christmas tree shirt

Ruffled Ribbon Christmas Tree Applique Tutorial

For those of you who followed the Hip for the Holidays series, you may remember this teaser photo. I had originally intended on creating a ruffled ribbon Christmas tree applique, but became distracted with sequined snowflakes. I figured that rather than shelving the project for next year, I'd show you the finished product.

For this project you will need:

6 strands of green grosgrain ribbon-I used two different shades of 2" ribbon.
1 scrap piece of brown ribbon

Sewing machine and thread
Scrap piece of fabric, larger than the size of the applique
Heat and Bond fusible adhesive
Onesie or other item to be appliqued
Embroidery Floss for star
Fray Check or a lighter

Use a gathering stitch (long stitch 4.0 with loosened tension 4 or 5) to stitch 1/4" away from the top edge of your strands of ribbon. Leave thread long on either end, and do not back stitch.

Gather your strands of ribbon by pulling on bobbin threads. Spread the gather evenly along the ribbon. When the ribbons are uniformly gathered, tie long threads at the end of each ribbon. This will keep your gather in place until stitched. Trim long strands of ribbon.

Attach your ribbon to your scrap piece of material. Stitch each strand on individually, starting at the base, and stitching along the original stitch line. Make sure that each additional layer of ribbon covers the stitching on the layer beneath.

Continue attaching ribbon, until all layers are attached to material.

Using a straight edge and marking pen, create a basic triangular tree shape.

Stitch along markings. Trim ribbon 1/8" outside stitch lines. Use fray check or flame to seal the edges of your ribbon.

Attach a piece of heat and bond to the back side of the trunk and base of tree.

Fuse the tree trunk to the item to be appliqued. Stitch close to edge of the tree trunk using your preferred stitch.

I attached my applique to my item using a triple stretch stitch. It is option number two on my machine. You will want to use a satin stitch if you have not sealed your edges.

Fuse the ruffled tree to the item, by heating the applique from the backside of your onesie or shirt. I did this in an attempt to avoid flattening the ruffles.

Stitch around the two sides of the Christmas tree, leaving the bottom edge of the base ruffle free.

If desired, trim your tree with sequins, small buttons, and a star on top. I used a bit of yellow embroidery floss to create a star for the top of the tree. A star shaped button, or a sparkly pom pom would be cute as well.

That's it, a simple and dimensional Christmas applique. As you can see in the last picture, I appliqued my tree to a scrap of white knit. I'm planning on saving it for a future day...just in case I end up with a girl that needs to be ruffled.

Interested in other dimensional applique ideas? Check out my Holly Berry Applique here.