Making Christmas Decorations

I've decided to have a go at following the McCall's craft pattern M5778. I really like the little Christmas Tree decoration and making one myself means I can co-ordinate the colours however I choose. To help me get in the festive mood whilst sewing I decided to watch "Santa Clause the Movie" which  will also help me time  how long it will take to make the decoration.

Step 1- Cutting out. Santa's just met the elves and I've hit a snag. I hopped I could use 2 fat quarters instead of a half meter. HOWEVER this means on of the tree shaped panels will have to be two half panels sewn together. Need to make sure to include a seam allowance when I cut the two half sections. Using an uncut half meter would have avoided this.

BTW the toy making scene is MUCH more fun when making Christmas stuff yourself at the same time.

35 Minutes in and the peices are cut out and pinned together

50 minutes in and the pices are sewn together, turned right side out and pined on top of each other before being sewn down the middle

Just over an hour and it's fully stuffed and just needs the ends slip stitched. I'm surprised how well it stands up.  I'm also surprised at how easy the final construction was. The shape is very 3 dimensional and I was concerned about how the pieces would be sewn together, I anticipated  much messing about with sewing each piece individually by hand. however it's simply a case of 3 made up cross sections of the tree shape placed on top of each other and top stitched. Don't worry about the colour of the thread used for top stitching as this will not be visible once the  tree is stuffed.

 And there you have it. I think I could have made it a lot quicker if I hadn't not messed around using Fat Quarters and just used half a meter for each colour as the paten said.  And one thing is certain, making this, although early, has gotten me into the Christmas Spirit.