How to Make A Grand Diva Style

Dress Form Christmas Tree

Degree of difficulty - Intermediate Level Crafting Skills Helpful
Time: Approximately 2 1/2 hours (most of which is cutting the garland)

This is the most popular style of all the variations of

Dress Form Christmas trees. The key feature of this tree
is the “skirt” which makes the dress form look like it is
wearing a dramatic ballgown.

That is why we call this style the Grand Diva. When she
is in the room, all eyes are on her.

The “skirt’ is detachable so after Christmas you can

the skirt in storage and use the dress form for other
purposes the rest of the year.

Or you can remove the garland and decorate the skirt

with real or faux foliage to use throughout the year.
(See examples at the end of the tutorial.)

While you are making this tree you might want to join
our Holiday Dress Form group on Facebook. TOn the
group page you can ask questions of our design staff,
get ideas from the images we post and share you
completed tree with the community.

This tutorial was created for Mannequin Madness by

Hector Villacorta, a professional florist based in LA and SF.
Tutorial copyright is pending.

page 1
Selecting the Garland

Pine garland is the most common

choice, but you can use cedar or
Douglas fir. Whatever style garland
you choose, decide whether you
want real or artificial garland. We
recommend artificial garland
because then you can re-use
the tree year after year. Also with
artificial garland, you aren’t limited
to green, but can get colors like
pink, gold, silver or white.

If you buy artificial garland with pine

cones attached, that is fine. Just
don’t garland with lights already
attached, because you have to cut
the garland into pieces.

If you have an old artificial Christmas

tree you can cut up the branches
for your garland.

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Dress Form Buying Tips

You can use any style of dress form just make sure it
has a sturdy stand to support the weight of the garland
and decorations. A stand with a wide metal base is
ideal. You can use either a cloth or fiberglass torso. If
you plan on displaying this outdoors you might want to
use a fiberglass torso on a stand.

A wasp waist dress form with a 21” waist can give your
tree a vintage look.

At Mannequin Madness we have a

range of styles and sizes of dress
forms. If you type in the code
HolidayDIY15 you will get a 15%
discount on these dress forms.

If you want to change the look of

them, we sell velvet dress form
slipcovers in colors like pink,
purple and blue.

And we have fancy decorative

neck caps and stands to add
drama to the forms. The stand will
not be visible when the skirt is on
the dress form. But if you decide
to use the dress form for another
purpose after the holidays, the
stand might be visible then.

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Tools and Materials
1 life-sized dress form

5 each - 9 foot stand of garland

1 pair of long nose pilers

1 package of twist ties OR zip ties

1 roll of 16 gauge wire & wire cutters

1 roll 4feet x 7feet 20 gauge galvanized chicken

wire meeting with 1” hexagon (you can find it at
Home Depot)

Your favorite assortment of holiday decorations.

page 4
Step 1 Cutting and Prepping the Garland

As pine leaves can be prickly,

you might want to wear gloves
when handling them. And
since this is the part that takes
the longest (and is the least
creative), try to enroll family or
friends to help.

Step 1A

Take one strand of garland

measure 10” from one end.
Spread the branches at the 10”
mark so you can see the main
stem of the garland.

Step 1B

Using your wire cutters, cut this

10” length from the stem.

Step 1C

Continue cutting away 10”

lengths of garland until you
have cut up the entire length
of one garland.

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 The sections don’t need to be
exactly 10” long. It is okay to have
the sections ranging in length from
8”-10”. Place these sections in one
pile. Then cut up a second strand
of garland and add it to this pile.

Step 1D

Take two other stands of garland

and cut into shorter sections
ranging in lengths from 4”-6”. Put
them in a separate pile. Make sure
to keep the 2 piles separated. Do
NOT cut the 5th strand of garland.

Step 1E

(Skip this step if you are using artificial

garland)

This step is going to make it MUCH easier

to insert the cut section of garland into the
skirt. Hold a piece of garland in one hand
and squeeze the leaves together and use
your other hand to fan two leaves away
from the rest.

page 6
 This creates a narrow point on
the end which will help insert
the cut garland into
the skirt.

It should look like this:

Do this for ALL the pieces of

cut garland.

When you insert the pine

sections into the skirt, you
will start with the shorter
sections at the top of the
skirt and the longer sections
ones at the bottom. That is
why we want you to maintain
the two piles separately.

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Step 4 Making the Skirt

Step 4A

Wrap the 16 gauge wire around the

waist of the form and add two inches on
both ends of the wire. This will be the
belt that secures the chicken wire to the
form.

Step 4B

Cut the wire.

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 Step 4C

If you purchased the chicken wire

on a large roll, cut it with the wire
cutters so that it is 4 x 7 feet long.
The chicken wire will be much
easier to handle if you lay it down
and flatten by standing on it or
placing heavy objects on it.

Step 4D

Stand the chicken wire up length wise

and create soft waves all around the
top to make it smaller so it will fit close
to the waist of the dress form.

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It will look like this:
Step 4E

Circle the chicken wire around the

form with the opening at the back.

Step 4F

Squeeze the places where you created

the soft waves to make it smaller so the
chicken wire will fit closer to the waist. It
will still be a few inches a way from the
waist after you finish this step. It will fit
tighter once the belt is installed in the
next step.

