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How to Make a Handmade Christmas Tree Pillow

Learn how to make a Christmas tree pillow with chunky yarn. These adorable Christmas pillows are the perfect addition to your holiday décor.

December is here folks! I don’t know about you, but I think we could all use a little extra festiveness this year. So I thought it would be fun to make some yarn inspired Christmas tree pillows. In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to make a handmade Christmas tree pillow.

What’s best about this project is that you literally only need 5 things (you probably have them laying around your house)!

  • chunky cotton red yarn
  • standard pillow insert
  • large darning needle
  • cardboard
  • scissors
How to make a handmade christmas tree pillow, diy christmas tree pillow

Handmade Christmas Tree Pillow

What I love most about this pillow is that its not your average homemade Christmas tree pillow. Instead of creating a green Christmas tree, I choose to do red. I also decided to give this farmhouse style pillow a modern spin.

Instead of making an outline of a traditional tree, I choose to just make lines that represent a Christmas tree. So as you can see on the photo, every line decreases as it makes it way to the top. I think that this gives it a cute modern spin on the traditional Christmas tree.

Or maybe this has totally been done before and I’ve just never seen it! Either way, I think its the coolest homemade pillow ever.

How to make a handmade Christmas tree pillow

Different Color Options

One thing that’s great about this pillow is the different color options. If you’re totally not feeling the red, go with the traditional green color. I even think a chunky white yarn would look good with this design. Its totally up to you!

The yarn I used is from Hobby Lobby and its offered in a few different colors. Here’s a quick list of some of the color options available:

  • white
  • almond (natural)
  • silver
  • shale (black)
  • celadon (ocean blue)
  • Peach Blush
  • Clay (used in the photo)
  • Mustard (yellow)
  • Mauve (dark pink)
  • Purple Haze
  • Chambray (cloud blue)
  • Olive (dark green)

If you choose to go with a different brand yarn, I would recommend going with a chunky yarn. I think the chunky yarn adds a lot of definition to the pillow. Plus, it makes the tassels look really cute too!

Same thing goes for the tassels. You could switch it up and make pompoms for each corner of the pillow. I think that’s what I love most about making things. You get to design something the way you want it.

Starting New Christmas Traditions

Every year for Christmas we celebrate old traditions and create new traditions. One tradition that my family has been doing for years is to create a handmade ornament. This year, I used some scarp yarn and some old Christmas balls to make a brand new Christmas ball.

All I did was wrap some yarn around my Christmas ball with a hot glue gun and finished it off with a piece of twine. One of the other traditions is to make a home decor item for Christmas. Mine being the handmade Christmas Tree Pillow this year.

I hope this blog post of me showing you how to create a handmade Christmas tree will inspire you to create something crafty. Ultimately, to create long lasting memories.

Need Some Christmas Gift Ideas

Here’s a quick little roundup of my favorite crochet throws that make perfect Christmas gifts. You could even take it a step further and change up the color palette for these crochet throws. Make it a Christmas crochet throw!

Free crochet pattern throws

Some of my favorite crochet throws here on the blog include the Eta Crochet Baby Blanket, the Cozy Cotton Throw, and the Simple Crochet Throw. All of these patterns being beginner friendly and work up in just a few days. Perfect homemade gifts for Christmas!

  1. Eta Crochet Baby Blanket
  2. Cozy Cotton Crochet Throw 
  3. Simple Crochet Throw + Video Tutorial 

So let’s get started with the Christmas tree pillow tutorial.

Christmas Tree Pillow

Supplies:

1 ball of Yarn Bee Cotton XXL Yarn in the color Clay

18in x 18 in (45.72cm x 45.72 cm) pillow cover. I purchased a basic one (Merchant 41) from Hobby Lobby. Make sure your pillow is made from light cotton or linen.

darning needle

scissors

How to make a Christmas Tree

Step 1: Grab a ruler or a book and draw a long line at the bottom of the pillow. This is the first line of the tree. Continue making lines (1 1/2″ space between each line) until you reach the top. Making sure to shorten each line, so it forms a triangle.

Step 2: Insert the yarn through the darning needle. Starting from the inside of the back of your pillow case, poke your darning needle with yarn at the end of the line. Weave in and out until you reach the end of the line. Cut the yarn and make a knot so the end does not come out. Do the same for the beginning.

Step 3: Continue filling up all of the lines until you reach the top. Once this is done, you’re finished with the pillow cover part.

Part 1 and 2 of creating a christmas tree pillow
Part 3 and 4 of creating a christmas tree pillow

How to make tassels

You will need a total of 4 tassels. One for each corner of the pillow.

Supplies

1 ball of Yarn Bee Cotton XXL Yarn in the color Clay (1 ball/leftover yarn from pattern)

4″ inch piece of cardboard or a small book

Scissors

Tassel Video Tutorial

Step 1:

Wrap your yarn around the book 20 times or continue wrapping if you want a chunky tassel.

Step 2:

Gently remove the wrapped yarn of the book.

Cut an additional piece of yarn and put it under the yarn that you just removed from the book ( approx.  1/2″ from the top). 

Once you have the yarn underneath the bunched up yarn, you want to tie a knot to secure it. This will create a loop on top (hole).

Step 3:

Cut all the bottom loops and trim the yarn so it’s perfectly even.

Finally, cut an additional piece of string and loop it through the top of the tassel. This string is used to attach the tassel to the corners of your pillow.

Create a total of 4 tassels. 1 for each corner of the pillow.

And you’re finished with the Christmas Tree Pillow!

Merry Christmas 🙂

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How to make a handmade christmas tree pillow