My Mannequin Christmas Tree: Details About the Creation

One of my blog readers, asked: 

"How did you create the layers?"  I thought I would share my answer to this question with you all.

In this picture,

notice the wide burlap ribbon around the waist. First that ribbon was secured and then I began hanging garlands of pine branches with a few small pine cones wired into the garlands.  I used corsage pins to x the garland to the ribbon, sometimes going through parts of the plastic covered wire. 

If I used real pine branches, I thought about using duck tape to create the waist ribbon, and then stripping the limb free of all foliage right at the end of the branch. I would then use more tape to tape the branches to the duck tape waist ribbon. 
Additional layers were created with sheer wired ribbon strands and batttery powered lights (cool lights). I circled the waistline with the end of the lights, and made sure the battery box ended up in the rear beneath the bustle.

THE TOP

 Part of the secret of this design is the sewn top.  If you look at first picture again you can see how the top fit over the ends of the greens, lights, and ribbons.  I used commercial velcro tape to overlap the edges of the top.(See the strip of black tape on the fabric on the picture above. The top is laying on the table and you can see the velcro. )  I also lined the top with a heavier fabric to give it strength to hold it's shape and not show the bulk under the waistline edge.

The bustle of ribbons and fabric flower were created separately, and added as the last step to the creation of this fantasy Christmas tree. 

Future plans for Glorious are to change up her top..

..remember, I used velcro to close the edges of the top,

 into a Fairy.  

Her wonderful pine garland skirt will be perfect.

What about an Easter creation with a skirt overlay like this:

Or maybe she'll turn into an angel, watching over the family.

Smiles,

Deborah

Adding a Bit More Color

I went back to the store and bought a few colorful picks for about $1.00 each. In order to raise them to the height that I needed, I made these wire extensions out of coat hangers.

I covered the twisted metal coat hanger with electrical tape to give it more strength and so it would also blend into the pine branches.  Next, I twisted the pick onto the top of the covered wire, and then recovered that exposed wire again.

 Now, I have more additional color and at a reasonable cost.  I even found some little red sparkly birds that I wound around the tops of individual branches.

 

Here is how the completed planters look on my front porch.

Deborah