Little Fabric Christmas Trees, Built One Tier at a Time

Not every decoration goes on the tree. Some of my favourite Christmases were the little freestanding scenes on the sideboard — Fabric Christmas trees of their very own. That is exactly what my fabric trees are for.

Each tree is built from real cotton fabrics cut into layered tiers, gathered and stitched around a painted wooden trunk, which is then set into a painted gold wooden block. Once it is firmed up, it stands up happily by itself on a shelf, mantelpiece or windowsill, or as a jolly centrepiece on the Christmas dinner table.

They come in two sizes: around 27cm tall at £10, and larger 35cm designs at £14 (all sizes approximate). The fabrics do the decorating themselves — tiny poinsettia prints, gold snowflakes, holly and berries, spotted and holly prints in alternating little layers. A couple of my favourites: the holly and berry print on a gold block in the larger sizes, and the red, cream and green poinsettia print paired with gold snowflake fabric on this 27cm tree.

They are proper small-batch makes: there is only one of each of these trees in the shop at the moment, and once a particular fabric combination has been used up, I am on to the next. If one of them has caught your eye, do not hang about.

The larger tree in the photo is the holly and berry print — red berries, green leaves and gold highlights running through the fabric — layered in tiers on a brown painted wooden trunk, set into a gold painted block and topped with a gold glitter star. At around 35cm tall and 12cm wide it has real presence on a sideboard.

The smaller one is the poinsettia and cream snowflake pair: a rich red, cream and green poinsettia print alternating with a cream and gold snowflake print, 27cm tall by 11cm wide, also starred and also standing on its own weighted base.

Each tier is cut and gathered by hand, which is why the shapes are soft rather than symmetrical and why no two trees are ever quite the same. Line three along a windowsill in different heights and you have a little forest; stand one beside a candle on the dinner table and it does the work of a centrepiece.

Thank you for reading — next up, the wreaths, and rather a lot of pins.