Repurposed Christmas Tree

I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to Christmas yet! I know it's mid-January now, but I still miss the smell of our Christmas tree when I come downstairs every morning. I usually do have these feelings come mid-January, so this year I was prepared! I've been saving the Christmas tree needles that have fallen off of our tree for two years now. Here's the post from last year about the best ways to collect the needles.

This year I added to my collection enough to make a pillow, so I'll show you how I did it.

You'll need:

• One large square of burlap (mine was about 14 inches square)
• Christmas tree needles
• Two strips of burlap (2 inches by 14 inches)- you'll use these for the flowers
• One piece of paper and two small pieces of tape (to make a funnel)

First fold your large square in half and sew three sides of the burlap, being sure to leave a small opening to flip it inside out.
Flip your burlap inside out to hide the seams of your pillow. Make a funnel out of your piece of paper. Be sure that the opening of the funnel that you will place inside the pillow opening is at least 1 inch in diameter, so that the needles can make it through without getting stuck. Funnel in your needles.
Stitch the opening closed and set your pillow aside. On to the fun part... check out Linda's burlap tips post this is where I was inspired to create the burlap flowers. Grab your two strips of burlap 2x14 inches long. You'll want to sew one of the short ends to prevent fraying. I also sewed one of the long edges to prevent fraying too, but you may like the frayed look, so just leave it! Then I chose one string that runs down the length of the strip and pulled it tight like in the picture below.
Keep pulling and the strip starts to curl up! You'll want to tie off the string that you have been pulling and then use a needle and thread to hand sew the underneath of the flower to keep all those beautiful ruffles together.
Then hand stitch the flowers on to your pillow and you're done!
It may not look like a Christmas tree, but it sure does smell like one!! Ahh, now I can enjoy that smell all year!