Thanksgiving Countdown Tree {Tutorial}

If you've been around Taking Time To Create a while or maybe have browsed the archives, you may remember me mentioning this little Thanksgiving Countdown once upon a time. It almost pains me to link to that old post...I've learned so much since writing it!

I never actually did a full post on it, but with Thanksgiving around the corner, I thought I'd pull out these old pictures and share it with you. They are old pictures, so keep that in mind. :-) I've also learned a lot about taking pictures over the last year.

I originally saw this post at Lil Luna (Rachel from Family Ever After was actually guest posting). I've always loved Christmas countdowns, so naturally I was drawn to a Thanksgiving countdown. This one uses leaves to countdown to Thanksgiving. You move a leaf off the tree and to the "ground" everyday. On Thanksgiving, you shouldn't have any leaves left on the tree. 

The original post has a really great tutorial, so check that out, but here's how I made my version:

I started with a base fabric that measures 10.5 x 19 inches once hemmed all the way around. I folded my hemmed edges over twice, so I wouldn't have raw edges on the back, so my original piece was probably about 11.5 x 20 inches. 

I added "loops" at the top. Mine are a little less than an inch wide and probably about 1.5 inches tall when they're folded over (you can see them best in the picture above). 

I cut out letters from felt (after printing the words from Word to use as a template) and then cut out two background pieces--one for each word. I just cut out background pieces big enough for my words; the sizes will vary depending on your words. I sewed the word background pieces (the dark brown) onto the base. Then I sewed each letter onto the word background piece using a zig zag stitch. 

And now for the fun part: the tree!

I found a bare tree silhouette and printed it in Word to fit on my base. It printed on two pieces of paper, so I taped it together. 

I cut the tree out and laid it on the wrong side of my fabric to trace the outline onto the fabric.

Once it was trace, I cut out the tree and then attached it to the fabric base using a zig zag stitch.

Now for the leaves!

I cut out lots and lots and lots of leaves from felt. You want to be sure you'll always have enough! I stitched around the edges and through the middle of each leaf to add the leaf detail. If you're using a sewing machine, this really isn't too painful to do (maybe just a little tedious).

In the original post, Rachel hadn't quite figured out how to attach the leaves. I believe she was using tape until she could figure something else out. My solution? Safety pins! Using embroidery thread the same (or similar) color as the leaf I attached a safety pin to the back of each leaf. This was a long process, but totally worth it! They'll last for years to come. 

There are only 8 more leaves left on our tree, but that's plenty of time to make a Thanksgiving Countdown Tree of your own. They'd even make a cute gift  for your host(s) if you're going to someone's house for Thanksgiving dinner. 




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