Christmas Tree Cushion from old clothes



The First Challenge in our 12 Days of DIY Christmas Challenges is to make a Christmas ornament or decoration from an item of clothing you no longer wear.


I chose this pair of green trousers.

First I cut along the centre leg seam to open them out and see how much fabric I had to work with.

From here - it's easy to make a simple shaped cushion of your choice. Here's how.

Get some scrap paper that's as big as the fabric you have. I taped together a few pieces! Draw your design and cut out. Make it nice and bold - small pieces are more fiddly to sew. Keep it simple!


Now you need to place your template on the fabric to cut out.  I folded my fabric in half, right sides together, then pinned the template to the double layer of fabric. This meant I only had to cut once.  Or you can just pin and cut twice to get your two pieces.


Once you have your two pieces of fabric cut to your template. Place them right sides together then pin around all the edges.


Stitch all the way around, leaving a gap of around 10 cm (4") to turn it out at the end.

I used the triple stitch setting on my machine to add a little extra strength to the seams as I wanted the cushion to be stuffed quite firm.

Once you've stitched around the edges, turn your pillow right sides out.

Now it's time to stuff it.  I had an old pillow that I'd kept to reuse the stuffing.  

After a pillow or cushion has gone lumpy, the stuffing can be reused if you take a little time to pull it apart and fluff it up again.


Once your pillow is stuffed as firm as you'd like it, hand stitch your opening closed.

And there you have a super simple Christmas Tree Cushion from an old pair of pants and an old pillow.
I would say that if I were to make another of these, I would draw the pointy branches at each side of the tree a little fatter - my family kindly pointed out that it does look a little like an alien tree!! 
I like to say it's a Christmas Tree with Character!! :)



All the left over scraps from the pants, I cut up small and added to the pillow stuffing! So there was no waste at all!


I'm much happier with my tree cushion than I was with my old green pants that I hadn't worn in a long time!

For the free downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here

What old clothes do you have that you no longer wear, but could be turned into a Christmas Ornament or Decoration?
Go on - take a look in your wardrobe and see!

For more ideas on making Christmas decorations from old clothing and to see the video setting this challenge - check out this post here, and do add your own projects to the link up there too!

Stay tuned for more Christmas DIY Challenges.
The videos setting the challenges are being posted each day on social media. You can find them on my Facebook page.

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Each day a challenge will be set by means of a video and blog posts giving some suggested ideas and crafts. These posts will also contain a linky party for anyone and everyone who wants to join in to link up their projects - both past and present, that answer the challenge.  The linky party can be found on all our blogs and we'll try and come up with different ideas and tutorials for the challenges too. So please to visit us all, and then share your ideas with us as well! We're looking forward to seeing how these challenge are met!

Ready, Steady....Let's Christmas Craft!


The 12 Days of Christmas DIY Challenges is brought to you by




18 comments:

  1. I'd never thought to reuse cushion stuffing in this way. I have plenty of lumpy cushions all set for a new life!

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    1. Yay! It took me a while to give this a go, but I'm so glad I did - we have lots of new cushions now!!

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  2. I think the little tree is cute! You could decorate it further with some crochet embellishments. I found this cute free pattern for a string of crocheted tree lights - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/christmas-light-appliques.

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    1. Oh those crochet lights are so cool! I might have to try them out! Thanks for the link.

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  3. Ha! Didn't see a big Xmas tree coming - great idea! And using the scraps in the stuffing - quite awesome. I like aliens, so if this is a model of their trees I'm fine with it.

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    1. Tee Hee - glad you like my alien tree Michelle!!

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  4. Very clever crafter. A Christmas pillow tree. I like it a lot.

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  5. You made such a great Christmas pillow Jill. Thanks for sharing at C&C with J&J.

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  6. Haha...SO cute! :)

    I would love for you to share this with my Facebook Group for recipes, crafts, tips, and tricks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pluckyrecipescraftstips/

    Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!

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    1. Thanks Jessica! Will pop over and share it now!

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  7. That is a unique idea! Loved how the tree turned out. I have a T-shirt of a bright green colour, should try to upcycle it this way.

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    1. Thank you!! Would love to see if you upcycle your t-shirt!!

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  8. That is a sweet Christmas Tree Pillow! I don't think I'd find anything in my closet to make a holiday decor piece out of, except maybe a sweater pillow.... but that's not as fun as this little tree!

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