This is a Guest Post by the super amazing One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Mel {she’s the one who made A Freezer Meal Menu Plan for Four Month’s Worth of Meals, and then made a Big List of Freezer Meal Recipes and Freezer Meal Cooking Tips.}
Mel has also shared how she made all those AWESOME gift bags, showed us her Mini Sewing Room Makeover and shared her recipe for DIY Lemonade Concentrate} and her Super Simple Summer Tomato Pasta. She also told us about her Experience Joining a CSA and Eating More Vegetables. I think at this point, we pretty much all want Mel to be our neighbor. I know I do! Here is her latest post:
*****
Last year, one of my goals was to sew a tree skirt for our Christmas tree stand. That goal ended up being a bit of a nightmare because we have a non-standard size tree stand, so I couldn’t use an existing pattern, and the math to make my own was very complicated. And the tree stand itself couldn’t be covered by fabric because there’s a weird sort of water overflow moat on the outside. I eventually finished it, but it was quite the odyssey. Here is that doozy of a tree skirt:
But along the way to figuring out that large and complicated tree skirt, I cranked out a much faster and simpler version for our smaller LED birch tree based on a few different ideas on Pinterest.
So, I combined all those ideas to put together a tutorial for the simpler version. It’s better suited to tree stands with a narrow base, so it won’t work if you have a giant awkward tree stand, but it will work great for smaller stands and most artificial trees, and it’s even reversible. It does have lots of steps, but they are all easy. So, here’s the tutorial for the reversible-yet-simplified version:
Materials:
- Sewing machine
- Iron and ironing board
- Cutting mat
- Rotary cutter
- Acrylic quilting ruler
- Pins and sewing clips
- Thread
- 1.5 yards fusible fleece
- 1.5 yards each of two different quilting cottons (nondirectional patterns work best)
- Twill tape
- Pencil or washable fabric pencil
- Sharpie
A Note on Fabrics: You probably only need about 1.25 yards of each fabric and of fusible fleece, but I like having a bit extra. You can always make matching gift bags.
Directions:
- Wash, dry, and iron your fabric. Fold each piece of fabric in half from top to bottom and then again from left to right.
- As shown in the picture above, position one piece of fabric so that you have a single folded edge on the left and two folded edges on the bottom.
3.Using the acrylic ruler, measure the bottom edge. This will determine the radius of your tree skirt. Using your regular pencil or washable pencil, mark the bottom edge where you want. Due to the width of my fabric, the maximum radius of my skirt would be about 20 inches, so that’s what I went with.
4. Keeping the ruler in place on the bottom left corner of the fabric, rotate the right edge of the ruler along the fabric, marking your radius measurement as you go.
10. Repeat steps 2-9 with your other piece of folded fabric.
11. Repeat steps 2-9 with your fusible fleece. I marked my fleece with sharpie instead of pencil, and I cut it with an outer radius slightly than my fabrics (19.75 inches instead of 20 inches) and the tree opening radius slightly than my fabrics (3.25 inches instead of 3 inches). Also, when doing step 9 for the fusible fleece, I cut an additional .25 inch off each side of the cut. These changes are not essential, but it makes it a little easier to sew.
14. The number of ties also doesn’t matter, but you do want to have them in pairs—one piece on the left side of the cut lined up with one on the right side of the cut—so that you can tie them together. Use sewing clips to hold the twill in place along the cut just so they don’t wiggle around for the next step.
18. Trim the corners.
20. Turn the fabric right side out using the opening you left. Be careful not to stick yourself on the pins holding the twill tape in place.
22. Topstitch around all of the interior and exterior edges to close the opening you left for turning and give the skirt a more finished look. Your reversible tree skirt is done!
~Mel
Linda Practical Parsimony says
Are you cutting and working on the floor?
Mel says
Yup! That’s the only surface big enough in our house, and the cutting mat protects the floor. Smaller projects fit on my sewing table or kitchen table, but anything with more than about a yard of fabric has to happen on the floor.
suzanne says
You have mad sewing skills Mel! I made a nice crate with lockable castors from our old chicken coop. Woodworking is easier then sewing a straight line for me thanks to the guides. I remember helping my mom fold and remove huge panels of fabric from the kitchen table before dinner. She made every single pinch pleat drape in our entire house. It was a huge house with very large MCM window and glass doors.
Thank you for taking the time to share with us and merry Christmas to you.
Mel says
Thanks! And great idea with the crate! I’ve always wanted to get into woodworking, but we don’t have a place for it.
Merry Christmas!
Vy says
I adore that snowflake fabric!! Can you tell me where you got it?
Mel says
Sure. Below is a link for Joann Fabrics, which is where I got it, but it looks like it may be out of stock. It has more of a white background than it looks in the image in the link. They also have it with a black background.
https://www.joann.com/bright-color-snowflake-white-christmas-cotton-fabric/16810400.html
It also looks like some sellers on Etsy have it, so maybe try there if your local Joann’s is out of stock:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/847332880/bright-color-snowflakes-on-white-fabric?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=bright+color+snowflake+fabric&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1&bes=1
Vy says
Most appreciated, thank you 🙂