Cook: Gluten-free and Vegan Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Pretzels

Check out my latest recipe:

Craft: Ruffle Tree Skirt

It's getting closer to Christmas, so I thought I'd take on a sewing project for the holidays. The Assessor and I purchased a spectacular tree several years ago when we moved into our house, but we went with the cheapest of the cheap tree skirts to just get by. We are now just getting by no more!

Thanks to some research on Pinterest (to maintain my dignity, won't tell you how many hours I spend pinning) I found several examples of tree skirts that I wanted to steal ideas from. You can see several of them on my Holiday and Gift Ideas Board (just scroll down a bit). 

I settled on making a sewed ruffle skirt. However, most of the ruffled version I found were "no-sew," quick versions. Don't get me wrong! I love no-sew and quick, but I also like machine washable. So I decided to follow the Pinterest versions general plans, but hem all the fabric so they wouldn't fray in the wash.

Here're the steps I took to make the tree skirt above:

1) Gathering the Materials

I went to Walmart and purchased four different polyester/cotton blended fabrics.

• 2 yards of light tan with printed leaves (the fabric used for the outermost circle)
• 1 yard of plain tan fabric
• 1 yard of gold satin fabric
• 1 yard of plain brown fabric

I also decided to use an old white twin-sized bed sheet, that I owned already, as a base to sew all of the ruffles on top.

2) Making the Base (or Bottom) Fabric

To make the base with the old white bed sheet, I folded the bed sheet in half and drew two semi-circles, one for the outer edge and a smaller one for the tree trunk (on the fold), using a method similar to the one on this Web site and this Youtube video. Then I cut a slit from the outside to the inner hole and sewed a hem along the outside edge of the cut skirt. Finally, I hemmed the edge of the skirt.

3) Preparing the Ruffled Fabric

I cut strips of fabric, one yard width and about 6-7 inches tall and hemmed the bottom edge. I say "6-7" inches because some of the material I bought was taller than others (the gold satin fabric was from a much taller bolt of fabric than the others).

4) Sew the Outer Ring of Fabric

Then I pinned and sewed the outer ring of fabric. I let the ruffle fabric overhang the outer edge of the tree skirt by about an inch. I had to sew multiple 1-yard strips together to cover the whole outer edge.

5) Mark the Location of the Remaining Ruffled Fabric

Since my ruffling fabric was not all exactly the same width (some were about 6 inches and others were 7), I placed and marked the edge of where I wanted to sew the layers.

6) Add the Marks Around the Entire Skirt

I took a tape measure and temporarily marked (with a pencil) on the tape measure the distance between the edge of the skirt and each of the marks original marks. Then I moved and copied those marks around the edge of the skirt (using a similar method to the one I used to create a perfect circle)

6) Sew the Rest of the Ruffled Fabric

Pin and sew the rest of your fabric starting from the outside working inward to the middle of the skirt.

7) You're Done!

Voila! There you have it! Feel free to add some sparkles or your own touch.