There was a demonstration at one of our local sewing shops yesterday showing a simple, folded fabric pine cone using a 2" Styrofoam egg for the base. After she gave the demonstration, I won a kit with the supplies to make one of my own. (I suspect everyone may have won a kit.) This is the kit. An egg and 2" fabric strips. The other supplies that you will need are small head straight pins. Plus, of course, a rotary cutter, ruler, and mat.

This is the kit unfolded. In addition to the fabric strips, there is a 2 1/2" square that will be used on the bottom of the pine cone.

Cut your strips into 2" segments. You will need 49 of these 2" x 2" squares, although you could cut more if you wanted to make your pine cone segments closer together. I thought the 49 pieces were spaced just about right.

Take one of your squares and fold it in half twice. Just finger press this and all of the other pieces. Unfold and center this square on the top of your egg...the narrow end of the egg. Pin in place. This is just your beginning reference and the pin will be removed later.

Now you will begin to make your pine cone "needles". Fold a square in half (wrong sides together) and finger press.

Then fold each corner to the center and finger press. This is a completed pine cone needle. Finger press.

Use the folds on the base square to place your first row of needles. They should just follow the fold lines of the base square. Pin the raw edge corners of your triangles to the egg. These pins will remain in the egg.

There will be four needles on each row. After you place the first four needles around the base square, you will begin adding row after row of needles by centering each row between the preceding row. I dropped each row down about 1/4" while centering it between the two needles in the row above it. Continue adding rows of needles.

I'm about half way down the egg and my Quality Control Supervisor was called in to check my work. She approved and I continued adding needles, row by row, until I had come to the end of my squares and near the bottom of the egg. You should have about 2" of the bottom of the egg exposed.

This is the 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" square that you cut at the beginning. Do not fold this one, but finger press all of the raw edges toward the center. Use about 1/4" fold. This square will cover the bottom of the egg and give the egg a finished look. In the demonstration, she put a sequin on each of the four pins to finish it off instead of leaving a plain pin head.

This is the finished egg. Oliver has relieved Gracie as as my Quality Control Supervisor, but seems to be taking another break. (It's really hard to find a cat that doesn't take a lot of breaks.) You could use this pine cone as an ornament or just put several of them in a bowl. Different fabrics for different seasons. It took less than an hour to make this so you could turn out several pine cones pretty quickly. This same technique could also be used to cover a Styrofoam cone and make a Christmas tree. Simple and easy.....why not make a few?