This is nothing new. I've seen this tree skirt idea for a couple of years and finally decided that this year was THE year to make it. We have a wool blanket we've been using under the tree instead of a skirt since 2009, and enough was enough. It's time for a tree skirt. I could have bought something, but I didn't for several reasons: 1. Price 2. It's more fun to make it myself 3. appearance. I've seen mostly ugly tree skirts. I know they're unimportant and covered by gifts, but I would know.
Supplies:
cheap tree skirt
burlap
hot glue (lots)
scissors
I bought a red felt tree skirt from Target for $5. Rumor has it that they are also sold at Wal-mart, but either a lot of people had this same idea and snatched them up, or I was looking in the wrong spot (but it was labeled "tree skirts" so I don't know).
I had a two yards of light colored burlap I'd purchased for some sort of Christmas project (pillows were the original intent) so I put that to use. I ended up needing more, so I used some darker burlap from the curtains I made recently to fill in a couple of rows. I would purchase about three yards next time to be safe.
On a tip from my cousin, who successfully made this last year, I made my strips rather wide. I think they were supposed to be about two inches in width - mine were closer to five inches but I didn't measure.
I began making ruffles along the bottom edge of the tree skirt. I started there because I wanted it to be even, but also because I thought the skirt would still look nice if I gave up until next year - the burlap and red would look purposeful, rather than just plain lazy. I'm smart like that.
I pinned my ruffles in place on the bottom three rows, because I thought that would be easier. I'm not sure if it was or wasn't, but it's definitely not necessary. The cutting was the most tedious part so the gluing wasn't bad. And one more thing - leave a little extra burlap on the ends to finish it off better at the end.
I needed to get ready for a Christmas party, so I called it quits the first night at three rows. I showed it to Carson and he thought that it would made a great real skirt, so he took a picture. The sweatshirt and skirt look is definitely underrated. Oh! I should mention - if you're going to make this, wear something you plan on washing right away. Burlap is scratchy and gets everywhere, so I'd recommend wearing lumpy sweats that you don't care about, like I did.
The next day, I went back to glue. I glued the pinned ruffles first and freehanded the rest and I really couldn't tell a difference, so I would recommend that. I glued at the ruffled and the gappy spaces in between. I randomly glued the middle of the ruffle to the tree skirt so that the ruffles wouldn't flip up and show the red tree skirt below.
I kept having to pull hot glue off my fingers. My glue gun is a low heat one, but if yours is a high heat gun, get ready to be burned. Glue everywhere.
When I was finished, I wrapped my burlap around to the back so that I had a nice even line all the way around.
When I was finished, I cut the loose strings from the burlap and raced downstairs to put it under the tree.
This was before I glued the middle of the ruffles to my tree skirt. Just do it from the beginning next time!
Doesn't that look much better than the wool blanket that we've used every other Christmas? Yes, yes it does.
Lovely
ReplyDelete