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Step 4G

Manipulate the wire so that you have the

desired fullness of the skirt you want.
Remember once you add the branches
the skirt will be even wider! Then hook the
open ends of the chicken wire together all
the way to the ground.

Step 5 Securing the skirt

Note: we removed the chicken wire from
the dress form so we could show you close
up images of the process. You will do these
steps with the chicken wire ON the form.

Step 5A

Starting at the back of the skirt thread the 16

gauge wire through the top of the chicken
wire. Thread it through every 3rd hole. This is
a “belt” to help secure the skirt on the form.

Thread the wire all the way around but leave

2” at the beginning and end of the wire
hanging out of the chicken wire. Then twist
the ends of these wires together with the
pliers.

There will be a slight gap between the skirt

and the form, which will be concealed with
the uncut garland.
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Step 6
Although you have already hooked the
chicken wire together in the back, using the
zip ties or twist ties will make the connection
more secure. This is important given the
weight of the pine and ornaments that the
skirt will need to support.

You can use either the zip ties or the twist ties
for this step. We used a combination of both
for demo purposes.

If you plan on removing the skirt after the

holidays and using the dress form for other
purposes because they are easier to remove.
If you plan on keeping the skirt on the form,
then use zip ties.

The ties are used to secure the ends of the

chicken wire together by inserting them
through the holes and tying them together.
Start at the top and go all the way down,
leaving about 1-1/2” between each
connection point you make.

If using twist ties this is what it will look like.

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Step 7A - Adding the pine leaves

Starting at the back of the form,

take the uncut strand of garland
and insert one end into the
chicken wire.

Use the entire garland to wrap

around the chicken wire spiraling
down and adding one layer
directly underneath each layer.

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When you wrapped all of this garland around the form, tuck the end piece into the chicken wire.

Step 7B

Press the leaves down with your hands

to reduce the fullness around the waist.
We don’t want your girl to look like she is
bloated at the waist!

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 You can also wrap your arms around
the form and the garland as if you
are giving the form a big hug to
put more pressure on the leaves to
reduce the fullness.

If it is still too bushy after doing the

steps, use your floral wire cutters to
trim it.

Step 7C

With the shorter pieces of cut

garland, insert the pointed tip of
each cut garland piece into the
chicken wire underneath the garland
that you just attached. You might
need to give it a little shove to get it
through the hole.

Take the bottom leaves and twist

them to hook around the slats to
help hold the sections in place.

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Working in a circular motion, insert all the
cut garland pieces into the chicken wire
this way. Start with the shorter pieces
first and then gradually add the longer
pieces.

You might need to cut the holes of the

chicken wire with your wire cutters to
expand the size of the holes to insert the
larger pieces of cut garland.

Try not to insert the pieces too close

together. Instead leave space between
them and fluff out the leaves to cover
the gaps and twist the leaves of adjacent
sections together to further conceal any
gaps.

Any loose pieces that fell off as you

were cutting up the garland can also
be used to fill in any gaps.

Here is what your unadorned Dress

Form Christmas Tree will look like.

page 16
 Step 8 Decorating the Skirt
Now that the structure has been built,
this is where the creativity begins. You
can decorate the skirt just like you
would with a regular Christmas tree
with ornaments and lights.

Because this looks like a “dress” or

“ballgown,” you might want to add
accessories like your favorite
necklace. It would be the
equivalent of a tree topper on a
traditional tree.

In 2014 this dress form Christmas

tree was on display at the White
House and featured a necklace
made by designer Alexis Bittar.
The necklace is made out of
Lucite ornaments shaped like
pine cones strung on a ribbon
with vintage brooches interwoven
between them. It appears that
there is a crystal door knob glued
on the neck cap.
page 17
There are so many wonderful choices of ribbon
for the holidays, which you can use as a belt for This one has a belt made from burlap
the waist. Deco mesh ribbon wrapped around the ribbon and we put a velvet slipcover on the
bodice makes an instant tube top with no sewing! form to accent the colors in the ribbon.

You can even add a beaded tank top,

lacy camisole, corset or sexy halter. If
the top is long and you don’t want it to
spill out over the branches, just tuck the
excess fabric underneath the top.

Our Pinterest board has inspiring ideas

that others have done.

page 18
 The advantage of the chicken wire is
that you can insert almost any
decorative object on a stem into the
holes. That opens up a range of
possibilities.

Some people like holly berry

branches. We like peacock feathers
because it makes it easier for us to
repurpose this into a Mardi Gras tree.

page 19
 Voila!

While it is hard for us

to choose our favorite
among the three
variations we made, we
are partial to this one
because the robin’s
egg blue reminds us of
Tiffany’s...and we pretend
that the rhinestones in the
necklace are actually
diamonds.

After the holidays if you want to remove the skirt to use the dress form for something else,
here is a tip to preserve the skirt for the future.

Remove the ornaments, detach the skirt, and lay it flat on a blanket with the leaves
facing down. Then hot glue the tips of the branches to the chicken wire. Once the glue is
completely dry, store the skirt between blankets.

page 20
 Here are three examples from our Floral Design on Mannequins
board on Pinterest of ways to repurpose this skirt to use for other
displays throughout the year.

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