With Christmas right around the corner, you may be looking for inexpensive ways to deck your dollhouse. Pipe-cleaner (chenille stem) trees cost next-to-nothing and bring the charm of vintage aluminum tinsel trees to your decorations. You will need metallic pipecleaners if you want a tinsel tree, or pastel chenille pipe-cleaners if you want more of a “feather tree”. My tree took seven 12″ pipe-cleaners.

I made this tree last year for the dollhouse, and had so many requests for instructions that I improved the design and put together a pattern. The construction is quite simple!

1. Print out our pattern and make sure that the long “trunk” piece measures 10″ on the printout. With a pair of old tough scissors (don’t use your sewing scissors!) cut out all of the pieces (just lay your pipe-cleaner on the paper and snip the correct length).
2. Take the two “trunk” pieces and twist together 3/4″ at the ends. remember which direction you twisted them, you will always twist the trunk in the same direction.
3. Pick up the three smallest branches and lay them perpendicularly across the “Y” of the trunk.
4. Twist the trunk tightly around them. Twist the trunk together another 3/4″.
5. Repeat step 3 with the next set of branches.
6. Fan out all the branches.
7. If you run out of “trunk” before your tree is finished, just take another pipe-cleaner, fold it in half, and wrap it over the last set of branches, then twist it around the remaining trunk. Continue adding branches.
8. When you reach the bottom, you can twist a third piece into the trunk, and spread it out like a tripod to hold up your tree. You can also use an empty wooden spool wrapped in ribbon for a sturdier base.
9. Add metallic beads for ornaments. Try adding fine glitter too. Vintage ornaments always had lots of glitter snow.
10. variations: Make smaller trees for your tabletops, and angle the branches upward for a different vintage effect