Homemade Mini Christmas Tree tutorial

Today, I decided to get creative and make a cute little Christmas tree. I made if for my little girl but I just put my brain to work and I created a cute Christmas tree out of a cereal box, glitter, aluminum foil, staples and paper. It took me quite a while because I first attempted to do it and it turned out to be not so great... well at least to me. I tried to make tree leaves that went all around the tree but then, it didn't turn out as well as I envisioned it in my head. The second attempt, I tried the leaves again, but with a different approach and again, the idea was much prettier as I imagined it. Finally, the last one was a success and it was cute.

Here is a brief tutorial of how I did my Christmas tree.

Here is all that I used:

• Staples for the hooks
• Aluminum foil for the ornaments
• Cereal box for the tree shape (shaped into a funnel)
• Homemade protractor
• Glue
• Glitter
• Paper
• Seam ripper or small sharp object to punch holes in the tree for the ornaments

Here is a picture of the tree completed with the aluminum foil ornament, the staples that I used to punch a hole in the ornament so I could attach the ornament to the tree, the staples and the homemade protractor (you can use a real one, I just made me one because my brother didn't have one and I needed it to make the round shape) and the paper. U used paper with the hounds tooth design printed on it as the base color and the paper wraps around the cereal box. (that's pretty much the tutorial in a quick summary)

 

What to do:

• Draw a half circle with the protractor on the cereal box and cut it out
• Fold it into a cone shape and glue it
• Wrap the printed image as your base color that you will use for decorations around the cone and glue it
• Draw your decoration with the glue and sprinkle the glitter and roll the cone around on a flat surface in the glitter to make the glitter stick and flatten the glue
• Roll small balls out of aluminum foil as the ornaments
• Use staples to punch through the middle of the ornament ball as the hook (bend the top end of the staple down until its parallel and press the hook into the ball to secure it)
• Use the seem ripper or other sharp object to punch holes in the tree, put the ornament ball in and bend the hook to secure the ball to the tree and tape it down on the inside.
• Use a stick pin to punch through the large aluminum foil ball to secure it to the top of the tree. You can use what ever you want to secure the ball, I was just playing around and could have done a better job BUT it turned out pretty good. I just glued the ball on with the pin coming out of the ball and fed through the top of the tree. It's just kind of sitting there.

That's it, you have a Christmas tree.

How to make a homemade sewing awl

For those of you who are not familiar with sewing I will explain. I've been needing a sewing awl for some time now to help me sew in areas that my sewing machine will not work on such as angled areas. (Click here to see what a real sewing awl looks like) Its a hand held manual sewing tool that does what a sewing machine does all except you do it with your hands. WELL I decided to make me one and boy is it a "Michelle's famous rig" for sure and it works just the same. 

I know it seems as though I have a lot of time on my hands but as an at home mom, I am always thinking of how I can make things work and I'm always trying to come up with ways to save money. As many of you know, $15 is a lot of money to spend on a sewing awl when you don't have it SO I have created a homemade sewing awl with a pen and sewing machine needles. It worked so well that I thought I would share what I came up with. For me, it works great but USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK because if you drop the pen it seems to land with the needle pointing down so to avoid injuring yourself use with caution!

First we need to gather everything we will need:

• Pen with think inner ink refill shell (mine was empty)  
• Sewing needles
• Sewing bobbin and thread (Best thread is Nylon, it won't break)   

 

Barrel of pen - Bottom barrel and metal end cap - Bobbin with thread - Sewing needles - Ink refill shell

Tutorial:

• Step 1: First, I disassembled the pen. I then took the ink refill out, pulled the piece off of the end where the ink flows through, put a drop of super glue in the bottom hole and pushed the sewing needle in where the ink flowed. I put a few small pieces of foam in the barrel of the pen to keep the needle from moving up and down; the foam will provide cushion so when you screw the metal end cap back on, it will be snug. After that, you can put the pen back together. I took a pair of pliers to squeeze the end of the metal end cap inward to keep the needle from rotating.

• Second, I bent the metal piece of the pen that's used to hang it on a pocket (the clip). I first bent it out slightly, then I made a small bend in the middle where the bobbin will go (it will look like a 7). Then slide the bobbin on and thread the needle. After that, your pretty much done but you can control how much resistance you want in the bobbin by how far you bend the metal piece in. It's not a real sewing awl but it works just the same. I am very happy with mine and it serves it's purpose. Here is one of my projects that I sewed through thick foam at an angle (something my sewing machine can't do) 
  
  
  
                                  This is the bottom                      This is the side
  

For the second sewing awl, I did a little engineering to try and make it closer to a real sewing awl, unfortunately, I found out that it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. This one didn't work as well as the first one just because the nut and bolt weighed it down and it would turn while I was trying to sew with it so for me, it didn't work well. Here is the second sewing awl:

 Here is my catastrophe

Now, to wrap things up I will do a tutorial on how to use the homemade sewing awl you just made. It's very simple and it takes a little getting used to but I love it. It sure beats sewing with a regular needle and thread!

1. Insert the needle and pull the strand of thread through.

 2. Next, once you have pulled the thread through, insert the needle all the way and then pull it back to create a loop

3. Next you will take the loose thread and feed it through your loop (Note - make sure that you thread the loop on the opposite side that the thread runs down to the bobbin or it will catch wrong and you will have to pull the thread strand out and do the stitch again)

 4. Repeat the steps and your stitch should look like this. Once you complete your project, pull the thread thought and tie it off and your done!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my blog on how to make a homemade sewing awl and I hope it can be of some assistance to you. Please let me know if you have any questions by commenting below and feel free to share your projects that you did with your homemade sewing awl!

UPDATE: I added a foam piece to the first sewing awl to help the thread flow smoothly without too much slack. It it really good now! (I took a thick piece of foam and punched a hole in it then slid it up around the pen with the thread under it) The second awl was heavy where the screw was and it was not a good idea so I ended up putting a piece of art wire to hold the bobbin and made it just like the other one.

K Design & Art