Witch’s Stitches – Making a “kind of” Feather Tree

I love feather trees. I have one I put up every year that stands 6 feet tall. My kids call it the Christmas stick. The nice thing about a real feather tree is the branches are far apart and you can see your ornaments very well. To me a feather tree says years gone by and the look fits into my prim living room. When I make my snowmen and Santas I like to give them a little feather tree to hold.  Making a real one can be very time consuming. So here is a little “kind of” feather tree to make that is so quick and easy. You can make them to have your dolls hold or make a bunch of them and put them in a stand and have a shelf or mantel display.
Step 1 – You will need to choose a center stick for your tree. I just cut a twig the size I want my tree to be. You will also need the branches part. For this is use Home for the Holidays Pine Stems. I got them on ebay from the seller 1804 primitives. I am sure you can get them at your local craft shop too.  These have a wire running through them and will bend a keep whatever shape you want and you can cut them with just scissors.

Step 2 – Starting from the bottom of the twig, wrap your branch once around the center twig. Make sure you put a dab of glue on the twig and then wrap so it will stay in place. I use Aleene’s tacky glue in the gold bottle.  The bottom branch will be the longest. S you go up the tree and add branches they will be smaller and smaller, the smallest being right at the top. Snip your branch so they are even. Let the glue dry.

Step 3 – Now you are ready to embellish your tree if you want. You can glue a little red berry at the end if you want or you can put rusty stars or bells on the ends of the branches. You can also tie a tiny piece of homespun or cheese cloth at the very end of the branch.  The little berries I used I got from my yard and I dried them. It is all up to you what you choose.

Step 4 – Now your tree is done. You can place it in the arms of a doll or you can put it in some kind of base, again it is what you want it to look like. They look great with an old wooden spool as a base. Just stick the twig into the hole in the spool and instant base. Wrap a little fabric around the spool and it looks even better. I would show you a picture of this but I have no idea what I did with my wooden spools. Sorry.

It is really that easy. The longest part is letting the glue dry. The rest takes only a few minutes.

If you have any questions please give me a shout. Enjoy, Faith