New York Interior Design: Christmas Tree Skirt Tutorial

Oh yes, its not even Thanksgiving yet and my brain is focused on Christmas! I love this time of year! Today my hubby is out hunting and my littlest is home sick with the flu. What's a mommy to do with an unexpected day at home? How about set up the tree and get my craft on! ;) {Ok that was kind of lame, sorry!}

Last year I shared with you a Pottery Barn knock off pillow for the holidays. This year I wanted to make a tree skirt to match! Please don't be intimidated! This was a lot easier than I expected it to be and took less time than I thought. {Especially if your leaves are cut out ahead of time}

I promised my kids that they could decorate the tree for family night tomorrow night, so she's only sporting her skirt and lights, for now!

The concept for this skirt is a simple one and could easily be adapted to your decor by changing the colors of the skirt or felt leaves.

Here's what you need to make one:

Fabric {I used drop cloth fabric that I pre~washed}
Sewing machine
Felt
Poms
Hot Glue
Iron

1} Start by measuring how far out you want your skirt from your tree. I measured out from the trunk. My skirt is about 20" out from the trunk all the way around.

2} Fold your fabric in fourths and measure about 21" from the folded corner.

3} Next starting with the folded edge cut at the 21" mark then move your tape measure around as you cut.

Now you have circle, that desperately needs ironing. So #4 is to iron.

5} Fold your ironed circle back up and cut a semi-circle at the corner for your tree trunk.

6} Unfold your circle and cut the "opening" for your skirt, anywhere you want.

7} Now we are going to hem all the way around and along our cut opening. I am not a seamstress and I will admit I had no clue how to hem the center hole. I figured that no one would see that hole anyways so it would be fine. You may want to just stitch around that opening to keep it from fraying.

8} I did not iron after I pinned and it turned out just fine, but if you are a perfectionist you may want to. Now we are going to stitch it up. I did a zigzag stitch. Here are my settings.

9} Now I ironed the hem. Then lay it out on a large work surface. My kitchen counter did the job.

10} Ahead of time you will want to cut out your felt leaves. It took about 6 sheets of felt that I cut in strips first then free handedly {spell check doesn't think this is a word but it works for me!} cut out my leaves. Cutting the felt into about 2" strips helps you keep the height of your leaves more uniform when you cut them out. Sorry, I guess I have no pictures of this part.

11} Using a hot glue gun glue an even line of leaves about 2-4" apart and 2" up from the hem all the way around. This is important because it keeps your leaves headed in the right direction and looking even all the way around. Once you add in the random ones its easy to get off track if you don't have these as your guide.