Today's fabric-y craft to do with your children was inspired by this tree decoration I found on Pinterest, by Quilts by Elena.  (You can see it on my Pinterest board Christmas.)

This one was made by sewing selvedge edges together.  My version uses one piece of fabric, but you could also sew strips of fabric together before cutting the triangle for the tree, thus using some of your scraps.

Fabric Christmas Tree

You will need:

To make:

1. Cut out 2 triangles in decorative fabric and one in wadding.  Use thin wadding or thick fabric.  I used a scrap of thick brushed cotton.  Include a trunk at the bottom of the wadding triangle.  You can use straight scissors for the wadding, but pinking shears make a nice edge for the tree, and help to stop it fraying.

  

                                                                                                             Triangle template

2. Pin the layers together: 1 piece of fabric wrong side up

                                           wadding

                                          1 piece of wadding right side up.

5. Cut a length of ribbon to make a loop for hanging your finished tree.  Fold it in half lengthways and put the 2 short edges under the fabric at the top of the tree.  The ends of the trunk and the ends of the ribbon should be far enough inside the tree 'sandwich' that they will be caught  by the stitches when you sew your tree together.

6. Sew all round the tree, including all the way across the bottom, and round the trunk, a little way in from the edge.  You can use a sewing machine, or stitch by hand using a small running stitch.  Use matching or contrasing thread.

7. Sew 2 star-shaped buttons at the top of the tree, one on each side.  Sew these on at the same time, going through from one button to the other.

8. Hang up your tree.

The fabric I used is Photographic Snowflakes on Christmas Green by weavingmajor.