don't show through the thinner lighter fabrics. We also had loads of them. They really need the weight of something like lentils as to just use toy stuffing would have these falling over or drifting away with a slight gust. Anyway, fill until you can fill no more and some spills out and then sew up the gap.